George Jonas Outdoes Himself

" ... What is the issue in this election? Why, the same as in all elections, my libertarian self exclaims. In the last 45 years, the only question has been whether the government implementing the NDP's policies will be Liberal or Conservative. ...

The NDP may do abysmally in federal elections, but the NDP's ideas flourish. ...

Canada is governed from the middle, yes, but the middle is on the left. The politicians who form our next government will be statist -- socialists in all but name -- because there are no other kinds running. Our statists may vary in degree, but not in kind. Since the 1960s, classical liberals or conservatives either haven't entered the arena or changed their policies afterwards. They wouldn't have had a chance otherwise.

Here's the irony, though: If socialists called themselves socialists, they wouldn't stand a chance either. Canadians are funny that way. They'll buy nothing but socialist policies and practices, but never from socialists. Calling things what they are isn't politically polite in Canada.

In the tradition of Orwell's Newspeak, in Canadian English the word "free" denotes a prohibition, as in "smoke-free environment." Canadians call laws and institutions that deny people fundamental freedoms of conscience, expression, and association "human rights" laws and commissions. In this eccentric world, going to the polls is like skeet-shooting in a stiff breeze: A vote for Stephen is a vote for Michael. ..."

http://www.georgejonas.ca/recent_writing.cfm?id=967

Hmmm, an empire pretending to be a federation, a quasi-pseudo-semi-elected dictatorship pretending its not ... yes, George, the Empire of the Canadians is quite the "eccentric world", where little or nothing is as advertized.

Tommorow Belongs To Someone Else

How delusional/ deceitful is it for people whose 19th century ideas were so thoroughly and horribly discredited in the 20th century to insist in the 21st century on calling themselves "progressive"?

See If This Sounds Familiar

"Almost every post-war Tory victory had been won on slogans such as 'Britain Strong and Free' or 'Set The People Free'. But in the fine print of policy, and especially in government, the Tory Party merely pitched camp in the long march to the left. It never seriously tried to reverse it. ... We boasted of spending more money than Labour, not of restoring people to independence and self-reliance. The result of this style of accomodationist politics, as my colleague Keith Joseph complained, was that post-war politics became a 'socialist ratchet' - Labour moved Britain towards more statism; the Tories stood pat; and the next Labour Government moved the country a little further left. The Tories loosened the corset of socialism; they never removed it."

Thatcher, Margaret - The Downing Street Years; Harper Collins