Well the month of January is here another Christmas and another New Years party has come and gone. No more fighting with the difficult strands of lights and no more racing around in the stores to find a special gift for that special person or persons. It is now time to relax and go back to business as usual. The thing I will miss however is the time I got to spend with my family and friends and I hope everyone out there was able to spend precious time with their friends and family. Whether you are a Christian or not, this was the time to celebrate all we have and all that we have too look forward to. However there are still some things that bothered me during the holidays.

I used to work for Canadian Tire and I remembered how busy the store got during the month of December. I remember the grouchy and crabby customers, and this led to grouchy and crabby go-workers. However do you blame the workers? They work excessively hard for those grouchy customers and get paid dirt-cheap for it and most are given no respect for their work. However, I must admit that not all customers are that bad, some are great and fun to help, but lets be honest everyone starts to feel the crunch in this capitalistic society and we get grouchy. We get grouchy during the time of year that we should be filled with love and joy. Therefore I believe that there are some problems in society that needs to be changed. I am not content with what is going on and I plan to make changes.
To create change you can’t sit around and do nothing, you have to do something. My attempts have been to become politically involved and to write articles here on this web page. For this months articles I plan to share with you my Christmas list that I sent to Santa. While it may take time for most of them to come true, I truly hope that they will.

Dear Santa,
I have been a very good person this year. I know every year I write you this letter and every year you have come through. This year I am asking for wishes that are much more difficult to produce then previous years. Therefore I think it is important to tell you how good of a boy I have been.
This year I have been able to avoid from lying to the public and flipping from one opinion to the next to try and win some votes out of the people of Canada. I try to let the people of Canada know what needs to be done to make this a successful country and I mean what I say. I try so hard not be like Paul Martin, I really do. I will not follow him and his corporate friends. I try to make sure every Canadian citizen is as successful as they can be, and not just a select few are favored.
As far as I know I have not attacked a nation and killed many innocent civilians. If I were to attack a person, idea or country I would do it without lying about my theory. I am an honest man and mean no harm when I offend someone. I would make sure that my facts are straight before attacking a country. If I were going to attack a country that is making massive destructive weapons I would prove it first, then take the appropriate steps needed. I would not attack a person or country first then find out I was wrong, that makes me look like I don’t know what I am doing, right? I don’t follow in the footsteps of real evil; I avoid it at all costs.
Last and not least I have not lied to my party or friends about anything that I have done or plan to do. Peter MacKay has taught me a valuable lesson, don’t lie and deceive your own people. While it may lead to a successful union at first, the repercussions will soon begin to show its colors and a liar will eventually loose any kind of support they had. Lying and deceiving are not my ways. I am a good person so here is my list.

6) POGG. I don’t mean that game that kids played many years ago. You know the game; the one with that circular metal slammer and you tossed it on a stack of circular wooden pieces and try to flip them over. While that game is enjoyable to play, I am referring to Peace Order and Good Government. I will not lie; there is Peace in Canada. But when it comes to order and good government, I don’t think that has happened. It all starts with the very odd situation of Canada having two Prime Ministers at once. Once the Liberals elected, in a very undemocratic way, Paul Martin as their leader Canada theoretically had two Prime Ministers. This can not possible be considered as having order in our government, can it? I sure don’t think so. During this time the biggest question in Canada was who was the actual Prime Minister? It never was how are the Iraqi innocent civilians doing? Or can Same Sex Marriage be legit in Canada? Or why is our tuition in Canada so high and expensive? It seemed to me that there was no order in our government and until we the people officially elect a leader of Canada, Mr. Martin is not our truly elected Prime Minister and Canada will not be in order until then. Once an election occurs we may start to see some order back in the country, but until then good luck.

Currently the official opposition is the Canadian Alliance led by Stephen Harper, yet that party does not exist on paper (While it does in the house the party legally doesn’t exist). The Party is actually the Conservative Party of Canada, and we don’t see any member with this name in Parliament. Her majesty’s official opposition has no merit, no name, and no leader. What kind of government and opposition do we have in Parliament? No true government and official opposition if you ask me, and this is pretty sad for a country that has been around for over 100 years. Let’s get some order back in the house and lets get down to business.

