This is an important point that Christopher has raised in his excellent post.
I was speaking with a new CAP member today who commented on the incredibly huge amount of wealth that Canadians produce each year through their work, creativity, and services, including parenting and other unpaid work. Billions and billions of dollars, taken from that wealth of ours, is spent on Chemotherapy, other dubious drugs and drug research, paying for expensive luxuries for putting on a fancy party for "the important people of the world" and police to deprive us of our basic civil liberties (as witnessed at the G20 event in Toronto), and many other things that do not improve the quality of life for Canadians.
Yet many Canadians, in various communities, regions, cultures, and circumstances, do not have access to enough resources for even the basic necessities for a decent and healthy life. Somehow, in spite of all the wealth we create, there doesn't seem to be "enough to go around" when it comes to many of our citizens, but there's plenty to spend on hosting the world's "elite" leaders and suppressing Canadians' voices of concern or protest, or subsidising powerful drug companies and buying their products when we don't even need or want them, like the excess H1N1 vaccine that had to be thrown out, and may have done more harm than good for those who received it. What is wrong with this picture?
No one asks us how we want the wealth used, when they skim it so deeply from our lives, and no one reports to us exactly where it all goes. We hear the vague mention of billions for this and billions for that, but some of us are homeless and have no clean drinking water or adequate shelter or access to land or food or other natural resources they could use to create rich and satisfying lives for themselves and their families, and contribute to their community's richness. Millions are unemployed or work so many hours per week at minimum wage that they have little energy or ability to do much else, but they can't afford adequate food and shelter for themselves and their families. It just doesn't make any sense and it isn't fair. The huge international corporations own almost everything, and they do what they want and often leave a toxic mess behind that we then have to pay to clean up. Things don't have to be like this.
The member I spoke with sincerely believes that there actually is plenty to go around. He thinks that the wealth we create, and the resources that are integral to the land we live in, are more than enough for all of us to live well, in all of our diverse regions, communities, cultures, and circumstances. I agree with him, and I believe that Canadians create plenty of wealth to take good care of everyone here. We should use it to provide all of us with the education and other opportunities that each needs, whatever their circumstances, to live a productive and satisfying life that enriches their personal lives, their community and, thereby, this nation. We just need to learn to work together cooperatively and elect only accountable representatives to Parliament, who know that we know, that they have to listen to us and allow us to control our own resources, the wealth we create, and the decisions that affect our lives and our communities. It's as simple and as profound as setting up an electoral system in each Riding, where voters register and then place and change their votes whenever they see fit. For more information, please contact me:
Doris Foster
CAP Membership Coordinator
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