LETTER

 

--- US Culture Wars moving north?

 

I find your newspaper's recent pubic discussion of "socialism" amusing!  The letter writers are so earnest, on both sides. But all have failed to note that this entire discussion of "socialism" is not about that socio-political theory -- it is the excuses we hear in every newscast from the US explaining why the Democrats did not do better "down ticket" -- for offices below the executive, especially the Senate. They had huge hopes they would win the Senate ... and they failed. The Democratic Party failed -- there were NO socialists running, and no one proposed anything similar to that poltical doctrine.  

Public funded health care, as we know here in Canada, is not socialism. Public education, safe food and medicines, all those things are merely "good governance", not  socialistic nor capitalistic. Non-profit is not socialist.

This discussion in the Bulletin is interesting not because we in Aylmer are shocked by "socialism" (the NDP is "social-democratic", vaguely) -- we want to know why this discussion in Canada and in the national media -- Globe & Mail, MacLeans, National Post, Sun and Postmedia chains -- they have all repeated the "socialism" accusation as though it is an issue in Canada. The American Right wants it to be an issue here. They are not happy with Canada's liberalism. The social wars are about to move north in a big way, I am afraid.  Canada is a bad example, and the Trump movement wants to return in 2024, without bad-example Canada up here showing the Americans that public health care works ... compare Covid-19 responses, for example.

This has been an interesting discussion but Canadians must see it in the context within which it is being manufactured here for us all.

Kerry McLeod

Aylmer