Good Government seems to be lacking as well. Paul Martin has promised radical changes in the house like reduce the power of the Prime Minister, and all he has been doing so far is freezing spending and then spending extra money here and there. He has not mentioned anything about his radical ideas. While socialists like the idea of spending money for a better society, Mr. Martin tends to spend it to benefit his business friends. Before you know it, this fiscally responsible man will become a non-fiscally responsible man and put Canada in more debt than we have ever been before. Please, lets bring some good government back into Canada. If Liberals are to be continually elected in Canada lets do things that benefit Canada, bring back Wilfrid Laurier and his ideology. This was a man that truly cared about Canada and wanted nothing but a prosperous nation. Lets remember one of his best quotes, “the 19th Century belonged to the United States, and now lets make the 20th Century belong to Canada.” I have yet to see Canada dominate the 20th Century, let alone make a scratch into the 21st Century. Lets bring back the ideas of making Canada a strong and independent nation, a nation to call our own, an un-American nation… well I guess I better keep hoping.

5) Same Sex Marriage. While there have been some significant advances in the gay/lesbian movement we should make one more progressive move and recognize them as legally married people. When gay or lesbian people get married they should be recognized as an official couple and get the same benefits as non- gay/lesbian couples. And why shouldn’t they? What makes their love, their compassion, their fighting and their vows any different than when a man and women get married and express their love, their compassion, their vows and their fighting? During the last provincial election a lady came up to me and said that she supports the NDP but doesn’t support same sex marriage because of her religion. I told her that we (socialists) are religious as well, but we fight for gay/lesbian rights because we believe it is important to be free to express your love and that no government should prevent that. If we prevent a gay or lesbian from expressing their love and getting married then why don’t we do the same towards the straight community? Imagine the outcry, “your taking away a freedom of expression”, or “how dare you deny me my right to marry”? Well isn’t this what we do to the gay/lesbian community? I reminded this young lady that we have no right in denying a couple their freedom of expression or deny them the right to marry. We want to allow people to show their love and allow equality amongst homosexuals and heterosexuals. We fight for equality and how dare a government take these rights away from us. Pierre Elliot Trudeau was questioned about gays and lesbians and he replied that the government has no business in societies bedrooms. So if the government doesn’t belong in the bedrooms of the citizens of Canada, why do they continually deny opportunities to the gay/lesbian community? I hope one day Canada may progress like the Netherlands have, but until then we should keep up the good fight because it is worth it.

4) Adoption of Proportional Representation (PR). For further readings on PR you can refer to my December article. Professor R. Jhappan of Carleton University said, “when you make one change in the political structure this will create other changes that are uncontrollable.” I believe that by using PR a chain reaction will occur and thus creating more changes which will make the nation of Canada a better nation. For example the whole process of PR is to allow every vote to make an impact in the election. If every vote can make a significant impact in the election then more people will be inclined to vote and the idea of a “wasted vote” will never occur. Once you get more people involved in the voting process they will do a little more research to understand who the candidates are and what the parties represent. I am under the strong impression that most Canadian’s just don’t care because they believe that the winner is a forgone conclusion. Maybe because they believe money wins elections (refer to George W. Bush’s victory in the USA), or that there are no alternatives. Well if people understood what the other parties represent and had a chance to get more involved they will then understand the alternatives and thus get more politically involved. This ultimately is a good goal for Canada; more political involvement leads to a stronger and better country. Only through time will PR start to show more political involvement because PR makes the people feel like they are part of the political process unlike our first past the post system.
PR will also be able to create representatives of all cultures, all social classes and all types of religion. If we as Canadians preach that we are multi cultural, why is it only rich white males dominate in parliament? PR will show Canada’s diversity. It works in the European countries, why can’t we evolve, progress and create a more democratic electoral system? A good conservative buddy of mine reminds me that PR tends to produce lists with hundred of names under one party and many more parties are on the ballot then there are now and you never know who you are electing. I reply to him that if we can control the amount of people in one district, like to have 10, and control who is a national party and who is not then we can limit these problems. I will agree that PR may produce parties that are very extreme, and I don’t think people in a civil society will vote for them. We have seen their colors in the form of the Nazi, Fascist and Communist parties and civil countries don’t want to go down that path.
If you want more in-depth information on PR please refer to my December article or e-mail me. My e-mail address is located at the bottom of the page.

