Anti-Authoritarianism and Politics

Anti-authoritarianism is fundamental to individuals and to the species.  Developmentally the first major conflict zone between the authorities and self is the parent child struggle named the Terrible Twos.  Developmentally at the age of roughly 2 to 3 a child exerts his individuality with contrarian distinction to the will of the parents.  Historically this was symbolized by the refusal to potty train or the 'no' and the 'temper tantrums.

Developmentally it is also a feature of the early teen years when children are moving from identification with their family to that of their peer group.

An old and simple truism is that the greatest leaders are the greatest followers.  There is great pride and narcissism in our culture with Frank Sinatra's song, "I did it my way" celebrating individual industry and endeavour. However there's a tremendous likelihood form most that this means a horrendous waste of time.  The NASA program doesn't encourage people to avoid the experience of learning from previous astronauts and just try jumping up in the air. Reinventing the wheel is avant garde but frivilous of resources.

Most creativity is done by those who have already accomplished the skills of those who have gone before them. Hence 'we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before" is a truism.

There are 'exceptions that prove the rule' but the facts remain, in todays society there is a direct correlation between years of education and probability of success individually and in community.  It is true that there are PHD's driving taxis and Grade 6 drop outs who have become dot come millionaires. However the ratio is that more than 90% of PHD's are making more than $50,000 a year income while 90% of Grade 6 , perhaps even Gr 11 , drop outs are making less than $50,000.

Inflation in education is that today a Bachelor Degree or Journeyman papers are the same standard as the old Gr. 12 educations.  There's ratios.  The more complex the activity the more likely the need for advanced training.  No one wants a jetfighter pilot 'winging it'.

The difficulty with drug abuse and alcoholism is that they interfere with learning.  They also are strongly associated with anti-authoritarianism. Commonly those in 12 step programs who are supposed to do a Step 4 overlook addressing fears and resentments which they have to institutions and principles. Authority is perhaps best understood as a principle.  The major authority structures in society are government, education, religion, police, military, banks.

We have just had an election in Canada in which three outstanding individuals who all had great leadership skills competed.  Individually most Canadians were well spread in their appreciation for any of them and an anti authority joke that made the rounds was that 'choosing a politician is like choosing which STD one wants."  However, Mr. Harper  had been Canada's leader for 2 terms demonstrating his outstanding democratic leadership skills when winning ever one election is extremely difficulty.  Mr. Mulcair was leader of the NDP Opposition party and while he didn't win the election was a greatly admired leader of the Opposition and NDP>  Justin Trudeau, the present prime minister did exceptionally well as leader of the Liberal Party bringing this third place party to win the election.  His leadership skills on this alone are to be admired.

The fact is that all the Canadian leaders are A students when it comes to political. If there were an exam for "Political Intelligence" , Mr. Harper, Mr. Mulcair and Mr. Trudeau would all score A.  To date Mr. Harper has been A+ as a democratic leader serving two terms and having 8 years of leadership experience under his belt.  Mr. Trudeau has survived many months now and continues to lead his liberal party and the government of Canada while having only 40% of the popular vote. Mr. Mulcair has many years of experience and is facing another leadership conference. But the fact all these leaders are exceptional leaders.

Right now the American election is in the beginning delegates phase with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders all leading in the races.  Again , all of these individuals are exceptional leaders. They have demonstrated great success individually in their own personal and public life and now are demonstrating their impressive leadership skills in these really tough campaigns and debates and the rather ugly spectacle of rough and tumble American politics.  Given American Transparency and Journalism every wrinkle and slip of the tongue is enlarged and distributed the world over whereas in the rest of the world where so many police states and so much of politics is behind closed doors no such public demonstration exists.

Elections in western countries are rather like blood sports and the public has a front row seat. That
truly is the issue of democracy whereas in communist totatitarian countries and other dictatorships the public doesn't know and there is no allowance for criticism and dissent.  America quite possibly
can be called the country with the greatest level of free speech in the world. Without 'free speech'





  
there is no freedom and political correctness is today the greatest threat to 'freedom of speech' and

'freedom' and "democracy" since Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

In a democracy with freedom of speech everyone has the 'right' to criticize the government and the authority institutions.  In Muslim lead countries we have seen that criticizing, questioning or repudiating Allah and Islam is a punishable offence with actual death as a consequence. Charlie was killed in another country by Islamic terrorists but the actions of those terrorist were supported by the Muslim Brotherhood and by Pew Statistics a majority of mainstream Muslims. In Thailand there is a professor in prison for criticizing the historical behaviour of an ancestral King. To criticize the Royal Family today is to risk incarceration.  To criticize the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia is to risk death as death was the lot of so many Argentinians who criticized their government in the terrible years.

Freedom is still a quite rare entity. So many of the leaders of the United Nations countries are guilty of major human rights offences and are quite frankly anti freedom for their citizens and often only pay lip service to the very idea of democracy.  Much of the world is ruled by old style tribalism, akin to gangsterism.  Power whether taken by gun or inheritted by those whose parents and grandparents took power by violence is in many ways the norm for much of the United Nations leadership despite their fatuous rhetoric.  The United Nations Authority has given rise to the black humor joke, "How do you know when a politician is lying. His lips are moving."

However, every leader in the United Nations is an A student in "Political Intelligence" and political leadership.

I'm personally not a very good leader. At most I've been in charge of a unit of 10 to 20 staff. I've been the acting head of units of a few more people but not that many. Mostly my businesses have at most had 2 or three assistants. I've not managed a marriage well. lasting 10 years in that endeavour and haven't had children. By contrast my brother, an highly accomplished administrator has wifh his wife of 30 plus years managed a family of 5, in addition to managing many many people in the work place and handling million dollar budgets.  Note that these are the true basis for judging leadship skills. Critics today are a dime a dozen and usually unskilled in and fundamentally ignorant. They are
however a 'legend in their own minds!"


I can only admire Canada's Prime Ministers and Political Party leaders for their "Political Intelligence'.  My brother's "political intelligence" is greater than mine. Obvioulsy Mr. Trudeau is
very bright politically to be the leader of a nation just like those who are leaders of the United
Nations.



It also means to my mind that they were all likely less 'anti authoritarian' than I am.  A communist leader might have got into his position of socialist leadership by killing a few competitors just like a leader of the Hell's Angels or Jacuzza or Mafia.  Justin Trudeau, Harper, Obama, etc. all got to their positions of leadershi by playing the 'game' without overt illegal behaviour.

