Introduction to Miles’ Blog

After changing careers and having more time, I’ve committed to becoming more politically active. The reason I’ve decided to start this blog is my concern about the direction our country is going in. While I’m only one person, I feel this blog is a great platform for communicating my point of view on important issues. I consider myself fiscally conservative, but socially progressive – hence the name of the blog. I am not a rabid partisan; my perspective stems from endorsing good ideas, no matter whom they come from, and opposing bad ideas, no matter whom they come from. I will be posting alerts of for this blog on twitter @mileslunn in order to reach a larger audience, but I feel I need a lot more space to express my ideas than within the perimeters of a 140-character limit.

I currently live in Vancouver, BC, and have been a supporter of the BC Liberals since 2000, although that doesn’t mean I blindly agree with them on every policy, but I support the idea of having a pro-free enterprise party in office in BC. I lived in Toronto for ten years until just recently, and while I no longer live there, I am appalled at the economically harmful policies adopted by the Wynne government and hope that a PC government will remove the Wynne government from power next June. I also have family in Alberta, and I am extremely concerned about the big spending and large deficits. Federally, I joined the Conservatives to support Michael Chong as leader, but I am unsure if I agree with the direction of the party under the leadership of Andrew Scheer. I cannot support Justin Trudeau because I don’t agree with running big deficits when not in a recession, nor do I agree with his tax hikes on the rich, which I believe punishes success and will make Canada less attractive to invest in. I do agree with Trudeau’s approach to Canada-US relations, and feel that he has done a decent job on non-economic policies, but due to his economically harmful policies, I cannot support him in good faith.

With respect to the federal Tories, I lean in the direction of supporting them, but am still uncertain. I was a former Progressive Conservative up until the merger in 2003 and I hope the party will move back to reclaim its traditional right of centre, fiscally conservative, but socially progressive attitude. I’m concerned about the presence of a strong element in the party that wants to yank it further to the right when I believe it needs to move closer to the centre.

South of the border, I abhor Donald Trump and think he’s a racist bigot who is mentally unfit to be president. Some may say this makes me a liberal, but conservatism north of the border is quite different than south of the border. I would have no trouble supporting a traditional Republican like John Kasich – it’s the alt-right and the extreme ideologues who I have a problem with. I do follow European politics a fair bit, and generally support moderate centre-right types like British PM Theresa May, Dutch PM Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French politician Alain Juppe.

As for other interests, I love to travel and have visited 49 countries as of August of this year; based on my bookings, I’ll have visited close to 60 by the end of 2018, so I’ve developed a strong global perspective on politics. I’m also in the midst of starting my own investment company, but due to tax purposes it has not been incorporated. I majored in economics in university, so I will tend to give the economic rationale for many of my claims/opinions/views and I may give the odd market comment in this blog.

I want to encourage discussion, and generally won’t block or moderate most comments, but there are a few rules that pertain to commenting; no spam, and no racism – anyone caught doing either will be blocked. This blog is intended to be a place where people can exchange ideas in a civil manner, so please avoid baseless insults. If I feel someone is being too aggressive or insulting, I will give a first warning, and subsequently ban the person if they persist. I will not ban anyone for taking a different political view than I do. My goal with this platform is to have one or two posts a week on major (political) issues affecting Canada and beyond.

I look forward to this and if you want my thoughts on a daily basis you can check out my twitter @mileslunn.