3) A Change of the United States Government. Now this wish may be a tough one to get, however I am confident to say that I believe it is possible and will come true. I am currently reading both of Michael Moore’s books, Stupid White Men and Dude Where’s my Country, and I have been affected by his books in a huge way. Not that it made me more of a socialist but that it made me realize that there are others out there that think the way I do and they are not just located in Canada. People like him will make a progressive change in the United States and thus making them a better nation. George Bush’s arrogance and his policies are hurting the country of Canada.. The WTO has deemed our soft wood lumber to be free of subsidies and yet Mr. Bush won’t buy it from us because he claims the lumber is subsidized. Does this make sense to anyone? I sure don’t understand it at all and I am sure our government doesn’t understand it either. Not only that, but our Ozone layer may be safe if Bush is gone. Out of 147 countries that signed the Kyoto Accord, the United States was one country that didn’t sign it. The country that creates the most waste, and most damage to our environment doesn’t sign an accord that benefits the world. How dangerous is this man? Well we can be assured that he won’t attack and kill innocent people because of some massive destructive weapons right? Well we all know what he has been doing in the past 8 months or so. What makes matters even worse Mr. Bush still thinks there are massive destructive weapons in Iraq. Even after the leader himself, Saddam Hussein, has said there wasn’t any massive destructive weapons and even after months and months of searching the entire country they haven’t found one ounce of clues that lead us to believe that there are massive destructive weapons in Iraq. Yet Mr. Bush is still content to believe that these weapons exist. Either Bush is in a serious case of denial or he is seriously ill and needs some help.
I recently had a discussion with a university friend and he reminded me that the USA has blamed us for many things that either a) we didn’t do or b) we didn’t blame them the same way. When it came to mad cow disease, within hours the USA shut down all trading of beef and this ultimately hurt our Alberta farmers and the Canadian market. But when we heard that there was mad cow in the States we didn’t shut down the border and kill their beef market. We kept it open and we tried to work with them. I think the look on Ralph Klines face said it all when he was upset with the treatment his province was receiving from his “friends” from the south. Also when terrorists attacked the Trade Center, the Americans blamed Canada for having the terrorists residing in our country and “aiding the enemy”. However we did no such thing, in reality the terrorists that attacked the States were trained in the States, in Arizona and Florida. They were landed immigrants in USA not in Canada. Because of this attack against Canada and our immigration policies Canada panicked and created silly rules and regulations for our landed immigrants. The funny thing is that now hundreds of some landed Canadian immigrants can’t get back into Canada right now because of these new rules and “tightened security”.