The trouble with 'criminal' leaders is that they may in fact have political intelligence but they're a bit like people who bring guns to golf games. Criminals may win the golf game in their mind by killing the Tiger Woods. That doesn't make themgood golfers. They're losers except as killers.

Authority is power.  The democractic leaders as compared to the totalitarian leaders and the criminal leaders don't solely depend on fear and force. In a great movie excerpt from the classic Grand Canyon, the stupid thug Rocstar has a gun on the old man Simon who is discussing respect with him. Rockstar "are you asking me as a sign of respect or are you asking because I've got the gun' and Simon says "You aint got the gun, we aint having this conversation." Then Rockstar says, profoundly, "That's what I thought: no gun, no respect. That's why I've always got the gun."

So authority comes with fear or love.  Totalitarian regimes and gangter oligarchies and communist Committee run countries  are lead by fear.

In a democracy, the fact is 40% of Canadians voted for Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau individually didn't force them to vote for him. He didn't threaten them (except perhaps with the fear mongering Climate Change Cult, vote for me I'll save the world, vote against me and we all die because the planet is going to die) but really, he put forward his 'best sales job' and beat the other two guys who were doing their best to get votes and the majority went to Mr. Trudeau. The same happened for Obama.



In contrast many elections around the world, especially the phony communist elections and the fake democracies, if you don't vote for the dictator you're killed. He rules by the gun.

Now our government may well have the 'illusion' of democracy with the Elite, that 2% of every country that really rules, doing whatever they want to while giving us the illusion of choice.  In the
real politick of communism and socialist countries and other dictatorships the appointed people
simply take charge and tell you what to do.  There's no 'illusion of choice'.


That's fairly cynical and yes, all those who are cynical will naturally be 'anti authoritarianism."  Nihilism and cynicism are by nature 'anti authoritarian'.  The "loser' in the struggle of 'claw and tooth' in the wild will naturally be negative about their not getting the bone. Watching hyenas and lions is a study in such behaviour.  The multiplicity of carion beasts and the hierarchies of any society are complex.

But it remains that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Obama today are A students in 'Politics'.  Just like Stalin and Hitler, and Henry the VIII and the Ottoman Sultan and Lincoln and Gandhi before them.  These men were all great leaders.

However, as the Golden Bough showed societies like to have leaders as 'scapegoat'.  Collectively the Germans who supported Hitler overnight denied association when the Nazi regime fell.  The same occured in the Bible with even Peter denying his association and following of Jesus, one of the greatest leaders of history.

Jesus was a great Authority, like Mohammed, like Moses, like Buddha, like other religious leaders. Personally I feel Jesus is the son of God but objectively all the religious leaders were A students politically and socially.

So when I criticize Trudeau who I personally do not like, his politics being as opposite my own as say the Montreal Canadienes Hockey team is from the greatest of all hockey teams, the Canucks.

In a democracy, with freedom of speech and political debate we can criticize our government openly
without wanting a revolution.  I love the Beatles song, "We don't want a revolution!"   I can understand why Americans want Hillary Clinton jailed and I can even understand why as many want Obama impeached as did Bush.  I would be ecstactic is Trudeau were step down from leadership of Canada and let someone more to my liking  win. I'd like the Canucks to win the NHL too.


I am interested in this issue of authority and anti authority though because a lot of people who have never even 'lead' anything or anyone speak as if they could do better than Justin Trudeau.  And it saddens me. I don't like Trudeau or even Obama but I really don't think with my experience and record I could do a better job than they are doing.

I'm a ship's captain and a rather adequate one.  I noted that when my ship was in a storm all the crew less experienced and capable than me wanted to be in charge.  I learned then that people who are afraid and unaware of their fearfulness, want to be in 'control'.  So often I have seen those out of control in my psychiatric practice want to 'take control' because this gave them the brief illusion of 'safety'.

I actually believe that our generation dominated by drugs and alcohol , television, movies and video games has an immense egotism and arrogance about their capabilities. I've seen so many picturres of rank beginners jumping on motorcycles and driving them first time. I've play video games. And yet, when I first drove a motorcycle it wasn't long before I crashed it. Even after advanced training and much experience I find riding my motorcycle a very advanced complex skill.  I've done these 'pilot simulation' series and I've been quite good. I've even sat beside dozens of pilots and had some basic training in flying. Still despite all the movies to the contrary I don't want to ever have to pilot or land a 747 or a jet fighter.

A professional is judged by his lowest level. The professional is one who does a whole lot of something and because of experience has quite outstanding successes but mostly can attest to a minimum standard of success.  There is no perfection in this human world despite the demands of authorities.    However a military sniper will hit the target with high probability most of the time.  They can have a bad day. By contrast an amateur can 'get lucky' and hit the target once.  Having delivered a hundred babies or so I see the great tv deliveries by the children, police, neighbour or whatever and think that's great.  90% of the time I really didnt' think I needed to be at the delivery. However there's at least a half dozen or more of the deliveries I attended that mother and child would
have died if I hadn't been there and I had n't had the greatest of teachers.

Because again, the greatest leaders are the greatest followers.  Just as I followed the instructions of
Rusty who taught me motorcycle riding, I had followed the instructions of the obstetricians and psychiatrists and other teachers who I was truly blessed to have as mentors. I also followed my father
and mothers instruction, perhaps not as well as I could have and certainly in retrospect should have, but I did follow them. I am indeed an extremely good follower.

But so is Mr. Trudeau.  He's been a great follower and learned from some of Canada's greatest leaders.  His father, Pierre Trudeau is just one. Both Mr. Paul Martin and Mr. Chretien supported and guided Mr. Justin Trudeau. Sadly even the Conservative weak link Mr. Joe Clark supported him.  He is clearly a great follower with great mentors and despite all predictions he has not totally bankrupt the country in the first 6 months of his leadership.  Obama might well be the devil incarnate but similiar America survived his rule just as it survived Mr. Bush.  Both Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush were as demonized as Mr. Harper in Canada was.

But the fact remains at this time they all are as great leaders as Mr. Putin or Mrs Thatcher.

Anti authoritarianism contains the inability to appreciate 'authority' in general and comes out specifically in a lot of situations.  Those who do drugs and alcohol are commonly anti law and order because it interferes with their addictions. Criminals are naturally 'anti authority' preferring to be 'a law unto themselves.'

Che guevara was as great a military leader as Ghengis Khan by some arguments but he wasn't as great a political leader as Khan or as his buddy Castro.  A great military leader or even a military hero might well not have the skills or political acumen to be the kind of leader that Truman or Kennedy were.

