President Obama is desperately trying to convince Americans he is not a Socialist. For Canadians, this becomes a confusing paradox, or a statement that is logically unacceptable, senseless or a self-contradiction. Canada has a rich history of Socialism and Social Democracy. The platform of Socialism is widely known and accepted as a legitimate force in Canadian politics: wealth redistribution, central planning, nationalization of industry, elitism among the political class, national health care, the favoritism toward trade unions, the embrace of International Socialism as opposed to National Socialism (the experiment that failed so miserably in Germany) and control of energy and natural resources have been and always will be benchmarks of the International Socialist Movement. A Canadian must ask of Obama, why does he hide the nature of his convictions or does he lack the courage of his convictions?
In Canada, during the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939, (1929 to 1942 in the US, because of FDR’s New Deal), the Communist Party of Canada had a period of popularity and influence.
In 1935, 1,448 Canadians were recruited by the Communist Party of Canada to fight for the Communists in the Spanish Civil War against Franco. Designated the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, they fought alongside the International Brigades including the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the US. The Canadians fought heroically and had at least 721 men killed in action.
The most famous Canadian was Dr Norman Bethune, a surgeon who invented the first mobile medical unit. He would later be killed in the second Sino-Japanese War while aiding the Chinese. He is considered a national hero in China and was a personal friend of Mao. These Canadian Communists, regardless of their political philosophy, had the courage of their convictions and were willing to die for them.
Eventually, the Communist Party was replaced with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF); A Democrat Socialist Party from the prairies with roots in the Christian Left and Social Gospel, it ultimately became the most influential proponent for Socialism in Canada. The CCF eventually consolidated union support and was elected to provincial power in Saskatchewan in 1944.
In 1961, the CCF joined with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democrat Party or NDP; the Socialist platform became more moderate: thus the goal of Socialism became to modify and reform the Free Market, rather than to abolish it.
The NDP has been successful in forming Provincial governments in BC, Yukon, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia; currently, there are NDP governments in Manitoba and Nova Scotia and the NDP is the second largest party in BC and Saskatchewan.
Within the Federal Government, the NDP has managed to exert influence over several minority governments including the Liberal Government of Pierre Trudeau during 1972-1974. During this period, Canada formed a national oil company, Petro Canada and forever more Canadians pay a nickel more for every liter of gasoline they purchase, while waiting to realize the advantage of subsidizing a national oil company.
In the International World of Socialism, there has been secrecy and drama: Lenin, while on his deathbed wrote an article to the Twelfth Congress portraying and condemning Stalin’s authoritarianism and absolutism. Stalin, Trotsky, and Molotov declared Lenin to be mentally ill and condensed the article; the actual contents of the article were kept secret until 1956, three years after Stalin’s death.
Of course being a Socialist leader in Europe, Canada, or the US is much safer than being a leader in Russia or China; it is always easy to recognize the Socialist Party Platform, it varies only marginally from one group to another, the core beliefs are there: wealth redistribution, state ownership of industry and resources, central planning and control, nationalized health care, and reformation or abolishment of the Free Market and the Profit Motive.
President Obama, your platform and policies are obvious to the world: rather than hiding your political philosophy like a self conscious whore in church, be honest Sir, the world will respect you more. Stand up and have the courage of your convictions, ‘shout out’ to the world, “Yes, I am Socialism”.
A professional horseman for over 50 years, Skook continues to work with horses. Skook has finished an historical novel, Fifty Thousand Years, that traces a mitochondrial line of DNA from 50,000 years ago to the present. The story follows a line of courageous women, from the Ice Ages to the present, as they meet the challenges of survival with grit and creativity. These are not women who whimper of being victims, they meet the challenges of survival as women who use their abilities without excuses or remorse, these women are winners, they are our ancestors.
Fifty Thousand Years is available in paperback and e-book, it is getting great reviews. You can purchase a copy here; Visit me on Facebook.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dylantheauthor
Obama wins the Stanley Cup. Canada declares war and sends him home with his buttocks stuck inside it.
