CANADIANS COULDN’T SEE BURNING FOREST FOR OLD-GROWTH TREES

TARA COLLUM | Contributing columnist

After a costly $600 million election that has widely been decried by some as a total waste of money, we are no better off, and nothing has changed.

Two years ago, there was a federal election; but in the times of COVID and quarantine, it seems so much longer ago than that.

At the time Justin Trudeau was rocked by scandal. Known for setting the world on fire with his alleged nepotist political legacy, flashy socks that delivered a sassy message on the world stage, and coining the phrase “peoplekind,” he was found to have worn “black” or “brown” face, in his past not once or twice, but on several occasions.

This history of racist makeup made his cringe-worthy 2018 tour of India even more embarrassing, with his excessive hand-posturing and traditional Indian outfits not appropriate for the occasion that veered from cultural appropriation to cosplay.

Two years ago, I was a student in a community worker class, and I couldn’t understand the resistance of my classmates to vote NDP. Or why the brown and black face debacle wasn’t a deal breaker.

We were learning about social justice issues, environmentalism and making systems fairer and more equitable for marginalized populations. And how we should challenge racism and discrimination by fostering anti-oppression approaches to social problems. The party most in keeping in everything we were learning was the New Democrats.

But my classmates didn’t want to break from a long-standing Canadian tradition. They wanted to strategically vote for the Liberals, to ensure that the Conservatives didn’t win.

This style of not voting for who you really want to get in — but voting against who you really don’t want to get in — keeps Canada flip-flopping each election between the Liberals and the Conservatives was a pattern the NDP and their supporters made an effort to dispel. And this sentiment gained traction especially with an election no one wanted, so soon after the last one, and in the middle of such trying times.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s campaign captured the imagination of the youth vote. He played video games on the streaming platform Twitch with U.S. political firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ran a viral Tik Tok account. He did grassroots organizing on Facebook with Team Jagmeet, and generated relatable memes and popular tweets that he would go after the wealthiest of Canada with “unlimited zeal.”

His branding drew a lot of eyes to the NDP as a real alternative and many Canadians were optimistic of the NDP’s chances.

His plan to tax the ultra rich with 1% over $10 million dollars attracted the nervous attention of the Washington Post (owned by super villain Jeff Bezos), who attempted to dismiss the NDP campaign as a “fantasyland.”

A wealth tax is certainly not out of line in Canada, where two of the richest Canadians — David Thompson, and Loblaws magnate Galen Weston Sr. according to the Broadbent Institute own the same amount of wealth as 11 million Canadians.

The NDP were the only party to promise meaningful change to the Indigenous community. Singh famously said: “Why is that even a question?” to a reporter who questioned the expense of  his commitment to bringing clean water to reserves and ending the shameful boil water advisories.

In a time of roiling record-breaking temperatures, floods, and wildfires and so many catastrophes in a single year, the NDP prioritized the environment and wants to ban single-use plastics while creating a ground-breaking Canadian environmental bill of rights to give meaningful protection to our natural resources.

One platform promise that would have greatly made a difference in the lives of so many was the NDP’s proposal of universal pharma care and dental care. In the new gig economy, and with many jobs offering little to no benefits, the out-of-pocket costs for medicine and dentistry is sky high, leaving it out of reach for many Canadians.

In my riding of Davenport it was an extremely close race, and the incumbent Liberal candidate Julie Dzerowicz kept her seat from the NDP by a mere 165 votes.

In this time of tragedy for the Indigenous community, societal uncertainty, and environmental havoc, I was hoping that it would finally be a good time for Canada to vote NDP.

We are lucky to have multiple party options to vote for and a viable alternative option. It’s right there.