There is no doubt that we should be very thankful for living in a country like Canada.
Does that mean that it couldn’t be better, particularly for the people that have little or nothing for a variety of reasons (such as birth circumstances and upbringing, physical and mental disorders, ill health, etc.)? Over time the disparity between those that have great wealth and those that survive on very little has grown exponentially. Corporate and union public interest groups finance political party’s re-election campaigns and influence public policies, programs and expenditures. Our criminal justice system has become enabling to criminals over time, rendering citizens vulnerable to criminal acts. The rights of criminals appear to trump that of the law-abiding public.
For a variety of reasons, governments fail to prioritize properly and squander available resources on unneeded programs requiring excessive staff. These squandered or misallocated financial resources could be directed to programs to benefit the disadvantaged at no additional cost to the taxpayer.
Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, although positive, can, and often does, lead people to believe that they are entitled to the good life without applying yourself and working for it. These rights have to be balanced against responsibility and accountability for one”s actions. This is often missing resulting in many of the social problems that society currently and increasingly faces.
Claude Bergman
Penticton
