While the problem of funding the Canada Pension Plan exists, the Conservative party of Stephen Harper has opted to do nothing, not out of stupidity, (hoping that the problem goes away), but out of sheer nastiness.
They know it won’t go away, and they don’t care: the new motto of Canada has become, “Every man for himself,” and they have taken great care that they will be personally provided for.
Whether it is James Moore saying “Is it my job to feed my neighbour’s child? I don’t think so.” Jim Flaherty trying to claw back disability payments from wounded vets or turf them out – as he did with the victims of the Walkerton water poisoning – with a lump sum payment, or Stephen Harper and his ministers ignoring rail safety (Lac Megantic) or bank stability in order to increase corporate profits, it all comes down to one simple question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
As far as our prime minister and the members of his government are concerned, the answer continues to be “No!”
Compare that to Home Secretary Winston Spencer Churchill, in 1908: “There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.” Of whom it was said, “But being humane, he was also genuinely appalled by the plight of the downtrodden as he discovered it.”
Stephen Harper does not appear to be appalled at all. Just determined.
Richard Smiley