Political leadership is of a 'kind'.  It's a kind of 'authority'.  One feature is whether it's legitimate, criminal , or democratic.  Is is a product of force or attraction.  Is it 'respect' or is it a 'gun".

Now followers are fickle.  Mr. Harper, one of the greatest leaders of Canadian history, elected two terms and managed Canada through two world economic crisis is rejected overnight by the electorate one the basis of 'change'.  Anything is better than the old ways. Mr. Obama was elected much the same way after.  In democracies we don't as much vote for a person as against the last person. Even Winston Church lost his election despite what he'd done in WWII.  In democracy when a country is doing well the leaders may actually stay in power but the minute events change out they go.


It's been said that Benign Dictatorships are the best government overall for a country or a world however it's also said 'Power corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely".  History shows too that regimes corrupt and eventually competition replaces them with empire after empire till the present world empire today.

Now the whole idea of 'freedom of speech', involves 'criticism' and therefore I can criticism authorities and thankfully in Canada the retaliation is not what it is in Saudi Arabia where the regime is so weak it cannot tolerate any dissension.  It's a government by force compared to Canada and even the US where the government is by attraction.

What's interesting in politics is not just the left and right dimensions but when the quality of criticism is by leaders themselves.  Not outsiders, but rather those leaders who have been before or themselves had the job of running large complex social structures.

The joke of the Alberta NDP election was that never before in the history of Canada or perhaps even the west have so many utterly ignorant and incompetent people gained so much power democratically. The vast majority of elected in that province had far less leadership experience than me and I've run a business, been an expedition leader, had masses of education and am a ships captain. The majority of candidates there had no leadership experience to speak of and had never managed budgets greater than a hundred thousand or so.  Yet despite the bankruptcy of the province they're muddling along showing that politics can 'survive' with all kinds. When there is a revolution such as the Lenin communist revolution that deposed the Russian government lead by socialist Alexander Kerensky after the abdication of NicholasII there is a similiar situation with generally politically ignorant, naive and incompetent people taking their leadership by force and establishing control with a gun.

The loss then is monumental. But it's interesting that a multi billion dollar business like the country of Alberta can be taken over by critics and school teachers and it muddles along.  Indeed experience is mostly associated with efficiency and without corruption, saving.

Now I'm looking forward to the leadership races in Canada. Rona Ambrose has been an amazing conservative interim leader and Mulcair is up for review by the NDP.  Meanwhile Donald Trump and
Hillary Clinton look like they will be the contenders for the next American presidency.  I personally like Country Rock or Country Folk Music but I like to think of these leaders as different types of music,  Obama was probably Rap while Hillary might be called jazz and Trump rock and roll.  I think of Justin Trudeau as hip hop myself and thought Mr. Harper classic rock.  Trump might be Metallica but the bottom line and that's what I want heard here is despite my fear and criticism of Trudeau and Obama I fully recognise them as A plus students of politics. As a Canadian I will follow Trudeau's leadership as well, kicking and screaming as I go. I'm paying his outrageous taxes and choking on his wasteful spending just like Americans who felt that neither the establishment Democrats or Republicans served them so look to the genius of Donald Trump, definitely a major leader.

But this analysis is like respect that which fighter pilots had for each other in WWI.  Downed pilots were treated respectfully and returned exchanged in prisoner exchanges in a civilized way before the rule of mob violence.

ISIS today definitely is lead by an A plus leader but his leadership is coupled with barbarian behaviour.

I guess it's summed up by recognizing that Lucifer was a great angel and remains a great angel but thankful he doesn't play for the Canucks. Personally I think the Angel Michael and even on good days that Jesus plays for the Canucks.  (Jesus was not playing for the Canucks this last season).

