2015-10-16

Upcoming Canadian Elections: Slim Pickings For Those Who Hold Classical Liberal/Libertarian Values And Principles

What is there, from a classical liberal point of view, to say about the upcoming election on October 19?

Not much.

None of the parties are particularly strong on classical liberal (libertarian) principles. Each party has some positions (the Liberals are looking to make access to information freer which can only help transparency while claiming they will legalize marijuana. The NDP, for its part, has taken the right stance against the abhorrent Bill C-51. And the conservatives actually have sane ideas on the personal finance side that are interesting from a libertarian perspective. For instance, expanding the TFSA scheme - which to a guy like me who doesn't contribute to an RRSP is a great option- and the possibility of voluntary pension plan contributions. This development in true thinking is great for people who have means because the government just claws it back down the road anyway thus fostering unnecessary ill-feeling towards the government. A person who is forced to contribute for all their working lives should never have it clawed back because they had the temerity to succeed. This is not right or even moral on any level. Last the Conservatives have actually been good on trade as the Trans-Pacific deal shows) but overall they remain as coercive and statist as ever.

The PC still spend too much and are vulnerable to wasteful 'bail out' options and may be a tad too ready to join wars abroad. Although I agree with their position on Kyoto and climate change.

The NDP, for example, want to introduce a national $15 a day daycare. Which is obscene and ludicrous if you ask me. Quebec's model has been a financial disaster laced with mediocrity, bureaucratic minutiae, strikes, corruption and unrealistic and arbitrary figures like "$15 a day". It costs waayyyy more than that to run a daycare and someone will have to pay the difference. In Quebec, $7.30 a day actually costs tax payers much more than that. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $90 because it costs about $100 a day to run a subsidized daycare.

Hello. McFly! The money is better when it's in your pockets!

No one should be surprised. Yet, someone in the NDP thought it be a swell idea to bring this monstrosity to the Federal level while promising to not increase income taxes.

Hello. McFly! Does anyone believe that?

Do people really need this? Haven't people figured out it's better to have no increase in income taxes ergo more disposable income to decide how to spend their money? Or have people become so lazy or have just come to accept the grotesque notion bureaucrats know better than them?

The Liberals flirted with the horrible idea of abolishing income splitting and are all too ready to cynically jump on the "1%" populism nonsense.

The options are slim for a classical liberal as you can see. None are outright winners on matters of individual sovereignty.

For me it comes down to which of three threaten the chance for more classical liberal principles to enter the national consciousness. While I don't think the conservatives are the party to foster this possibility despite potentially being most open to it, Canada doesn't need to pull left at this point in my view. Liberal, progressive, socialist policies and rhetoric stand opposite to the classical liberal/libertarian position.

'The government ought to' ideal should give way to 'I ought to...'




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