2) A workable Safety Net, you know Keynesian ideas. One problem that is occurring right now in the economy is that big businesses are getting more and more breaks and the people are getting less and less. We are paying taxes that don’t benefit us, but it does benefit the businesses, elites and politicians. Howard Hampton said on provincial TV during the past election that politicians make enough money and that if they pay their taxes it would benefit society. However Mr. Eves and Mr. McGuinty fail to realize the potential good of making a strong and better nation through taxes from all parts of society, the businesses and the people.
Historian Michael Bliss tries to remind Canadians that the invisible hand in the market place will benefit society and clear out our market place, but if you have a visible hand in the market place you would create distortions and make the market even worse. Explain to me then why was Canada so successful during our big spending years the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s? Even Deif the Chief bought into Keynesian ideas and spend money to make money. (Isn’t that a conservative idea, and yet they don’t allow our government to do this). Every historian will tell us how successful Canada was during C.D. Howe’s age in the Post War efforts. C.D. Howe was able to spend money, within reasonable limits, and made Canada a strong and prosperous country. Even Michael Bliss will not argue against this. C.D. Howe was able to spend the money needed to make Canada strong and not over spend it. Conservatives will tell you that after the 70’s and thru to the early 21st century, Canada started to spend more than it needed. It was a prosperous country and we were still spending money. The problem is that once you become a prosperous society you should save the money and spend it during the bad economic times. This is what Conservatives fail to realize, we had the money because our government was willing to spend it to benefit the nation and not a select few. By doing this we created strong businesses, a strong dollar, a good public education system and a good health care system.
Keynesian ideas are not saying that we spend, spend, spend, and spend some more. Keynesian ideas say that during the bad times we spend money to keep the economy going. Then during the prosperous times we don’t spend as much. Also, during the good times we spend the money in places that makes a country strong like education, roads and health care. Then when economic times are bad we have tons of money banked for the worst and we will be able to survive. History has shown that when we have this money banked, these social safety nets will keep a country from failing during bad economic times. Anytime a recession starts to occur we spend this money, we pay out the employment insurance or the Canadian Pension Plan to those that don’t work and this keeps a flow of money in our economy and thus keeping the economy stable. Therefore one would wonder why should we be shredding our social safety nets when it keeps our economy stable and strong? Why should we stop paying taxes when it helps keep our country strong and prosperous? Why should we stray away from Keynesian ideas when history has shown us that John Maynard Keynes and his ideas work to keep a nation strong and healthy? Well I guess its because the select few are not as prosperous as they would be, and that would seriously be bad for people like Mr. Martin and Mr. Harper.

1) Success for the NDP and Jack Layton. Latest polls have shown that the NDP has increased support and that we are an alternative to the Liberals and the new Canadian Conservative Party. Jack Layton has pointed out that Canadians have started to become upset with Paul Martin and Stephen Harpers right winged agenda. If this is true then this is something the NDP has to work hard at and convince these people that they have made the right decision.

I have told my friends that, “if Capitalism works, why does our country seem more backwards than European countries”? Not many of them have a clear answer, but I do. Scandinavian countries have a better health care system and one that works better than the States health care and our own health care. They have a very effective public health care system and this is evident in Roy Rowmano’s report on health care. A majority of European countries have free post secondary education and these European countries have won more Nobel Prizes than any other country in the world, including the States and Canada. So why is Canada so backwards, do we really believe that the status quo and capitalism works? Even Adam Smith the great economist won’t believe this. His ideas were to make sure a society was successful based on Capitalism, but if people are being abused by the system then it is not working. Remember the reason why all these Europeans moved to the new America land? It was to get away from being abused by a select few in power; they wanted everyone to be prosperous. Capitalism does not allow for this to happen. So why are we so backwards? Well its because Canadians have seemed to forget about what is best for the country and they start to believe more what is best for themselves.

I believe that Jack Layton and the NDP crew will be able to enlighten Canadians with positive ideas, like better health care, better access to education, improving public schools, improving our environment and making a better nation. I believe we should look towards Jack and listen to his thoughts. Understand what he is trying to say and understand what makes a good country work. Cheers to Mr. Layton and the NDP for they will be quite successful in the next election.

So there you have it Santa, my Christmas list. I really hope that you will deliver my gifts to me, and if I don’t receive them by the 25th, I will be sure to pray for them to come true before next Christmas. Wishing you all the best.
Sincerely,
Nathan Willard

To read Nathan's December 2003 article click here

Currently, the Candidates running to represent the NDP in the next federal election is Paul Dewar and Ed Broadbent. I have asked them a few questions and got some biographical information about them. I hope, especially those in Ottawa Centre, read about Paul and Ed so you have a good idea who may represent the NDP in the next federal election for Ottawa Centre.

To read about Nathan's interview with Paul Dewar click here

To read about Nathan's interview with Ed Broadbent click here

If you have any comments for Nathan you can email him at nathan.willard@ottawacentre.org