Black Market, Taxes, Politics, Elections

Our government has grown like a cancer.  There is an absolute need for bureaucrats just as there is an need for doctors, nurses, teachers, farmers, ranchers, miners and all manner of trades.  There is a need for lawyers as well.  Unfortunately the ‘administration class’ in the present burocracies has multiplied with no evidence that layer and layer of administration has in any way improved performance.
This is the fundamental flaw in socialistic/communistic governments.  The ancient feudal system involved a war lord getting in power and by brute force maintaining a relative slave class, serfs, ruled by him and his cronies.
Mr. Harper has made powerful enemies by trying to reduce the upper levels of this administrative class. He has attempted to maintain the front lines yet has been demanding evidence that layers and layers of bureaucratic cronyism are necessary.
Prior to the Conservative capitalist leaning government we were faced with years of increasing taxation and increasing layers of administration in government.  We had regulators regulating regulators.  Under Chretien and Mulroney we had the massive advertising scam with every aspect of government getting glossy photos and booklets that spawned more and more paper.  Recently we’ve had the internet with the necessary map upon map to navigate through the layers and layers of government administration.
“Keep it simple” is not a slogan developed in government.  The legal profession are masters at obfuscation.  The more words the more money the more confusion the more need for more judges and more court rooms.
On a farm I plant x amount of wheat and sell it and because of demand I plant more and sell more to a point where the ‘market’ is ‘saturated’.
There is ‘no saturation’ point in the ‘service’ market.
I worked on a Indian reserve where the nurses hired to serve a thousand individuals were expected by the Aboriginal “Sultan" Chief of the tribe to provide daily massages. Beautiful young women were providing him this service once sometimes twice a day because he ‘liked’ it.  I couldn’t get the nurses to provide respiratory care to child if it conflicted with the chiefs ’need’ for a soothing massage that day.  The division between need and want has never before been so obscure.
There has always been taxation.  But taxation was once related to providing roads and buildings and water and sewage disposal.  There was a collective agreement of the needs for the community at large.
The beauty of architecture and the grand churches of medieval time was that architecture was the ‘art of the people’ . Everyone enjoyed it and the pyramids, castles or cathedrals were of benefit to all. Taxation served public works and it served to maintain armies that provided defence.
Now we have an endless ‘imposed’ legal system with laws upon laws governing and controlling every aspect of life.  It’s Confuscean.
Maybe everyone would benefit from a massage.  But Mr. Harper and the Conservative government showed that taxpayer money going to the First Nations was bottlenecked at the level of so many chiefs who had palatial homes, off shore accounts and took millions of dollar salaries while the lowest people, the sick and old and marginal in the reserve communities went without running water and heat.  This was directly a consequence of poor monetary management of resources. Yet when the ‘transparency’ laws showed the tremendous nepotism through the north and in the Indian bands, the criticism of the government became focused where it truly belonged.  Mr. Harper and the Conservatives had dared to do what no one else before for fear of political fallout. He shone a very bright light on the Jenny Kwans and the Mike Duffies of the Aboriginal people showing who was stealing money and where the slush funds were.
He made powerful enemies.
The executive of the CBC and his cronies make hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than doctors and more than parliamentarians. These leftist ‘marxist flag carrying’ hypocrites have long given up on journalism and used their office not for the benefit of truth and the people but solely for their own protection. Not a News item for months has presented a sound piece of journalism when it comes to the upcoming election. Yet CBC can produce the best of radio with Tapestry and White coats Black art and other world renowned programming.  The News is worse than the worst of Pravda. It is pure disquised peckish retaliation against the gpvernment for questioning the administrations high salary and endless perks.
Mr. Harper and the Conservatives have made powerful enemies.  Majority governments always do.
He has stood firmly behind American trade policy.  We have a fighter plane deal with the US and countless NATO countries. The United States is our principal trade partner accounting for 80% of our exports.  They take natural resources, meat, farming products and manufacturing. Our greatest musicians are marketed by their powerful industry. Our actors rise to world fame with their industry. We make movies with them here and there.
I remember when we had a childish government that essentialyl told our biggest contributor to piss off and tried to make a sweet deal with France.  Yet France accounted for only a few percentage points of trade.  And their leader came to Canada and screamed “Vive le Quebec Libre! Meanwhile the present boy Troudeau’s father had declared martial law and brought tanks into the city of Montreal pointing artillery at all the people of Canada because one terrorist had kidnapped a bureaucrat.  Today Mr. Harper and the Conservatives are criticized by the pot smoking Liberals for ‘security’ concerns despite the fact that it was the son of a Tunisian Jihadist who shot the Engineering women en mass and recently a terrorist actually shot up people in our parliamentary buildings.
Meanwhile terrorism is on the rise around the world and is occurring in the very nations with the greatest gun restriction laws.  And when the son of the Tunisian jihadist shot up the Engineering women we never heard about his racism and moslem origins but instead the Liberals turned their attention on ‘disarming’ women and outlawing guns as if ‘guns’ were the problem.  All the while all the nations with the least guns in citizens hands have rising problems with terrorists.  Criminals are always armed and they are today better armed than our RCMP who were shot en mass by one terrorist in the maritimes.
Mrs. Campbell as Conservative PM brought in the toughest gun sales and licensing law. The Liberals at a promise of a million dollars instead spent 2 billion dollars creating a massive bureaucracy for Liberal cronies to essential spy on anyone who had seen a psychiatrist. What the general population was not told was that ex girlfriends and ex boyfriends and divorcees and psychiatrists were being canvassed by droves of police like bureaucrats treating anyone who owned a gun or wanted to buy a gun as a criminal and an insane one at that. All of this travesty of justice was perpetuated to protect people from ‘suicide’ whereas I as a psychiatrist knew that countries without guns had equal suicide stats to countries with guns. Worse I’d worked in countries where people jumped out of coconut trees to kill themselves.  These lies upon lies were perpetrated because people like the Liberal Mr. Ignatieff had never known a westerner or lived in the north or in rural regions to know that everyone owns a gun ,usually an old shot gun, or 22 simply because of animal pests.  The Liberals with their history of alcohol association and now their pot for votes have always appealed to the uptown city crowd and well heeled elite not the rural and northern parts of the country where the NDP and Conservatives are better represented.  The gun registry was just targeted taxation.
The taxation was the issue. Taxation gets jobs for party friends. It’s the horror of the senate at it’s worst but it’s seen in the courts upon courts and law school turning out masses of lawyers far beyond any societies need. In a civilized world they would be ‘philosophers’ and teach freely ‘enlightened thoughts’ but as lawyers they are another layer of social control. There’s the military that defends our borders and the police that maintain law and order within the borders. The courts no longer serve but have been wholly coopted as purely an instrument of taxation.
