Faux populism a tool of well-funded elite

Re: “When did populism become a bad thing?” column, June 24. Lawrie McFarlane apparently fails to realize the nature of today’s so-called populism.

True populism is a grassroots uprising against a perceived elite minority. The “populism” in the U.S., now spreading like smallpox to Canada, is not a grassroots movement. It is a faux populism funded by an elite minority to promote a libertarian ideology to benefit them. Mitt Romney’s description of people as “makers and takers” expresses their world view. They are “makers” and all others are takers.

Libertarianism would limit government to national defence, protection of private property and public safety. All public services such as education, health care and public infrastructure would be privatized. The result would be a Darwinian “survival of the fittest” society in which those who could not compete would be left by the roadside, devil take the hindmost.

The libertarian strategy is to convince the voters that all government spending is wasteful socialism. One of Doug Ford’s first announcements on winning the Ontario election was a search for waste in the provincial budget, creating a false impression that taxes are high because of government waste.

The reality is that the Kathleen Wynne government was defeated by an organized and well-funded rightwing campaign of misinformation that commenced long before the election and is still being pursued across Canada. Harvey Williams Victoria