The Liberal Party Of Canada: A Political Redundancy

As Dick Cheney is undeniably the most powerful and secretive vice-president in the history of the US, d’Aquino and his Star Chamber are Canada’s secreted and very powerful unelected cabinet. Liberals and Conservatives alike, bow to their mentorship. The Liberals have been very bad kids, staying out late, and making deals behind our back. Even though cabinet deliberations are supposedly secret they just can’t avoid tipping their hand and revealing just how naughty they are. When David Emerson suffered his sudden conversion he defended his actions by claiming he is a “corporatist” and it doesn’t matter what party he works for. He is dead right! The Liberals and the Conservatives are both on the corporate dole, bagpersons for the CCCE. Similarly, Ujjal Dosanjh, former Liberal Minister of Health, claims the Afghanistan mission is a given and Canadians are not entitled to debate the issue in Parliament. Here too, Dosanjh is telling us, ever so subtly, that he too is in the employ of the CCCE and that our democracy exists in name only. Canada and the US have one great commonality that goes unrecognized! In both countries the two major parties have merged at the hip. Just as there is no real difference between the Liberals (more accurately neo-liberals) and the conservatives (read neo-conservatives), Republicans and Democrats are equally indistinguishable. Democrats in the US are coming to be known as “Republican-lite,” as in Canada, Harper’s conservatives might be termed Liberals on steroids. What merges the parties is their primary allegiance to the corporate good over the public good. Each country in turn is being lead by the nose into corporate oligarchy. Where both Countries will pay the price in decaying democratic values and lost civil liberties, Canada, in addition, is about to see the last vestiges of its sovereignty eradicated. It is annexation pure and simple. We are now hearing such trite euphemisms as, “The three amigos” (referring to the leaders of Canada, the US and Mexico), “the North American security and prosperity partnership” and “NAFTA-Plus”. But of course these are doublespeak for the union of the three countries. Far from being a “partnership” it will be a vortex where the main benefits will accrue to the dominant partner at the expense of the lesser two. The enthusiasm of Mexican President Vincente Fox is especially puzzling as his country, far from benefiting from NAFTA, has lost ground. For Canada, it is highly arguable as to there being any advantage gained by NAFTA-Remember folks; we had a thriving truly free trade relationship with the US before the FTA and NAFTA. NAFTA-Plus has come into being because of the dominance of corporate values. It is also a direct result of 9/11. The Bush administration has shamelessly exploited this tragedy to its own advantage. It is too quickly forgotten that the events of 9/11 were the result of a breakdown in America’s internal security. The hijackers were residents in that country, arriving through American ports of entry. There was an abundance of intelligence available, yet it was not coordinated or acted on (US Army Intelligence had files on all the hijackers.) There was every indication an attack was imminent, yet there was no effort whatsoever to heighten security. The resulting Congressional investigation was a whitewash that raised more questions than it answered, and there is massive skepticism as to the US government’s complicity in the event--whether passive or active--with the latent desire of many Washington based neo-conservatives pining for another Pearl Harbor to justify a nefarious political agenda; namely the PNAC. In the aftermath of 9/11 the US instilled fear in its trading partners by pronouncing “security trumps trade.” Canada and Mexico have a panic attack--and become the willing dupes in a ploy to advance Pax Americana. NAFTA-Plus thus becomes one of the greatest scams ever perpetrated. Oddly enough, this marriage of unequals comes at a precipitous time for the US. It is running record debt and deficits. Its economy is structurally faulted and being challenged by other burgeoning economies around the world. At a time when Canada and Mexico should be broadening our trading bases, it appears we are determined to be the sacrificial lambs in a grand larceny. This partnership of “security and prosperity” will predictably have a huge downside for the lesser partners. There is also a trinational commonality in that the civil societies-the public- and the legislatures of the three countries, will have no say in NAFTA Plus. It is to be an elite process dictated from closed board rooms without public scrutiny and inevitably with the approval of an adoring and unquestioning media. The Liberal Party of Canada is one of the first casualties in this continental subterfuge. Having dithered too long the Conservatives become the party of annexation. The Liberal leadership convention will be one of straw dogs braying on a moonless night as the Conservatives assume the roll of less ambivalent doubles. In reality the Liberal leadership convention should be one of dissolution, the party is politically bankrupt and its existence redundant. It should muster its collective honour, and dissolve, thus granting Canadians a real choice. Liberals of the right can join Harper’s conservatives. Liberals of the left can join Jack Layton’s NDP--then, and only then, will Canada’s electorate have a real political choice and some chance of rescuing the country from its quisling detractors. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on April 5, 2006]