The pot legalization issue isn’t about health care but instead it’s purely about taxation, short term gain and long term loss. Taxation on cigarettes and alcohol has never recouped more than 10% of the cost to society that they have caused.  Yes, we will get tax money from marijuana sales. Whoopee. But the cost in accidents, health care, motivation, and loss of youth will cost 90% in long term loss.  The simple law of drugs of abuse, established in elegant research a quarter century ago at Harvard and always confirmed is that the more available, the more abuse.  There’s a saturation point.  10% of the population consume 80% of the alcohol.  10 % of people roughly have major problems with drugs or alcohol. The same holds true with gambling.
Gambling is a major form of government revenue today.  Canada is a casino, a booze hall and soon will be a drug haven.  Already we have ‘drug pubs’ paid for by tax dollars at a million a year. The Hells Angels sell junkies heroin and occasionally they shoot up in the classy facility with nurse waitresses.  It’s better than what Molsen’s provides their customers, only we pay for it.
Now all this leads to the Black Market.  Years ago McGill University did a study that showed that the higher the taxes the more Black Market. It didn’t surprise me. I’d read the history of Scottish Culloden.  I knew that the more the English demanded when they were rapacious war lords and killing my Scottish and Irish forebears, my greats took to hiding their potatoes.  The English didn’t care if the Scottish and Irish starved in the winter.  There will be no Truth and Reconciliation Commission for us.  The Maga Carta was only for the nobles.  It took the French and the Americans to free the word ‘equality’ from within the ranks only of those who were allowed to bear arms.  The peasant classes throughout medieval times could not.  Massacres occur en mass by the government when the citizens are disarmed.  Russia killed 60 million in a few winters.  China has killed a hundred million in recent past.  The Pol Pot wiped out half of Cambodia in the 5 years of killing fields and millions dead.  The United Nations has proposed Agenda 21.  Atheists are the greatest killers of all time. Statistically the chance of me being killed by a rampaging lone gun man is next to nil but historically the likelihood of government greed stealing, starving and killing is a sure bet.  Hence the American constitution.
Now in the US they take their constitution to mean that the local neighbourhood church and synagogue and temple can have howitzers and militias and the police there have tanks.  In Canada no one cared because the country people had a 12 gauge shot gun for hunting.  The vast majority of ammunition sales in Canada is for birdshot. Rural Canadians aren’t en mass waving AK47’s.  So when our government gets its knickers in a twist about boys with bb guns, smart people wonder what the hell is going on.  The answer is taxation.  Targeted taxation.
And overnight I learned that Aboriginals and rural folk were burying guns and very very anxious about the urban government’s agenda targetting them. Because a gun is a necessary ’tool’ in the north and rural Canada.  The 3 year old girl was killed 2 doors down from me by a cougar.  I chased a hungry bear away from my dog.  City activists love wolves but 4H country kids don’t like to see their calves killed by packs in their back yard so we all have guns.  The city with it’s parking lots and high rises is the centre of waste and cause of climate change.  The “hot air” problem is not just politicians but the density of people.  Dispersion is a solution but stupidity grows in proximity.
And criminality.
Right now the taxation is at a cancerous high and as McGill said, the more taxation, the more crime. It pays more to break the law than to be a good citizen.  All around me I know criminals who have broken the law.  In fact the Liberals marijuana laws has as a secondary goal ‘sanctification’.  All the drug dealers and growers overnight will become ‘right’ and all those who followed the law ‘wrong’.  All those who made fortunes from ill gotten means will be safe. All those who paid the taxes that made the criminal life so attractive with health care and good roads and schools will be the duped ones.
So that’s what it comes down to.  Taxes and the black market.  I’m frankly libertarian.  My friends are angry at me because I’m voting Conservative.  The Liberals and NDP literally promise more government, more taxes and more crime.  I don’t know who they’ll tax more. The government gets in by giving jobs to friends.  In the old days it was giving a job to the slow cousin.  Now we know that the health care system has 20 times the administration as Germany’s health care system.  So we’ll get more bureaucracy and less actual product.  I saw a very expensive advertising booklet and realized this was where the health care dollars went.  Nobody read this silly book but ti cost a million or so.  Meanwhile no one got to see doctors and nurses which is what health care was once about before the political spin turned it into something else.
My friends are all earth huggers and civil libertarians and ex hippies like me.  But I’m a self employed businessman. I know the actual cost of things. I’ve always spent a lot of time fighting corruption and deceit and people that kill people in government.  I’ve front line experience.  I’ve seen the corruption daily first hand.  I am burnt out and jaded.  I am voting conservative because I want less taxation and less government.  I know that whatever government does these days they do at premium cost.  It’s like the department of defence in the US where a wastepaper basket cost $700.  When government is going to pay for something the price goes up and the quality goes down. Yes some people benefit but I’m not one of them.  I don’t benefit from the Black Market.  I’m not on the government pay roll. I’m not in a union.  I just pay more and more taxes and see that more and more people are getting free government hand outs while working under the table tax free.
I don’t trust government with my money and I don’t trust them not to turn guns on their citizens.  I don’t trust that I won’t have to move north and live off the land as my friends told me they did in the last depression.  “I fed my family with venison with a 22 rifle.  Everyone else was starving.” he told me.  I’m old enough to remember the tales of my grandparents.  I think the young are naive and trusting.
Thankfully most people I know are good and good is mightier than bad.  So Canada survives despite government because most of the people in government and elsewhere in Canada are good people. It’s not that way in the black market. Our criminal population is as bad as any.  I know. I’ve worked in the jails.  I think our judges are more afraid of the criminals than they are of citizens.  I think judge cowardice these days explains why violent offenders have been repeatedly given light sentence.  Increasingly the risk of crime is from a ‘repeat offender’.
Most of my friends also have never changed their votes. My communist friends have been communist since teen agers. My socialist friends have been socialist since teen agers.  My liberal friends have always voted liberal. My NDP friends have always voted NDP.  Even my Conservative friends have always voted Conservative. I’ve voted Liberal NDP and Conservative. I actually was a staunch liberal for years until I saw the corruption in that party.  I felt deeply betrayed by the gun registry lies and the destruction of health care under the liberals.  I was most disturbed when Paul Martin said he’d not register his boats in Canada and wouldn’t hire Canadians.  I thought I’d like to be an elite Liberal. It’s what I heard when Troudeau was smoking pot and hanging with Mark Emory. I ‘m a doctor and I can’t do that.  Every doctor has a political party regulator called by the pseudonym College of Physicians but here is their boss smoking pot and no one is urine testing him.  Excuse me!!!!!
And Mulcair is a lawyer.  I’ve seen parliament stripped of it’s power year after year by the courts making laws. yes. making laws.  They call it ‘interpreting’ but the courts are making the law now in Canada and it’s principal function has been to serve them and increase taxation.  So Mulcair frightens me.  But if I was a union member I’d vote NDP because unions in Canada have become so strong.  Government unions and private unions are Big Unions.  They have clout. I envy them but I’m not in a union.  So nothing the NDP are offering helps me. I want less taxes and less government , not more.
Mostly I want less Black Market Economy and less crime.  The only way I can see moving in that direction is less governnment and less taxation. It’s a little twisted, I know, but government is a pretzel these days.

