FELDSTED: We elect people to represent us and ensure that governments provide the services they are responsible for ... meantime, personal responsibility is the basis of democracy

NDP's 2019 election platform promises mental, dental, hearing coverage for all. CBC News got an early look at what’s inside the NDP platform

David Thurton ~~ CBC News ~~ Jun 16, 2019

The NDP will be the first Canadian federal party to unveil an election platform that promises to drastically expand Canada's health care system to include, not just pharmacare, but mental, dental, eye and hearing coverage for all citizens.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh ... (gave the) CBC an early look at the platform.

     

What else does the NDP platform promise to do?

• Commit to fully and equitably fund health education and other services in Indigenous communities.
• Create an action plan to prevent suicide.
• Cap and reduce tuition fees and student loan interest, with an eventual goal of free post-secondary education.
• Ban unpaid internships.
• Introduce federal incentives for zero-emissions automobiles and prioritize cars made in Canada.
• Invest $1 billion in affordable childcare in 2020.
• Focus on revitalizing industries like forestry, fisheries and agriculture.
• Put a price cap on cellphone and internet bills and introduce a telecommunications bill of rights.
• Close tax loopholes and introduce a one per cent "wealth tax" on personal earnings over $20 million.
• Increase access to public transit, including along rural routes cut off by Greyhound service discontinuation.
• Power Canada with net carbon-free electricity by 2030.
• Ban single-use plastics
• End veteran homelessness
• Launch a basic income pilot project
• Strengthen the air passenger bill of rights
• Create an affordable housing plan that includes construction of more low-cost and co-operative housing across the country.

CLICK HERE to read the full story:

The gap between what political parties believe we will fall for, and what we need from them, has never been wider. The differences between what political parties offer, what government is responsible for, what we really need, and what we can afford leaves us breathless.

These issues are interconnected, not isolated. We can’t spend what we don’t have, and with each passing year Canadians have less money left for discretionary spending.

We cannot continue to fund irresponsible government largess. We do not need political idealism. That is little more than daydreaming saying, ‘wouldn’t it be wonderful if only we could’, and then realizing the dream involves doubling our income taxes and so we get on with life as it is.

Politicians do not govern us.

We elect people to represent us and ensure that governments provide the services they are responsible for ... as well as spend and tax prudently and responsibly. No government may tax us for more than is needed to carry out its responsibilities to the public.

Personal responsibility is the basis of democracy.

Unless we are prepared to accept responsibility for our actions and behaviours a civil, democratic, lawful, orderly and peaceful society and its institutions will crumble to dust. We already see evidence of rot in our institutions.

Governance should be administered at the level closest to the people.

Municipal governance is very effective for the most part. However, when municipalities grow into large towns and cities, the connection between the governing body, and those they serve, are diminished and finally lost. The result is decisions made for the benefit those governing rather than for those governed. 

In general, governance bodies exist to provide services communities cannot afford on their own. Our constitution sets out a list of subject’s provincial governments are responsible for. They are largely of a local nature, too costly for municipalities, but needed by the people of the province.

There is a second list of subjects for which the federal government is responsible, and they are different from the subjects listed for the provinces. Hospitals and health care are provincial subjects.

Provinces cannot enact law in federal subjects, and the federal government cannot enact laws in provincial subjects. The federal and provincial governments operate in separate spheres; the federal government is not ‘superior’ or above the provinces.

Our provincial governments already provide some drug coverage, and have experimented with mass drug purchases to keep costs down. The introduction of generic drugs in the 1970s reduced costs considerably. If full drug coverage was affordable and viable, some provinces would already be providing PharmaCare for their residents.

What is missing from party election platforms is sound planning to grow our economy to provide the taxable incomes to support the services Canadians need. We cannot continue unending deficit spending. We need to generate more income to sustain the basic services we receive. We cannot allow political parties to continue to ignore spending restraints based on income.

Political party delusions that they can buy our votes, by promoting in-affordable programs, is good reason for not supporting them.

The majority of Canadians are more fiscally responsible, and able to set realistic spending priorities, than any federal government we have endured during the past 50 years. The days of people in political parties and government serving their personal interests and helping their friends, must end.

We need, responsible adult supervision of our federal government. 

John Feldsted

Political Consultant & Strategist

Winnipeg, Manitoba