The federal elections are just around the corner in Canada, and it’s time to look at the choices. Which party best represents the interests of small business owners?
As I mentioned in a previous article, small business owners are generally leaning towards voting Conservative, but are as a whole, a swing voter block that votes based on their interests and specific party platforms.
The Liberal Party’s policies during the COVID pandemic have been a disaster not just for small businesses, but also for the country as a whole. They have been printing money left and right, and while the taxpayer base shrank due to the effects of the lockdowns, government spending increased, resulting in a whopping $300 billion budget deficit. These aren’t just numbers, this is a reality people feel every day, as groceries and common household items become more and more expensive, and inflation will continue to climb.
Despite the fiscal tricks of printing more money, money is not a resource, it’s just a means of distributing it. Real resources are food and goods produced by various industries, and the way to make them more available to all the citizens is to increase the supply to meet and exceed the demand. After all, you can’t eat money, and it’s even illegal to burn it, if you need the heat in the coming winter. Besides they are made of plastic, not paper 🙁
However, the Conservatives aren’t much better. For example, Doug Ford has been elected to much fanfare in 2018 in Ontario Provincial Elections. One of his campaign mottos was literally “Open For Business”. And yet, he locked down the province, same as everyone else. Sure, liberals run smear campaigns, saying that he did not lock down hard enough or fast enough, but in the end, a lockdown is a lockdown, and it has hurt businesses, smaller ones more than the bigger one.
Promises are cheap. Politicians promise the moon when trying to get into office, but when it comes time to deliver, it really varies. Another damnable stain on Ford’s character is his recent expulsion of Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls over refusal to get vaccinated. The issue is that previously Ford claimed that he would not pressure anyone on vaccination. He switched gears because he thinks being more pro-vaxx this week gets him more points than being pro-choice last week.
There is a saying that the Conservative politicians of today are the Liberals of yesteryear. Ford is not the only example. Right now, Erin O’Toole is against mandatory vaccination. But he is also for the carbon tax, a policy that conservatives have been against for many, many years – and what has changed? The people supporting the Conservative Party are still business owners, big and small, as well as working people in various industries that would be negatively affected by this policy. None of them want the carbon tax, but as I mentioned in a previous article, political parties tend to care more about swing voters than their core voters as time goes on. So Erin saying that he is against mandatory vaccination now means very little.
And look, people have different opinions on the issue of vaccination, but let’s take a look at the facts. About 81% of all Canadians have had at least one dose of the vaccine, and that number is very likely to get higher. As far as herd immunity goes, we’ve achieved it, or at least, are on track to achieve it as people get their second shot. Most Canadians will get the vaccine without any requirements or travel mandates. What policies such as the proposed vaccine passport will do is mostly inconvenience regular Canadian citizens – I think maybe 90 or 95 percent will get the shot before the end of the year. The reason parties like the Liberals want the mandatory vaccinations is because they are trying to capitalize on the fear, and also on the lockdown fatigue. They see it as an easy opportunity to scare people into voting for them, and also to play on their desire to end the lockdowns by making everyone get the vaccine faster.
Right now, Conservatives and Liberals are locked in polls, with only a 0.6% lead for the Liberals. On face value, Conservative platform and plan to rebuild the economy seem like a much better alternative, so it’s understandable that someone would want to vote Conservative. But this assumes that they stick to their guns. I don’t think given the track record, that this is a good bet.
Consider for example the resignation of David Yurdiga, a Conservative MP in Alberta. The official reason is due to health issues, but the resignation came amidst a controversy, where he spoke out against mandatory vaccination. Not only that, but he has since endorsed not his replacement, but the PPC’s candidate. It’s a very strange situation, and I have to wonder if he wasn’t forced to resign due to his views being outspoken about it.
Another alternative is to vote for the People’s Party of Canada. They are on the more extreme side of things, as they want to massively slash government spending and overreach, and they advocate for less control and a more free market. They are unlikely to achieve that, as well as they are unlikely to win the election or get any major representation. But it’s a direction which is preferable to what we have now. The Conservatives right now are worried, saying that a vote for PPC is a vote for Liberals, since it takes away from their votes. But perhaps a loss is what is necessary to make the Conservatives reconsider their positions, and to stop taking their core voters for granted.
Not only that, but I personally like Maxime Bernier and I’m more inclined to trust that he would stick to his campaign. He frequently attends anti-lockdown protests, and he was even arrested for attending such an event in Manitoba in June. It’s refreshing to see a politician with who is willing to take a risk to stand for what he believes is right. This is why this election, I will be voting for the People’s Party of Canada. I want to send a clear message to the Conservatives that if they want my vote, they have to go back to their roots and deliver on the thing their core voters want.