Musing on Canadian Elections

I'm thankful for the Conservatives these last 8 years.  Under Mr. Harper we have remained relatively stable economically despite global depression.  Our natural resource industry has again carried us through tough times.  With China's difficulties we can expect more global economic threats.  Oil, gas,mining, pulp and paper, water, fisheries,  agriculture, are specifically the main producers of the economy.  Canada is a successful country in a time when so many are doing poorly. We can be thankful. I hear so much criticism of government and Canada by Canadians yet realize that overall we're very very fortunate.

Economically,  we have a Gross Domestic Product of approximately 2 trillion, which is per capita, roughly $56,000 per person, the 10th leading in the world.   That's drawn from Wikipedia, normally a tad left leaning for any conspiracy theorists. There's discrepancy in details but overall that's a damn good picture and doesn't just happen. It's a combination of the tremendous riches of Canada plus good  government management.  Our unemployment rests between 6 and 7% but we have all manner of protections for the unemployed, workmen's compensation, disability, job retraining and welfare, healthcare etc as just some. Other countries don't have these.  In many places if you're not on good terms with your family you have no social supports. Our social supports are at all levels, city, provincial and national.

Our main industries are as follows:  Transportation Equipment - we make vehicles. The latest of which I've learned of is the best armour protected people transporter wanted by arms dealers, international criminals, rock stars and ambassadors.  Pretty damn impressive. We're also involved in NASA projects.
Chemicals - note that - chemistry.  With all the anti science elements in the country especially in our 19th century media, chemicals are one of the major industries in Canada.  I remember my friend Kirk's father making the soaps for the Hudson Bay. He was a chemist.  Today because of the ignorance of the dope smoking activist "rebels without a cause" he'd probably have his house egged for his scientific wizardry.  My undergraduate major was in biochemistry but to admit that is to be seen as some kind of CIA agent in Canada.  Yet Chemicals and the chemical industry is where Canadians are making money. It's chemistry that is paying the welfare recipients. The Pharmaceutical Industry is all about chemistry.  So chemists are behind the latest greatest cures for cancer. Chemistry is behind the cures for AIDS.  Chemistry is in the cleaning agents we use in the kitchen. Chemistry is being used everywhere but sometimes when I listen to the media I get the very strong impression that Canadians collectively are scientifically illiterate. So many people, especially those in media, have only an arts education. They drive cars and live in houses and participate in society but their intelligence about the world they live in is no better than those who still believe the Sun revolves around earth.  There's a joy often in dealing with immigrants from countries where sciences and realityh are appreciated. They understand the world isn't about spirits and unhappy
Gaia planet and denial. Having graduated from a Canadian high school I only appreciated the limits of my public school education when I travelled overseas and met with students from other countries who high school education had better equipped them for the world we live in.  They had skills where as I'd had so much emphasis placed on fashion and propaganda. To study medicine I had to repeat my sciences at university then do undergraduate science education to be educated in modern terms.
Processed and unprocessed minerals - that's mining.  Mining is the back bone of Canada.  We have had a Gold Rush. We have copper mines. We have all manner of raw minerals that we extract from the soil with the greatest skill. Our mining engineers are the greatest in the world.  They're the Beatles and Rolling Stones of world wealth but I've never heard a positive statement about mines and mining engineers on CBC news. A day doesn't go by that these heroes of wealth production aren't maligned by one activist group or another. Yet this is where Canadian taxes are being generated.  It's a dirty ugly job and the brightest and best need to study physics and technology for decades before they get to the top of a very dangerous field. It's not about sitting in air conditioned offices and chatting with others about how to run the world after smoking a joint.  These people are the back bone. They're the heavy weight lifters.  Everything we use day to day has minerals. They find them and they process them. Here in Canada. Who would know listening to our media.
Wood and Paper Products - our forests and forestry industry are another great producer of the money that pays for all the excess of government employees and all the administrative jobs in the public sector. Its the taxes taken from the pulp and paper industry that pay for all those fashion do dads the city boys and girls like to wear when they party.  Government excess is the parasite on the principal producers of income.Government doesn't make money.  It takes money.  Everything the government says it's going to do will be done by you. Governments supervise and regulate but they don't produce.  The western world became rich because we always until recently wanted the least government with the most producers and workers. In third world countries often everyone and his dog work for the government.  You see the massive beurocracies.  In communist countries the same.  All this dead weight taking a cut out of the pie
Yet again I have for decades heard only disparaging remarks about Industry. Here in British Columbia the news is all about environmental terrorists who spike the trees to prevent logging.  Yet I've treated loggers who make $80,000 a year for 80 to 120 hour work weeks in camps doing the most dangerous of jobs. They often work in really difficult conditions and see their families only when they're out of camps. A month in the life of an industrial worker is often worse for family life than nurses yet we know about nurses shift work. But few people seem to be aware of how the primary producers are commonly away from the city. The city itself is usually a parasite on the country. The city is full of regulators and distributors and stores but it's not a place of factories and workshops like it once was.  So many city people simply don't know how to make things or how even their money is produced.  They do 'service' work and banking and such activities but it's not the same thing are the real work of industry.  The blue collar worker is so often maligned yet they are the back bone of society. The white collar workers aren't necessary in general whereas the blue collar workers are essential.
I 've seen men in industry who have had their limbs amputated despite the world's best safety standards. I've seen bad logging practices, some clear cuts which by any standards would get a 'B' or a "C" grade. Compared to the logging and seeding practices in Germany our wilderness logging is A to their A plus standards. But our wilderness is just that. Germany's forests are pretty fairytale places compared to the rugged BC forests. We're out there. We're on the edge. Our air ambulances have hours to get to hospitals. The German forests are pretty much parks by comparison.  We produce timber for building and all the packaging and paper and so much else that wood produces.  That's what's making money in BC.  That's what pays the bills in Canada.
Petroleum  and natural gas: Now if there was ever anything more maligned by CBC I'd like to see it.
Petroleum and natural gas are our major industries. These pay for all those CBC critics who live off white collar welfare subsidies.   The CBC  constantly celebrates social terrorists who block pipe lines and make a parasitic business out of interfering with industry. They say that they're there to 'protect the land' but more often than not they're making money out of being social terrorists.  Their catch words are 'big business'...."Big Oil" companies. The greatest story of stupidity this year was the great Obama blocking Alberta - Texas Keystone Pipeline.  This caused Canada to collectively suffer so his rich fat cat money mogel friend Warren Buffet could continue to transport oil more dangerously by trains at higher price, higher cost and more risk.    The stupidity of Canadians is that they actually rarely follow the money trails.  Solar panels are great but are they made here. No they're made in China. So before we slamm Canada's own oil perhaps we'd better make a better solar panel cheaper than China.  Most of the choices we've been offered are 'anti Canada' industry promoted by people who are living off the gains of Canada's principal resources.  In Ottawa they have a fusion generator which uses the sun's light to turn garbage into fuel.  If it weren't for family living in Ottawa I might never know of this but do we see Canadian cities being encouraged to buy this very 'green' fuel production, no.  Instead we hear about anything but Canadian made.  Canada produces oil and gas. We have been a rich country because we have natural resources and have this last decade managed them well.  Instead of hearing all the goodness that this has brought, all our prosperity, we have heard daily propaganda about. Big Business, Big Corporations, Big Industry, Big Pharma.  The very politically correct people who are so color sensitive and language nazis don't seem to see that they use the world BIG with predjudice and hate. Yet the economy of scale is what has brought us prosperity.

Note, even Wikipedia doesn't list a whole lot of 'green' industries as our 'major industry'. Green industries more often than not are the child of rich kids whose parents got wealthy on the major industries above. Now those wealthy children with their pet projects want Canadian governments to ;protect them' from the competition.  They get a lot of lovely coverage in the news but they don't make anyone but themselves alot of money.  Big Industry is tackling the problems of climate change and pollution.  They are doing it daily. They're making everything better because that's what profits them.  If a competitor makes a chimney for smoke that does better than another, that chimney gets support. Tesler cars are gaining a portion of the market because the BIG TESLA Car company has produced a product that competes with old fashioned Buick.  It's taking a share of the market just like the little cars took over from the big gas guzzler boats.

Meanwhile in Frazer Valley there's a company that makes FLACK Jackets. They're the best in the world. The most sought after kevlar mixed armour proofing jackets are a Canadian manufacturing product.  Who would know?   We have a half billion dollars spin off in the defence industry with the planes alone.

