Don’t dump Trudeau for Poilievre
Re: “Is it time to dump Trudeau?”
Last Saturday, columnist Kevin Elson asked “Is it time to dump Trudeau?” and pointed to several fiascos under Trudeau. Elson then concludes that he would support Poilievre and the Conservatives.
Is this throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
In judging Trudeau’s government, you have to consider successes as well.
To name a few, Trudeau’s government was the first to require gender equity on cabinet, and the first to make child care affordable for poorer families with reduced family costs of over 50 per cent to date and $10 per day promised by 2026.
His government was the first to make progress on universal pharmacare (with NDP pushing), with low-income seniors now promised free prescriptions. No family should have to choose between buying medicines or food.
Universal pharmacare allows countries to negotiate much lower drug prices: Canada pays almost three times as much per person as New Zealand does with pharmacare.
Yes, governments would pay more, but the increase in taxes to cover this is much less than families pay for drugs now. Overall, Canadians would save about $2 billion per year.
Finally, the current Canadian government is the first to implement a real plan to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Climate change is the biggest ongoing threat to humanity, with 30 per cent of the world’s population already exposed to deadly heat waves more than 20 days a year.
We are finally making progress after decades of Canadian governments — Liberal and Conservative — promising to reduce emissions with no plan to do so.
A major accomplishment under the Trudeau government has been the price on carbon, which is rebated to families, and which economists agree is the best way to reduce emissions because it allows individuals to choose their purchases based on cost.
Poilievre’s “axe the tax” goal would reverse this real progress and leave the average Canadian with less money. Poilievre only criticizes, with no policy alternatives. You can’t run a government on criticism; you need concrete policies.
Maybe Trudeau has outlived his personal usefulness as prime minister, but replacing him with Poilievre would be a disaster. Alan Slavin, Otonabee