That’s just wrong…I’m a Red Wings fan….Couldn’t somebody defile anothers teams jersey with the smiling jackels face and his lame logo??
OT: a Must-Read
http://article.nationalreview.com/426405/when-responsibility-doesnt-pay/mark-steyn?page=1
Ya might want to sit down.
Sorry Bob, but someone had to settle for the hind teat.
His hands are white, oh well, he is supposed to half white; however nothing has been proved or substantiated about his claims to this day. Maybe he does play hockey, and maybe he did win the Stanley Cup. Makes as much sense as the rest of his record!
Hype is Hype!
Taqman, nice article, that Mark Stern is pretty sharp for a Canuck.
I have been following this scenario for a while, it was one of the reasons I suggested a Euro and Canuck page in future redesigns. It is about to hit the fan over there. Spain is next to meltdown. Air traffic controllers in Spain make between 500 to 800 thousand Euros a year. They are lucky they can retire at 50 like Californios. The world is going to be interested in Conservatism in the next 18 months.
Skook, I read both your recent pieces, both incredible, LMAO at the need to fix your sights.
Another sad and insightful piece this morning at American Thinker.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/this_isnt_eugenics_no_wait.html
Taqyman, it is easy to imagine this situation evolving until couples decide the hair and eye color, growth potential, and intellectual capacity all through creative genetic shopping at the embryonic supermarket.
“Build-a-Baby” stores at the malls.
People wonder why I’m looking up a lot lately, fearfully and expectantly – and sometimes, impatiently.
Taqiyman, in my bible reading of man ears ago, I came to the resolution that Jesus didn’t want us to worry with earthquakes and wars and such, the epitasis will be obvious: although, the 1st World War spawned the Jehovahs’ Witness bunch because of the utter destruction and despair bred with an over active imagination, to be caught in a war and ground under with the iron heel of destruction must seem like the End Times, and indeed it is if you and your family are liquidated, at least for you.
I think he wanted to lead our lives without being self-centered enough to consider our personal era as the one that he would reappear to walk among us. Jesus’s habit of speaking in parables is extremely effective in making us weigh out life with it’s temptation of sin pitted against our personal integrity; this is the essence of the struggle that Jesus expects us to wage during our lives, guessing the moment of redemption is counter intuitive to this struggle. We can ask for guidance and G-d’s will, after that, let the chips fall where they may.
Preaching by Rev. Skook, the quiet Hellion, on a Sunday morning.
Caught in the cyber outhouse again!
The embryonic supermarket, what a concept!
I just stumbled on this. Written with conviction. But Stalin, Lenin and Hitler were all dictators. There was no “socialism” to speak of there. Elitism is also in no way a characteristic of it. If socialism’s really what you mean to criticize here. Also its funny that you say that National Socialism was an experiment that “failed miserably”. If by that you mean many millions of people were exterminated in its name, than Stalin and Lenin’s governments all failed in the same way. But none of the above has anything to do with any particular form of government, just power, murder, and barbarism. Which allows no form of government, at all.
We are all lucky to live in a country whether Canada or the US where we can have these kinds of discussions.
Smartsquirrel, are you an apologist for Socialism? Mao, Stalin, and even Hitler were under the opinion that the headed up socialist states. The Elite term is one that was probably coined by Orwell in describing the leadership of Oceania, in the present it refers mainly to an attitude of superiority and in knowing what is best for Americans that is displayed b our Progressive Leadership in Washington, the Pelosi, Reid, Obama Triumvirate. They know what is best for the American people, an attitude that was carried to extremes by the Socialist leaders of the 20th Century.
By referring to the National Socialists Workers Party of Germany as a failed experiment, I mean it was an early and original experiment in National Socialism in apposition to the universally accepted idea of International Socialism. The fact that it filed miserably is obvious.