In Vancouver Coal Harbour has come alive with ship building.  Hundreds of highly skilled and high paid jobs have come into our ship yards.  This is thanks to the federal and provincial governments.  It's apparent. The North  Shore is booming with industry. But we'd be more likely to hear of day care for small dogs opening than the immense benefits of heavy industry products listening to 6 oclock or 6 30 news on the national radio station CBC, which our tax dollars support.  The CBC news is appalling stupidity and selective bias and propaganda.  It's no news.

I'm thankful for the economy as managed in Canada. I'm aware of where the real money is coming from.  I'm aware that we have 20 times too much government and I'm afraid of Big Union and more jobs with less 'meritocracy'.  I'm afraid of Big Government because seen how it destroyed the Communist countries and countries like Greece.  I hear too often that the union jobs are great but that the 'quality of training' and 'work' are not what they once were.  Ideally 'union made' should be a statement of 'quality'.  Unfortunately too many people think that 'union made' is the same as 'government made'.  We look to private contractors and private schools and private health care because the standards have been dropping.

There's a lack of high standards which once attracted manufacturing to Canada.  Pot smoking industrial workers aren't going to attract big business manufacturing here.  Our education regarding real meaning ful subjects like physics mathematics chemistry has fallen behind in the world.  China gets jobs that Canada used to have not just because the labour is cheaper but the quality of work is as good. I just bought a Swedish made product because the 'quality' of workmanship warranted the higher price.  I can't say that for 'Canadian Made", not like I once would.

I've seen that 'political correctness' and 'legal' and 'beaurocratic interference is lowering the standards of the main products of manufacturing. No one can be fired. No one can be criticized.  Every complaints department in the world is amassed in Canada.  We're a whiner nation.  We once were a winner nation.  So if we're going to be producing competitive products then we must raise the standards to compete. And we must restrict government to those areas where government is needed not where the burocrats can get a take of the action. This is happening but it's an uphill climb against the backward media and the whole industry of 'rights' where everyone has 'rights' but no one at the indvidual level will accept they're wrong.  There's a lack of accountability and this means lack of excellence.

As for the legal system, my father described having to see a lawyer only for a few times in his life, to buy a house, to marry and make a will. Now every action requires a lawyers presence. Everyone is afraid and second guessing themselves.  Lawyer don't make money for society. They may save money for society. But how is it that other countries can succeed with one tenth the number of lawyers and sometimes one hundredth the number of lawyers.  Lawyers are necessary but can we afford them.  Can business and society afford the high costs.  Should lawyers who 'profit' from laws be allowed to be in parliament that makes the laws.  Why is it that the Supreme Court has been so at variance with parliament. An appointed elite from a priviledged subsection of society is over riding all the time the democratically elected government of the day with the average Canadian not fear the fascism that the Supreme Court can represent with such potential menace. That said I'm thankful for our legal system compared to the highly corrupt legal systems of other countries, the bought judges of third world countries and the communist lack of judges. We're very fortunate yet it seems that that democracy requires an educated electorate that realizes that the Supreme Court should serve the people not just the lawyers. With physicians we know that once the ratio of physicians to patients drops below 1/500 to 1000 disease increases while once the ratio goes below 1/500 roughly the cost of health care rises with no obvious benefit to public health.  The appears to be unlimitted benfit from the profession of engineers.  But how many lawyers to populations will save society money versus increase the costs and reduce the productivity.  That's a critical figue to know but so far the Supreme Court hasn't come through with limitting the growth of lawyers in society, because it would not see that as it's role yet so many of it's pronouncements increase the need for lawyers.  By contrast parliament is supposed to broad based with equal representation of every form of worker so that the conflicts of interest are minimized.

Health care is a huge cost in Canada but it is supposed to be a major producer like other major industries.  The English surgeons in WWI returned soldiers to the battle field with such success using septic techniques and the lessons of Florence Nightingale from the Crimean war that the Germans complained that had to kill the English several times to make them stay dead.  War is primal competition.  In the Pacific the american Internists with sulfa  medications and battle field hospital maintained twice or more the number of fighters the Japanese did.  We as doctors improved and produced workers.  We maximized the industry.  In Vietnam the psychiatrists ensured the turn around from shell shock. Today Canadian psychiatrists working on the front lines in Afghanistan stopped the development of PTSD disorders by modern methods.  Physicians and psychiatrists were rewarded for their ability to return patients to work.

In the United States, the health care system is excellent if you are a worker. Health Care coverage is superior in many ways to what Canadians receive if one is working in a corporation. The american Industry model knows the benefit of returning workers to heealth and maintaining high standards of health.  Costs to american industry are a concern when it comes to health care because they see Canadian industry as not having to manage their health care costs. Most Canadians listening to the debate about Obama care don't realize that American have superior health care coverage to Canadians if they are working in good industries.  Increasingly all of Canadians have suffered from the waitlists and rationing.  Tragically in my work increasingly I've been rewarded for getting people out of work and if I try to encourage a patient to work they complain and I'm considered a nazi.  Popular doctors who go onto highest places in administration are the 'feel good' doctors who are easy with the prescription pad and quick to sign patients off work for medical illness. In the US there is still reward in getting people well and getting them back to work but I don't see any incentive for doctors to do that here. Indeed increasingly myself and colleagues object to our role in supporting people being disabled who by our standards aren't really 'that sick'.  People who get 'sick leave' as part of their union jobs demand it as an 'entitlement'.  The work ethic appears all but gone in major parts of Canadian society.

Workman's compensation also has to deal with all those workers who go home and now have home based businesses.  Nobody seems to realize but so many of  these marijuana grow ops not only were being maintained by criminal tax evaders but so many were managed by guys and gals off work from legitimate jobs.  I don't know if Canada has always had such a large swath of underground economy but today it certainly does.  Commonly as a doctor I'm coopted to write a letter for someone to off work yet they have a home based business that they're happy to manage but they don't want to 'go' to their regular job. They like 2 pay cheques.  Who wouldn't?

