I’m glad Justin Trudeau, Canada’s new Prime Minister, has made half his ministers women. Good for him.
But…
let us take a single example. The new Finance Minister.
A man. Bill Morneau, who used to be in charge of the C.D. Howe institute. For non-Canadians, that’s a think tank that is very right-wing.
As I noted about Trudeau throughout the election, he’ll be good on some things, but he’s still a neo-liberal. There will be various good news around taxes and pensions, then they will pass the Trans Pacific Partnership, which will do more harm than every bit of economic good they do.
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markfromireland
Re: Your concluding paragraph.
Neoconservatives, Neoliberals, the R2P bunch are all facets of the same thing. It’s the political equivalent of full spectrum dominance — and I use the military analogy advisedly.
mfi
Spinoza
The academic and fine left wing grump Freddie Deboer recently summed this kind of thing up: “I get the impression from liberals that their project is to give all kinds of people equal opportunity to crush the lower classes from above”
anonymous coward
Right, well, the USA has its first black president and look at what happened there. Identity politics idiots raise a black man -or nearly black- to the White House and to be head of the Democratic Party, and he thanks America’s voters by screwing them over as hard as any Reagan Republican. Public option for health care becomes legal mandate on citizens to purchase defective insurance products at ever increasing cost. More sovereignty shredding trade treaties than all his predecessors put together. Bailouts for banksters instead of jail. Endless wars, destabilizing entire regions and taking us ever closer to the Big One. Our Social Security would already be scuppered by Obama if he could only get the Republicans to join him. Final abolition of the Bill of Rights by the global surveillance state. Same old elitist shit, shiny new wrapper. And look at what’s on deck with Hillary Clinton. More of the same – but this time with vagina!
“Minorities” make the best vehicles for elite class warfare against workers and the poors, the fabled 99%. Why would identity politics work any differently in Canada? This swindle will go on and on since there’s nothing to stop it. Raise an objection, try to point out the sleight of hand and whose ringed, perfumed hand is actually behind the ongoing swindle, and you’re instantly labeled racist, sexist – or whatever disqualifying -ist works best at the moment. Democracy and people power will never overcome the power and guile of the 1%. In new world countries like the USA and Canada that have embraced multiculturalism, “Democracy” has become a nothing more than a power sharing arrangement between crafty, deceitful, entrenched privilege and willfully gullible outgroups, of which the number is potentially as great as the number of the peoples of the world. It can go on like this indefinitely. If privilege needs to reset the game to preserve their position, they can just bring in a new “outgroup” and cultivate their grievances. The outgroup will get crumbs and vicarious representation through tokens like Obama and the rich will getter richer, at the expense of everyone else.
S Brennan
Wow, three great comments in a row, kudos all.
Julien
Sure, there’s that guy.
But then there’s also Chrystia Freeland, the new Minister of International Trade, who wrote a book titled Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as always, but if the point of these appointments was merely to put lipstick on a pig, there were a lot of safer and blander choices Trudeau could have gone with than what he unveiled today.
Time will tell.
Declan
I’ll side with Julien on this one. Even on Bill Morneau I’m willing to give him a chance.
Here’s an article he wrote in May, while in campaign (from the left) mode:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/bill-morneau/canada-middle-class_b_7286246.html
“As Liberals, we believe a strong economy is one that provides the largest number of good jobs to the largest number of Canadians. But by that measure, we are in trouble.
Canadians continue to work hard, but the majority of them are finding it tougher and tougher to get by.
At the same time, there is another group of Canadians: those in the top one per cent of income earners. They are doing very well, have worked hard to achieve success, have accumulated assets, and are easily able to contribute to their children’s education. These advantages have been buttressed by repeated Conservative government action over the past decade. Most of the people in this group know that our fast-paced global economy has simultaneously provided them with opportunity and a requirement to work hard.
But why should the wealthiest Canadians care about those who are falling behind? Contrary to what some may think, restoring fairness and reducing inequality is in the very best interest of all Canadians. The OECD found that higher inequality may actually lower economic growth, and that increasing inequality over time lowers GDP per capita growth. And I know that the wealthiest Canadians want to live in a society in which their fellow citizens have the opportunity to thrive. It’s a Canadian value. ”
It’s not Karl Marx, but it’s not Tom Flanagan (or Jim Flaherty) either.
As Julien says, time will tell. It is up to the left to force the Liberals to keep their promises and hold them accountable if they don’t.
Escher
@Spinoza
And he’s 100% correct!
Dean Flemming
Trudeau is very much a politician in the middle of the road: not radical enough for the progessive, too much in love with the fashions of the people for the traditionalist. I foresee much progress away from the symbols of the past, but few beneficial policies for the underlying problems of the future.