Right in the centre - Thankfully, many changes are ahead

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Published on Thursday, January 9, 2025

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

The New Year always sets the stage for reflection on the past year(s) and it’s always a good to time to plan ahead.

Let’s start with the known things. No matter how upsetting world events have become, the sun will rise tomorrow. If it doesn’t, we won’t have anything to worry about anyway but I am nearly sure the sun will rise. The sun has a good track record.

Some would believe that we live in tough times and, to some extent, that is true. Prices are high, costs of running a household, a farm or a business seems out of control. Governments seem to have lost their minds. They are claiming to control costs but at the same time, they are doing some really stupid things. If people can spare a couple of hours, I encourage them to watch Jordan Peterson’s interview with Pierre Poilievre. Whether you like or agree with either man, you owe it to yourself to examine what they have to say as they actually examine issues, problems, causes and solutions.

I know this sounds very biased but what Poilievre and Peterson cover contrasts starkly to what Prime Minister Trudeau has been telling us. Trudeau’s answer to everything is “We as Liberals have always looked after the interests of Canadians and will continue to do so.”

Well, I hope not as the Trudeau years have been a disaster for Canadians as the federal government has mismanaged just abut everything they have touched. From drug policy to housing to COVID-19 to electric cars, the feds have stumbled from one disaster to another. All that stumbling has been in a deep muddy ditch called national debt. From personal experience, we know that Canada Revenue Agency is  about four years behind in their work.

The problem with the Liberal government is that just about every person who knew what needed to be done has quit and/or been forced out. The basic problem is at the top, it rests with the Prime Minister and at the risk of being unkind, he is not a very smart person.

Canada has always needed strong leadership and we have not received it in recent years.

Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper was a much stronger leader. Where he went off track was listening to what us political observers call “the boys in short pants”, the political back room people who convinced the conservative leader that had to take on some liberal stances so as to appeal to a broader voter base. I personally watched the former Manitoba leader, Hugh McFadyen, go down the same path. To his peril, he found out the hard way that conservatives make very poor liberals. Fancy logos and cute sayings don’t make for firm and good government. Good financial management makes for good government.

So what needs to be done? 

The bureaucracies have to reined in. Canada, and Manitoba, spend a lot of money, yes, waste a lot of money, without solid, well thought out plans. A prime example is the doctor shortage. We have been short of doctors for decades but have not raised our medical college out put enough. We should be training our own people to be doctors and medical staff. Double the output if needed. When the Allies in WWII needed more pilots and air crew to win the war, they trained them by the thousands in a matter of two to three years.

We should not be recruiting foreign doctors, other countries need them as badly as we do and they have paid for that training. We should be elevating, at great speed, approval of credentials of people who have immigrated to Canada be it in medicine or trades. I suspect there are doctors working jobs that are definitely not in the medical field.

Politics in Manitoba and Canada has become very dumbed down. There’s lots of blame to go around causing the political downfall. Much of the blame rests with the media. Corporate ownership of media has killed off many newspapers,TV and radio stations. Fortunately, the corporate influence in newspapers has largely dwindled.

I will take my share of media blame but I am still plugging away trying to elevate political awareness. Many people don’t understand the difference between government debt and deficit. Deficit is the annual financial shortfall, debt is the accumulation of the annual deficits. Sadly, both those numbers are huge, so big that most of us can’t comprehend those kind of dollars. So part of the dumbing down process is how complacent we become about money.

The second dumbing down process takes place because some of the popular or trigger issues in a society. Politicians want to pump up the voters over issues that may be important but in actual fact are not pivotal. The only issues that really matter are the economy, public safety and national security. If the economy, public safety and national security are not kept both sacred and healthy, most other issues don’t matter so much.

Please keep on learning and stay engaged.