Education was historical paid because education produced higher level of workers.  People who could read and write produced by brain activity more than those who simply had brawn. The school was a place where children learned to take direction and learned the process of education. A student who had completed high school could go into a workplace and learn swiftly because they were adept at following orders and could read directions and communicate well with peers and authorities.  Last time I was consulting to a public school I didn't see this happening all the time.  In one public school I was in the students were highly abusive to the teachers and the place was a zoo.  What education is this.  The rise of private schools came from the decline of the public schools.  Teachers were well paid because their students did well in work and going onto university.  This isn't the case any more. There is no longer any correlation between the income of teachers and the success of students and likely this is the failure of the administration to put meritocracy above political correctness. The best teachers simply can't teach effectively in classrooms ruled by mob with administrations kowtowing to the worst parents and everyone worried about the media with it's 2 minute u tube video going viral.
Universities brought in entrance exams because the school were turning out illiterate students.  Now the universities are being questioned so that Corporations are increasingly doing in house training with Microsoft creating it's own university.

The real revolt occurred when the students coming out of high school and university had an education that did not get them a job.  The wealthy and priviledged sent their children to university for a 'Liberal Arts Education" because they were rich and their children were rich.  Education was like getting your hair done.  It wasn't like 'trade schools'.  The trade school was looked down upon by the rich.  Work was looked down upon by the upper managerial class, those in government and those  independently wealthy.  Working with ones hands was man's worked. Yet poets like Sandburg celebrated the Industry of Chicago.  Much of the art of the past was celebration of industry and work. Then with the rise of communism and anti west and anti authority and the rise of drug addiction suddenly all that was celebrated was destruction.  "Make the Rich Pay". I remember the children of the rich running about the university 'playing at being Marxists" and "Maoist" and demanding all manner of priviledged and attention while moving on to be the rich of this day.  Those very 'rebels' who populated my university days are today multi millionaries and really more fascist than communist. But they still like to 'dress like a refugee' and support radical causes  all the while having their banker and accountants and investment lawyers on speed dial.

Obviously there are a lot of other people working in areas of need , chefs, and all the food industry. We need water and we need all the nutrition. Much of this has to be transported to the city. The stores that provide foods are essential industry. Without food the world wouldn''t go around .Without water nothing would work. There's a need for sanitation in the city. There's sewage and buildings.

Now I love 'liberal arts' .  I'm a big fan of theology. I think education should result in people trained in 'critical thinking' but the intellectuals I know today think 'critical thinking' is 'criticism' without 'celebration'. They lack gratitude. They tear things down. Indeed we had a philosophy called 'deconstructionism' that served no one but the intellectuals.

So yes I enjoy those who produce  the books I love to read. I've written books. Not best sellers but books.  I love the movie makers.  Movies are a mainstay of my winter recreation.  I love to read politics and travel and tourism. The fact is that even these are Big Music Corporations and Big Publish Corporations.  Joni Mitchell wrote years ago, hoping to teach the Canadian hippies that her job was 'stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song."  So many artists still want to be found or get a Canada Council grant for Fridge Art.   The trouble is the Canada Council is using tax dollars to support Fridge Art.  I love alot of this but to listen to the media they are the essential. It's like going to a farm and seeing the farmer in a cage and all the people talking about farming claiming they're the farmers. To hear people talk especially around elections the 'talker's' are the 'doers'.. To listen to the 'critics' they're the centre of the universe.  Without all the 'talking heads" there would be no Canada.

People come to Canada principally for the natural resources. They go to Whistler because we have a great ski hill that's been improved on.  The Whistler corporation and the Whistler Blackhomb tourist industry simply would not succeed in Saskatchewan.  Yes Canadians are nice but lots of people are nice. It's our natural resources not our architecture or museums that's promoting the tourism industry. We really could do more to support the performing arts that are indeed attractive. Fireworks are fine but really?

The point is that all of this is secondary to the major industries of Canada.  The major industries are coupled with Big Business and Multi National Corporations.  Yet to hear the News and to hear Canadians those words are worst than Pedophilia.  Canadians because of their smug stupidity bite the hand that feeds. Nobody is saying that industry can't be improved but our industry leaders compared to the Critics are saints compared to devils.  Our Canadian critics simply aren't Ralf Nader. They're a sad knockoff at best and they just seem to make a business out of cutting off the heads of others to make themselves look taller.

Canada became great with work, with industry, with business, with corporations.  We're a big country. It's really time for Canada to pull up  it's big girl panties.

I'm concerned about the coming elections.  I'm concerned about the economy. I'm concerned about the future. I don't know if the Conservatives should lead but I am thankful that relative to the other countries int he world they've kept us above ground. They also have acknowledged the tremendous contribution of our major industries.

Frankly I fear the Liberals want more goverment workers and Mulcair want's more Unions and we'll all be pot smoking and thinking like Cuba everything is ideologically sound while our minds are wrapped in bellbottoms and we're listening to vinyl disks.  Of course, making candles might be the hippy dippy solutions to our country's future. It's not what I want.  But I want everyone to vote in Canada.  I want the elections to be democratic and I want Canadians to accept that Mr. Harper and the Conservatives were the result of the democratic elections.  All this talk of technicality and winning because of some people not coming out is bullshit.  People who don't vote are saying that others can make the decision for them. They're satisfied with government or they don't care. But I'm personally tired of those then complaining.  Canada has way too much complaining but people who are not active in the elections or in the parties.  

Maybe Mr. Harper and the Conservatives aren't the answer.  Maybe they are.  The future is uncertain at the best of times.  The fact is they and Canada has done a great job this last decade given what has been going on in the world. We aren't facing famine or war. We're not Greece. We're not Syria.  We're not the Third World.  We're a very successful country that has been able to do very well in a very dark time.  The Conservative Leadership has been very good by my observation.

I hate the partisan party rewriting of history.  It detracts from the success of all of Canada in these last years.  Because of our continued success I'm supporting Mr. Harper and the Conservatives.  I know others would like a different coach or a different goalie. Maybe we could do better but frankly I sincerely believe that neither of the other parties could have done better this last decade

I am thankful for all those who've worked in major industries and contributed to this country staying afloat in difficult times.

Older I'm hopeful that we who have worked our lives will be protected and cared for in our old age. Alot of people who haven't worked feel they're entitled to everything. That concerns me.  I am concerned by those who want to give away Canada for profit.  That includes our water and our social programs and our pensions.

I'm concerned about these elections.  But I'm supporting the Conservatives even though none of the political parties have helped physicians particularly. Indeed physicians have done okay but by world standards we have collectively not had any of the major social benefits the European physicians or the great wealth that American go getters have. Increasingly we've watched as the health care industry pie has gone to outsiders and administration with doctors and nurses getting less and less.  In fact I would not recommend the next brights and best to go into medicine. If you're interested in excellence better to get into some other area where meritocracy reigns.  Corporations are rewarding doctors who do well compared to public sector assignments.  If you want money, the real money is in administration.   CEO"s are making a killings.