Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, May 14, 2012

Mulcair: a 'cheap' ploy

Newly elected NDP leader Tom Mulcair has already showed his profound ignorance of the Canadian economy and an offensive lack of knowledge about the energy sector and the crucial role it plays in paying this country's bills.

Blaming Ontario and Quebec's economic woes on the oilsands is as bizarre as it is inaccurate. And as Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has stated, it is "very, very divisive".

The energy sector generates employment in almost every segment of our national economy. The oilsands alone are responsible for close to 400,000 direct and indirect jobs in skilled trades, in manufacturing, in the clerical field and in the financial sector.

Acccording the Canadian Energy Research Institute, if you include proposed pipeline projects and increased oil production, the oilsands will support on average 700,000 jobs across Canada every year for the next 25 years. Alberta's oil industry alone will buy $65 billion worth of goods and services from companies in Ontario in that same period.

Over the past five years, the oil and gas industry has contributed an average of $22 billion to government coffers - money that helps pay for everything from education to health care.

This is a cheap political ploy to pit eastern citizens against those in the West. Will Mulcair next attack the lentil business, the wheat and grain producers who have long fed the world - or perhaps the potash industry that allows the poor to bolster their depleted farmland in overpopulated areas?

It's time for Mulcair to act like a Canadian.

Original Article
Source: leader post
Author: Pamela Wallin  

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