Am I better off?
It seems to be a common theme in elections for the incumbent party to ask the question, “Are you better off?”. The Conservatives have been in power now since the 2006 election.
Financially? I’m better off, due to having a decent paying job in a company not based in Canada. The economy is moving along despite a Conservative running multiple deficits in a row. Really, I don’t place too much faith in the Government to do a huge amount to the economy, no matter what the Conservative attack adverts say.
Privacy? Much worse off, the Government have introduced multiple bills to reduce our privacy, none worse than bill C-51 which greatly increases the Government spying powers and reduces the amount of oversight.
Rights? Much worse off, the Government introduced bill C-24 which means that the citizenship of me (and most of my friends and colleagues) can now be revoked. We are all second class citizens and not “old stock canadians”. The reduction of our charter of rights and freedoms is breathtaking.
Environment? We are the only country in the world to withdraw from Kyoto and become isolated Canada on the world stage. There’s the oil sands turning Alberta into Mordor, there’s been major oil spills, the tragic Lac-Mégantic incident, the proposed pipelines and so on. And of course environmentalists are terrorists.
Science? The census was gutted and decisions are not made on data, but ideology.
Right now? I am worse off. I have much less security and privacy than before. So no, I won’t be voting Conservative and I’m not sure why anyone would.