By: Ish Theilheimer, Publisher, Straight Goods
It's been a wild election campaign in Renfrew County in the upper Ottawa Valley. This is one of those pockets of Alliance strength that you don't read about in the papers. Alliance lawnsigns, a fair barometer of party support, may outnumber the combined number for all the parties this year along the roadsides of our forest and farmland community.
Monday night will tell us whether these zealous CA supporters are outnumbered by a larger, silent majority of ordinary folks who don't think much of the Liberals but think less of the Alliance. It's been wild, though. Our Liberal incumbent rose to prominence as a renegade seeking to unseat the reigning Liberal incumbent. He mobilized thousands of politically-frustrated working class guys around issues like native hunting and fishing. Lots of them signed party cards and helped him win the Liberal nomination, usually a guarantee of electoral victory in these parts.
Now the former rebel finds himself defending gun control, the Young Offenders Act, the GST, and income taxes to former supporters. And they're mad, really mad. At public meetings they boo and catcall, shout him down and won't let him speak. He warns that if the Alliance gets in, there could soon be referendums to eliminate hunting sponsored by Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, but to no avail. They're howling mad because he's turned on them.
Many local Alliance supporters once voted Liberal and even NDP. Central governments have let them down, though. They see things getting tougher for families here in the sticks while people in the 'burbs and cities appear, at least on TV, to have it all. Average incomes here are far less than $30,000, so taxes do matter, but so do things like the cost of sending kids away to university. The area's best hospital was closed. Federal research projects have been cut or closed. Public road work and forest management is now contracted out, and has been cut back.
We see our youth leaving rural communities because there's no work in farming, poor pay and dangerous conditions in forestry, and so little for young people in the way of career or cultural opportunities. It's no wonder a lot of rural people are mad. Having lost faith in government, they are easy prey to demagogues and populists pushing the hot buttons of gun control, crime, moral issues and taxes. Anyone who's wondering where Alliance came from in this campaign has only to look at the doubts our central governments have sown - and the corporate world and its cheerleaders in the media have promoted - about whether government can materially improve the lives of people. For those at the bottom of the ladder, such as in Renfrew County, those doubts have become palpable.
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This week at Straight Goods -
Did you fax your Uncle Jean yet? There's still time! It's remarkable how little this URL has been passed around the Internet by comparison with the Rick Mercer/22 Minutes Internet gag on Stockwell Day. We're no Day-lovers here, but we thought the PM should be the barb of some cyber fun too. What's amazing is how few people got in on the act. I'd be interested in your opinions as to why not? Was it too complicated for people? Too intimidating? Or is it that centre, centre-left, and left-wing voters are so alarmed by the rise of Alliance that they feel rather protective toward Jean Chrétien despite extreme misgivings?
It's too bad Lindsey McKay's piece about fundamentalist politics, abortion and straight sex didn't get to us earlier. But it may have some shelf life. Is abortion the fundamental failsafe on which modern non-procreative sex is based? I'd like to know what readers think on this one.
Another comment on politics and sex (two favourite topics) is Saskatchewan labour studies prof Larry Haiven's piece on two political solitudes in Canada - men and women. Gives one reason for pause.
Fortunately, the election season is done now and Straight Goods can get on with life. We're really pleased to welcome Halifax writer Phillip Moscovitch with his excellent piece: Is homeschooling a threat to public schools?. It explodes a lot of myths on the subject.
Over the electronic transom this week came a great piece of consumer reporting from Straight Goods fan Todd Smith: Ad-blocking software makes surfing faster and better. I can't wait to try it, if I could only answer all my email.
Solid articles by Donna Vogel of CCPA about Medicare in B.C. and Penny Sanger of Canadian Friends of Burma about the pervasive use of slave labour in that oppressed naation, raise serious concerns and provide information you may not find elsewhere.
Finally, house gadfly Larry Solway worries about our economy, monetary policy, the erratic stock market, and oil prices in this week's Straight Goods Forum. Economist Mike McCracken, of Informetrica says not to worry, sort of. We feel so reassured.
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We hope you'll find this week's Straight Goods as interesting as we do. We can't do everything with our small publication, but we try to answer some questions others may not ask. Please let us know what you think at feedback@straightgoods.com.
- Ish Theilheimer
- Killaloe, Ontario
- November 27, 2000
P.S.: Next week, we look forward to more good stuff. Kathe Lieber of Montreal is dreaming of an ethical Christmas. And Dean Williams will report from the trenches in the field of business ethics.
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