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Left not to blame for rise of hard right politics – The Western Producer

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During his defence of Donald Trump on page 14 of the Feb. 1 issue of The Western Producer, Robert Arnason accepts what his brother-in-law and the rest of the world knows — Trump is a court-established rapist, fraudster and conman who is “immoral and deranged.” The remainder of Arnason’s piece is simply making excuses for Trump by claiming that the political left is the cause.

Trump and his followers do not have a lot in common. Most followers are not criminals, but they are intrigued by his style, unpredictability and lack of conformity.

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Trump the conman simply realized early on that he could tap into a deep sense of victimization that was not being addressed by other political forces. So he quickly moved from pretending to be a super-rich property developer on TV to playing the victim and repeating phrases like “I’m just like you” and “I love the uneducated” in order to get in front of a movement of people that were feeling increasingly isolated and demoted within society.

The sense of loss/victimhood that Trump exploits in his followers is deep and real, and it does have something to do with left-wing policies — just not Arnason’s understanding — and it’s important to explore this further.

The improvements in living standards have overwhelmingly occurred within the last 100 years directly as a result of left-wing policies.

Before that, regular folk had little or no chance of rising above their station in life. The feudal system with its own version of “caste” was firmly in place. For the overwhelming majority of people, life was, in fact, “nasty, brutish, and short.”

But then unions, co-ops and functioning democracies showed the way to modest increases in living standards, and people started to feel they could control their own destinies.

This sense of optimism and empowerment greatly increased with the gains made through left-wing policies between 1900 and 1980. Canada and the United States adopted these policies and fostered a much better life for the vast majority of people.

For example, publicly funded education became mandatory, which greatly increased the opportunities for young people and helped lead to the abolition of child labour.

The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Union gained the first five-day workweek in 1929, thereby creating the weekend that everyone now takes for granted.

Comprehensive medical care in Canada started in 1962 in Saskatchewan, and the Canada Pension Plan was created in 1965.

The Western Producer itself was created by the revolutionary left-wing policy that created Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in 1923, and the Producer is still living off the fumes of those times.

These New Deal/left-wing policies, and hundreds more just like them, were a process of great awakening and mobilization of humble people understanding how to make a better life for themselves and their children.

In the years between 1946 and 1978, the standard of living in Canada and the U.S. more than doubled, and by 1980 North America enjoyed the highest standard of living in the industrialized world.

Left-wing policies had in fact created a sense of importance, place and opportunity for regular folks — farmers included. In Canada, 1976 recorded the highest ever net income from the markets for Canadian farmers.

But in the last 40 years most of those gains have been greatly eroded. Employment standards and real wages have fallen — several states in the U.S. are now encouraging child labour in industries like beef packing. Public education and medical care are under constant attack.

Families that rose to those higher standards of living in the 1970s have seen their jobs deteriorate from white or blue-collar jobs to part-time jobs without security or pensions.

Housing then becomes unaffordable, the part-time jobs can’t pay for a car good enough to get them to work and documented greedflation by corporate retailers takes extra cash from both farmers and consumers.

And now we are starting to experience climateflation, wherein food production becomes unstable due to global heating in agricultural areas. The climate meltdown is not a left-wing or right- wing problem, but so far only the left wing seems willing to talk about it. Cascading crop failures will make current food prices seem very low.

In short, millions of people in North America can feel the ground shifting under their feet, and they are no longer confident of their place in the world. The prospects for their kids don’t seem as rosy as their own were 30 years ago.

As well, a sense of “let’s just burn it all down” is amplified by destructive politicians like Trump who are more than willing to throw gas on any fire.

No governments in North America have regained the ground lost over the last 40 years.  So-called left-wing governments since the 1990s have simply shadowed the right-wing political forces in their shift to an even more extreme right.

The prime directive of governments has shifted from lifting people up to guaranteeing profits for big business, whether that happens to be seed development and ownership, starving education in favour of tax cuts for industry or killing medicare in order to pave the way for re-privatization.

It is, in fact, the right-wing policies of the last 40 years that prepared the groundwork for Trump. Deregulation, industry self-regulation, industry capture of government agencies, corporate consolidation, obscene executive compensation and climate collapse all cause people to lose hope for the future.

Scapegoating left-wing policies is just another fraud perpetrated on a nervous public.

Stewart Wells farms at Swift Current, Sask.

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‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

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REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

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