The concept of Left and Right originated with the French Revolution. The Left or Communards disintegrated into tyranny and the slaughter of political opposition was known as the Reign of Terror. This was the birthplace of Socialism and gave Marx the seeds of Communism to germinate. The relevance of the relationship of Communism and Socialism has become a game of semantics that relies on whose manifesto has been read more recently. Lenin, Trotsky, Bucharain, Molotov, Stalin all believed the steps from Socialism to Communism was a matter of incremental steps and as the Revolution progressed there was no need to worry with the distinctions. It can be argued that Lenin was an Idealist of the Revolution and that if he had been healthier the Russian Revolution could have played out better. Yet authoritarian governments allow for the concentration of power in a few hand or even one pair and abuse has been the result so far as well as economic disaster.
Mao was financed and partially trained by the Soviets; of course he set off on his own Reign of Terror: a fact that has been denied by our Socialist press and education systems for over 50 years. The Universities have contributed immeasurably to the propaganda of the Left and has tried to paint the whole of the Socialist Experiment with a ‘rose’ colored hue. At the present time the United States has come to the realization that we have elected a Socialist from a family of Marxists who has only had Marxists and anarchists for associates for his entire life.
To suggest that experiments in Marxism and Socialism have been other than failed experiments (an understatement) is more than perplexing. If you can show where Socialism has enjoyed success other than the Socialist model of Canada, that has enjoyed a tepid success and then been voted out of office to establish fiscal responsibility, I ask you to cite such an example.
No one ever seems to try to get into a Socialist or Communist country — except more extreme versions of the same. Who has swum to Cuba of late?
Last I saw some 800,000 Canadians are working on their American citizenship (INS report a few years back.) The equivalent going north to Nirvana would be roughly oh, 8,000,000 Americans (wouldn’t that spook the Canucks!) We can’t even get the Hollywood actors who said they’d leave America for Canada if Bush were elected to leave California & NY.
Meanwhile, when ever revolutions of the people broke out in the past 100 years or so they create a Statue of Liberty and use it as a battering ram at the gates of the palaces of the Socialist-Royalty. No one seems to be making statues of Marx or Lenin, or Fabian or whomever, except a few violent wackos who are more intent on seizing the reins of power, killing all the way.
Such is the Glory of Socialism — everyone wants OUT — except those in power, who prevent the leaving as best they can. Oh well, it’s their burden to explain this paradox of “social justice.”
Yes Jim, during the 20’s and 30’s we had many Leftist/Progressive Sympathizers travel to Russia to see Stalin’s Valhalla in person. Once they realized the bloodthirsty nature of the purges, they came back to America as changed people, Whittaker Chambers was one of those people. As a result of that glimpse into Socialism, he wrote ‘Witness’, a complex book by a brilliant man: consequently, that book converted an FDR, New Deal Democrat to Conservatism; we know him as Ronald Reagan.
Obama would probably be best described as a social liberal, whose coexisting desire for fiscal conservativism has thusfar been frustrated by a terrible economic situation. His attitude toward the free market doesn’t fit at all with an actual socialist’s agenda.
skook,
Great synopsis of Canada’s misguided meanderings through the landscape of socialistic tendencies.
There exists an unexplainable apathy in Canada toward being Canadian, and a fervent urge toward the self-righteous, with politically correct feelings emanating from being “their brother’s keepers,” when sadly, their “brothers” couldn’t care less. They’re going broke doing it and the system, including such things as Medicare, is falling apart, but the road to the poorhouse is paved with feel-good stones, apparently.
To add to the fomenting confusion, former Prime Minister Chretien proudly proclaimed a new manifesto for Canada, …. that anyone in the world who wished to live in Canada, should be able to do so. Now Canada has two industries keeping it alive: Export of Raw Materials (principally Energy related), and Immigration.
The socialism stagnates the human spirit, and as such it cannot ignite the entrepreneurial energy that every economy needs for its long term health.
. . . Also, pleased to see someone else who despises hypocrisy as much as I do. It’s such a despicable trait, yet it seems all too present.
