[Marxism] Canada: Spain in Reverse

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Only thru strategic voting can we do our best to stave off a fascist
majority.  I fear we're not as smart as France either, re Le Penn.
Like they did, we even have to vote liberal, depending on the state
of our ridings:Canada: Spain in reverse

Posted by Justin Podur at June 11, 2004 11:20 AM


Scary news from Canada, which is on the verge of an electoral
fascist takeover. The Conservative party of Stephen Harper is
headed for a win in the elections of June 28.

While the current, Liberal prime minister, Paul Martin, helped out
the coup in Haiti and has been a useful tool for US foreign policy
and US/Canadian corporate interests, there are a few differences
between him and Harper.

Harper is anti-abortion. Harper is anti-gay marriage. Harper is for
openly racist immigration policies (Martin is for hypocritical
policies). Harper is for openly supporting the US war on the planet
(Martin is for doing so behind the scenes and selectively). Harper
wants to boost military spending, get 'tough on crime', cut taxes
and further undermine and privatize Canada's fragile public sector,
especially its public health care system (Martin is for dismantling
these things more slowly and behind the scenes).

In the media, the rise of Harper's Conservatives is being portrayed
in terms of Canada's dissatisfaction with the Liberals' corruption
after three terms in office. First of all, the Liberals are certainly
corrupt -- but the Conservatives' record in power is far worse, and
Ontario, the biggest battleground of the elections, just came out of
two terms of hideous Conservative corruption and ought to know
better than to elect these fascists. If people have to defect from the
Liberals and punish them, why do they have to shoot themselves in
the head to do so, especially when a third party with a decent
platform exists in the NDP?

This is all rather like what happened in Spain, in reverse. Think
about it.

In Spain, you had a hard-line right winger devoted to active
subordination to the US agenda in Aznar. Despite his population's
desires, he took the country headlong into war and occupation in
Iraq. This made his population a target for terrorists, and his
population, who never wanted the Iraq war, paid the price. Then the
population had a chance to punish him politically in elections, and
did so.

In Canada, you have a hypocritical liberal government that decided
not to jump on to the disastrous Iraq war openly, but to perform the
historically normal Canadian functions of behind-the-scenes aid,
followed by sacrificing the Haitian people's right to self-
determination to 'mend-the-fence' that insufficient subordination to
the US agenda supposedly caused in US-Canada relations (see
my commentary of last year for some revolting reactions from
Canadian elites. Canadian elites revolted, and threw up a leader
who promised to take Canada headlong into the Iraq war and
occupation and whatever other imperial adventures the US plans.
Now, if the population elects him, will we have to live what the
Spanish lived through?

Unfortunately, Canada is probably more like the US than it is like
Spain. The American media, and much of the public, couldn't
understand how Spain dumped Aznar after a terrorist attack. They
saw it as 'appeasement', and everyone knows that a terrorist attack
in the US would help the jingoistic right in that country, who people
would flock to. The Spanish had the opposite reaction.

Which way would Canadians go, given the choice? Which way will
they go? Will we have to find out?
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