Here is a three-step platform the Liberal Party should be adopting if they hope to ever win an election again. Basically, it's just the core message of the Ron Paul R3volution. But that's the point isn't it? Recreate the enthusiasm and youthful grassroots support Dr. Paul has? It's not the 76-year-old's personality per se (although his principled consistency certainly helps), but his philosophy that attracts the young people.
And that's what the Grits need. Not cheap partisan attacks or short-term policy ideas. The Grits need philosophy. Preferably a liberal one.
Number One: Central banks are the reason the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Canada's central bank, the Bank of Canada, is currently headed by Mark Carney of Goldman Sachs fame. Any scrutiny into these secretive monopoly institutions is taboo and considered to be interfering with their "independence." Hogwash. The purchasing power of the Canadian dollar has lost well more than half of its value since the Bank of Canada's inception in 1934. Here are the facts from the BoC's own documents:
Even with a low annual inflation rate of 2 per cent (the midpoint of the Bank of Canada’s 1 to 3 per cent target range for inflation since 1995), a dollar will lose half of its purchasing power in approximately 35 years.
Chart A1
Purchasing Power of the Canadian Dollar
1914 = 100
That's enough to warrant a criminal investigation - let alone a simple policy declaration stating that, "hey, maybe we should look into this."
Number Two: Centralization of authority is a dangerous precedent and bureaucracies in a country this size are inefficient. Bureaus, unlike private enterprise, do not operate on voluntary funds provided by consumers. Therefore, the allocation of resources rests on the whims of the bureaucrat's goodwill. Need I mention the constant abuse this causes? Forced payment is never a good idea, regardless of ones intentions.
Decentralization of power is such a simple solution it's often overlooked. Consider - who is in the best position to spend taxpayers money? Bureaucrats located in a city far far away, local bureaucrats, or the taxpayer themselves? Before governments forced reciprocity on the people, welfare was provided by churches, charities and mutual-aid societies.
Number Three: War.
Nobody likes war. No sane individual wants to go to war. When it occurs, it because it is a necessary evil. Clearly, the occupation of Afghanistan is unnecessary. Not only is Osama bin Laden dead, but Canada's role in Afghanistan is now officially nation-building.
In addition, Stephen Harper is invoking other conflicts in the Middle East by tagging us alongside the American Empire's lust for global domination. The Liberals need to hit him hard on that. As Ludwig von Mises (a real liberal) wrote,
“The liberal critique of the argument in favor of war is fundamentally different from that of the humanitarians. It starts from the premise that not war, but peace, is the father of all things. What alone enables mankind to advance and distinguishes man from the animals is social cooperation. It is labor alone that is productive: it creates wealth and therewith lays the outward foundations for the inward flowering of man. War only destroys; it cannot create. War, carnage, destruction, and devastation we have in common with the predatory beasts of the jungle; constructive labor is our distinctively human characteristic.”
Perhaps the biggest swindle pulled on the Canadian population (and many Liberals are equally to blame for this) is that our "peacekeeping" forces are involved in anything but war. If the Grits really support the troops, they'd bring them home on day one.
These three steps, although drastic, will improve the Liberals standing with Canadians... Probably. It's quite possible that Canadians will reject these proposals en masse. In that case, the Liberal Party might as well join with the NDP because liberalism will officially be dead in this country.
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