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In Praise, or Not, of Jim Flaherty: An Exchange of Views


By Bill Lee

 

There has been a great deal of commentary on the death of Jim Flaherty the recently retired Minister of Labour in the Harper government, much of it around his "legacy". Below is an exchange of views that I had on April 12, 2014 with a woman on FB. I don't know the person but she took issue with my criticism of the "Flaherty legacy". I  think it demonstrates a problem of the political literacy level in Canada and ended in my frustration. I wish I had been somewhat more gracious. By the way, Lawlor is my real first name, while William is my second.

Lawlor Lee Could not agree more. It may be that JF loved dogs, cared about his family and was good to his kids. But he participated in policies, indeed seemed the life and soul of so many of them, that devastated working class families - 21% cut in welfare rates in Ontario under Harris for example and the mania for cutting and taxes the deficit in a period of unemployment under Harper. So all the "tributes" coming in for him, but so many are personal. I understand, he was a charming guy. But his policies and those of his bases have been terrible for working class Canadians.

Julie Randell Chamberlain A little harsh. A finance minister is elected by the majority. If he did not do it someone else would. Must have been what the majority wanted as he stayed a round a long time and may have given his life to that purposeAll we need to do is get everyone to want to help our fellow man and in turn elect someone who feels the same way and then find a big enough pot to do it with before everyone moves to another country to avoid paying the taxes. I wish it was possible.

Lawlor Lee Harsh? Let me say four things. The Conservatives were not elected by a majority, even of the votes cast, let alone the majority of Canadians. They got well less then 50% in our first past the post electoral system. Second, any minister in a parliamentary system is only a minister as long as s/he pleases the prime minister. So, yes, he was doing what Harper wanted. Neither of these facts suggests that he is doing the will of the Canadian people. Third, we have a sufficiently large "pot" for tax purposes, we, too many of us anyway, simply have bought the neo-liberal narrative that taxes and decent and wide spread employment, not to mention effective social services, are incomparable. In the 1970's the right in this country got organized and developed a lot of right wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute (the CD Howe institute already existed but was less ideologically hide bound as it is at present.) to see the load of codswallop that is neo-liberalsim. They are admittedly very effective and we have forgotten the post WWII accommodation between labour and business that brought us a more just level of taxation and a very successful economy. The last thing I want to say is that we do seem to agree on one thing, we do need get people together to get rid of these right wing ideologues. We do have to get organized.

Julie Randell Chamberlain The ndp started the cuts before Harris and turned on labour. BC is a very NDP province and the NDP did not get in because they headed it with a guy who committed fraud. Good luck finding a new party that will go back to post WWII policies. Believe me I am on your side but reality is not. Maybe theres other ways then "getting organized". That's already been tried and imho things are now worse.

Lawlor Lee I am sorry I was not clear, I admit that any notion that the NDP as presently constituted as not a left movement is pretty much dead in the water. And, again sorry but I can make nothing of: "Believe me I am on your side but reality is not." Honestly, and I am not being condescending here, I just can't make out what you are saying.

Julie Randell Chamberlain Ultimately to organize change you also have to change the political climate. Its the elected people who make the laws and hold the purse strings. Unless you are looking at a civil war thats how to make change in this democracy. Therefore you need someone who can be in political power to make the changes.I don't see anyone there ie in politicals willing to go back to post war economics or who is in favour of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. As we have seen in the past with the Ndp and others a platform does not always turn out once they are faced with the reality of economics and the political system we have created. Bottom line people do not like paying taxes rich or poor. Its difficult to take money from people who do not want to give it and keep your job. Then there's the other side where everyone wants funding so its the priorities of the current government who are in power that give the funding out. Its a system that we all created and it works the way it does. Organizing against democratic governments has been done many ways and very little has changed in North America. Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer. I am not really for civil war, not for killing. There has to be another way. That's what I meant. Sorry I do not have years of academics I just have years of experience in the business world and observing what has gone on in the world around me and that is my opinion.

Lawlor Lee Yes I can see you've actually imbibed pretty deeply at the "neo-liberal" cup. The idea that folks who have been profoundly disadvantaged by the idea of every person for him/herself and the devil take the hindmost might resist does not mean that the idea of democratic government is being challenged. It is the capturing and perversion of the democratic process by corporate interest that is being challenged. You just keep repeating the same old stale arguments - violence, etc. There is no dialogue here, only sloganeering. I'm out.

Comments

  1. susansmith18 April 2014 at 14:54

    The NDP in BC did not win b/c a big business coalition spent millions of dollars for a campaign to ensure the Dix NDP did not get in. To be fair, Dix was quite upfront with his 1 misstep when he worked for the NDP. Meanwhile there was so much corruption in the Christy Clark govt that in comparison to Dix, 1 error was not comparable. The BC NDP should have fought back rather than take the high road and waged an ad campaign showing every dirty deed the BC Libs did. The BC NDP learned a value lesson: fight fire with fire. And a lesson Jack Layton taught: go straight at them, don't back down.

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