Canadian Political scene
The big news is the recent diplomatic show down with Saudi Arabia. While probably not best to tweet foreign policy, I am generally supportive of our government’s stance. I have long been critical of Western countries in general and their coziness with Saudi Arabia which is a major sponsor of terrorism and has an atrocious human rights record. I realize we have to work with countries whose human rights are not up to our standards, but that doesn’t mean we cannot and should not be critical of the most egregious violations, which Saudi Arabia has many. Never mind Saudi Arabia has been one of the biggest promoters of Wahabbism which is a very radical sect of Islam and has been funding many mosques around the world that are not promoting mainstream Islam, which a very peaceful religion, but rather promoting a violent radical version. Likewise their treatment of women, LGBT, and religious minorities is one of if not the worst in the world. As such, we should find ways to buy less oil from them and likewise to reduce their influence we need to start selling more of our oil elsewhere. As such that means pushing through both the Transmountain Pipeline and Energy East pipeline which Trudeau has dragged his feet on for way too long.
Ontario Politics
I was a strong skeptic of Doug Ford and I’ve got to say so far I have not been impressed at all. Of the things I’ve disagreed with, I cannot help but think if Patrick Brown, Christine Elliott, or Caroline Mulroney were premier, we wouldn’t be seeing this. Maybe times are changing and this style of populism is the new way of doing politics, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I have already given my opinions in earlier blog posts on the sex education curriculum, municipal election changes, and cancelling the guaranteed income pilot project, so below will summarize and what has occurred since. On the buck a beer, I don’t really have a huge problem with the concept, but think it is a waste of time as cheaper beer is probably one of the least pressing things right now. Also as a craft beer drinker myself, I would never buy beer sold at that as I care more about quality than price, but as far as I am concerned it is a silly political stunt that will be old news in a week’s time. A couple more serious things are the clapping to drown out reporter questions by political staffers. This is completely inappropriate and whomever came up with this idiotic idea needs to be fired. Likewise I would hope some would have better judgment to question this. I know many conservatives hate the media, but I believe a strong critical media is essential to a healthy democracy even if we don’t always like what they report. That is what separates democracies from dictatorships so regardless of what bias the media has, I believe a premier should be accessible and able to answer questions. After all, if you have good policies you can give a good answer no matter how biased the reporter or question is. That is what shows someone is a real leader who can answer tough questions, not one who ducks them. The other one is the Ontario PC party news online which is basically cheerleading the party in power. I don’t have a problem with this being done, but it should be funded entirely by party funds, not one red cent of taxpayer dollars should be going to fund political news. That is an insult to the nearly 60% who didn’t vote PC and even to many PC voters who reluctantly supported them as they thought the alternatives were worse. If Doug Ford believes in respecting the taxpayer, he should quit funding this.
afiscalconservativepointofview 