Lots to offer if we decide to share

Opinion

To use a military metaphor, I found myself in a target-rich environment when I sat down to write this column.

There were myriad possibilities just begging for a witty jab, a dismantling comment, or a fuming protest. Every day on our federal campaign trail, things were said or done that triggered immediate scribbles in my notebook.

Tax cuts. Here, there and everywhere. For the Liberals, no mention of program cuts, so this means borrowing yet more money on the backs of future Canadians. The Conservatives will reduce taxes for rich people by cutting both wasteful social programs and foreign aid. “Canada First” really means “Me First” — bombs before beans and militarism before milk. Future Canadians don’t matter because they can’t vote, making “green” just a policy colour for both parties.

So, we get ads from the Liberals, offering up Prime Minister Mark Carney as a glum version of Mr. Rogers just talking to the neighbours about tough times, dueling for screen time with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s irritating “I am a privileged Canadian” rant that concludes with an up-nostril shot of him and the Canadian flag. Where Poilievre shrieks BS (bumper stickers), Carney instead ponders in paragraphs.

In comparison, both the Green Party and the NDP once again offer slices of sky pie to voters because they will never have to deliver national government to Canadians that actually works.

Far from responding to the real problems we face, these political performances have so far reeked of privilege — protecting those who have, mostly ignoring those who have not, and totally disregarding future generations.

I looked in vain for a vision of what Canada could be. “Elbows up!” might be an appropriate reaction to managing bullies on ice, but it’s not the wisest mission statement for a country wanting a sustainable future in a world on fire.

Yet, looking south of the border, those waves of editorial targets became a tsunami. Americans — a third of them, anyway — voted for “change,” because that’s what U.S. President Donald Trump promised, just as Poilievre has promised it here.

I always cringe when I hear people say “things just couldn’t get any worse” because, invariably, they can and likely will. Ironically, “Change does not mean better” would make a good conservative bumper sticker.

To be fair, Trump has certainly delivered on the “change” rhetoric, although if his supporters are among those who will lose their jobs, their health care, or their retirement income, they might have some second thoughts very soon.

Trump has created so much havoc everywhere, all at once, that his opposition has been unable to focus on any one area and fight back. He has single-handedly done more damage to the U.S. economy, society, military and its global reputation — in under three months — than the Soviet Union accomplished in 30 years of Cold War.

As we watch the implosion of the last superpower and wring our hands over the price of cars, booze and orange juice, as we watch the stock market tumble and economic storm clouds gather, this is still mostly about privilege, however — our own.

Amid the cuts and chaos, USAID has effectively been dismantled and discontinued. Millions of people around the world have lost their lifeline to food, to water, to health, to education — not because American agencies were delivering it all, but because the U.S. provided a lot of the core money for others to do the work on the ground.

Many lives are at risk, worldwide, because of one stroke of a whimsical pen in the Oval Office by a president that doesn’t seem to care. Emergency food, support for providing clean water, vaccines, and drugs that poor people can’t afford to treat diseases we don’t have here — gone, almost overnight. The NGO aid sector is paralyzed, holding its breath that reason and sanity might prevail, and in time.

Scientific and medical research support has also been slashed, so work (with global partners) on everything from new medications to managing emerging diseases has been devastated.

In terms of the overall costs of American government, this is all merely nickels in the can. Bombing Houthi rebels in Yemen has cost a billion dollars in three weeks without changing anything. Had that money been spent on humanitarian options instead, it’s easy to argue there would be better outcomes.

But bombs before beans. America First. Canada First. Unnecessary tariffs and pointless trade wars must mean money for someone, somewhere — just not for anyone who needs help.

Then, as I surveyed this whirling landscape of manufactured disaster, the earth moved in Myanmar (Burma) and made life there even harder than it was before.

Amid this emotional overload, my cartoon brain kicked in:

Picture a wide-eyed beaver, a maple leaf on his hat, standing among examples of the current global chaos, holding a simple sign that reads “Hug?”

What we all need, right now, and what an unselfish Canada could offer to a traumatized world, if we really cared.

Peter Denton writes from his home in rural Manitoba.