Should I give up working for Canadian ideals? Medicare came after fighting the wealthy. Social programs came after unions won against the wealthy. Our education and health and justice are the result of universal publicly funded systems. Insulin was invented here and its patent sold for $1.
Canadians have lost their way. No plans for pharmacare and a pandemic is here now. No plans for justice for workers. We can exploit immigrant workers. Mexico held them back because Canadians left them in danger. Personal financial disasters today are not being met with a basic income guarantee. A one per cent income tax increase to money made after the first $20 million is brushed aside with a dismissive wave as is the idea of plans to end systemic racism.
We celebrate Canadian ways and slide lazily to the American ways, which we despise.
Canadian ways were never funded by the growing wealth of the few. They were won by the power of real Canadians. I've marched, voted, run for office, organized and worked in my union. I've walked with strikers, wrote a hundred letters, gone to meetings for six groups at a time, and now I'm burnt out. Please someone give me some sign that Canada is alive.
Lynne Thiele,
Stratford