James, the Canadian indifference is odd; yet their heroics in the World Wars, Korea, and this Nasty affair we have going on at the present is more than commendable.
They are the third largest grain grower behind the US and Russia; although I am afraid China is pushing its way to the top. Canada used to have a viable lumber industry, but when housing starts are non-existent, the industry dies.
Although the political climate varies as much as the Provinces, Alberta is in the black with a strong Conservative Government, of course they have oil and gas. BC has oil and gas, but they keep voting in the NDP intermittently to the demands of the well fare lobby and the University Socialist crowd: they then continue on with Socialism until they are on the verge of being bankrupt and vote in a Liberal or Conservative Government. Believe it or not a Canadian Liberal isn’t intent on bringing the country to its knees, they can be realistic politicians without having the goals of International Socialism foremost on their agenda.
Hypocrisy is ugly, however Obama’s handlers, whom I think have groomed this scenario for at least a decade, knew that if he made his true political philosophy known to the public, he wouldn’t have been elected to he Senate, let alone the White House. Please post your blog again in this thread, I can’t remember where I put the info.
I am proud to be a Dual Citizen; however, I think the apathy of Socialism will infect America if we don’t purge this infection from our political system. I think t has something to do with the Free Ride Philosophy of the Socialist, the same philosophy that is crippling the EEU right now.
Keep up your good work, James, good to hear from you.
Skook,
I am grateful that I’ve also been fortunate enough to have had a foot in both of these two great countries, . . . the best on Earth, and try to do my bit to stimulate thinking and common sense. I find many parallels between Trudeau and Obama, unfortunately, but Trudeau didn’t hide who and what he was. Canadian taxpayers are still paying for Trudeau’s lack of understanding on all things economic. He feared the banks, letting them do whatever they wanted (I was gifted with unusual front row seating at that banquet), as Obama does, because he didn’t understand them, but Trudeau’s arrogance sadly found resonance in the Canadian psyche which had become tired of Diefenbaker and Pearson. Canadians, in that period, turned their backs on people like the incredible Robert Stanfield, who had actually built a very successful corporation and understood the entrepreneurial spirit. He would have made a great P.M., IMHO.
Therein lies my concern with all of Canada’s Liberals, . . . they have no clue what business and economics are all about and therefore cannot provide guidance on this most critical element of a successful society. Eg.: Ignatieff pushed Harper into the stupidity of the government’s $40 billion bailout program lunacy.
Obama is in the same boat as the one Trudeau floated on. He has been and will continue to be manipulated by Wall Street (Goldman Sachs & friends), which he does not understand, while he continues to try promoting his agenda. At this point, however, it is no longer evident that he really has one. His game seems to have been, . . . just get me elected to office; make history; make me look good; let me make speeches; and, I don’t know what I’m doing but I look good doing it and I’ll continue doing it with conviction.
I wish Harper much success in dealing with the buffoons in opposition, but Canada is too far left of center to give him a majority. Although, there is the possibility that if Obama gets resoundly rejected by the taxpayers, such reaction could bode well for Harper’s future.
FYI:
http://pacificgatepost.com/
Now that is funny James, I thought I would give you a primer on Canadian Politics and you can teach the class. Yes I realize the Canadian Liberal is clueless about business and fiscal responsibility, but I don’t feel like they are out to destroy the country like the American Liberal.
Curt the owner of the blog is getting read to re-design the blog. I suggested that we open a portion of the blog to Canadian and European Conservatism, the idea received positive feedback. If you have any ideas or suggestions you might send Curt an email through the blog.
After the world recovers from this hangover of Socialist overindulgence, I think the rationale of Conservative philosophy might find much a more receptive audience. You obviously have a much more in depth knowledge of the Canadian political and economic situation than I do; because of the global economy, in the future, we will need to portray an alternative to the economic quagmire of Socialism.
Thank you for your input, you have been an excellent resource!