Written in response to a questionnaire sent at public expense by a Conservative Government Member:
I still dislike polls and questionnaires because I find them formulated to elicit the response the designer wished to obtain.
Of course I want safer streets but we may differ in our opinion as to the means of obtaining that end. Have you read Jane Jacobs? Our streets remain safe because neighbours use them: Children walk to school, their mothers wheel them to playgrounds, walk to the store, in cities couples walk to work, social events, theatre and use mass transit. In American cities and states where this has ceased to be so it is an offense to allow your child to walk to soccer practice. Children who are taxied everywhere grow up unable to navigate their own neighbourhoods. Parents cause unsafe traffic around school grounds not designed for the volumes that have developed and their children become overweight through lack of exercise. Our massed media are guilty of concentrating on violence and crime at a time when the demographic who commit such offences is at an all-time low along with the crime rate itself. This coverage has created a sense of apprehension that has lead police services to demand ever bigger budgets and politicians such as yourself to pass legislation that invades privacy and civil liberties in the name of protecting us from them.
Who wouldn’t want lower taxes. But remember the state of California where citizens were given that option and the state approached bankruptcy. Alas our politicians set a poor example with the likes of entitled examples such as Bev Oda and Mike Duffy, gold-plated pension plans, and patronage. Canada’s most profitable companies pay no taxes and their owners employ tax accountants to find means such as family trusts to avoid paying taxes. Their donations to political parties are directly deductible from tax paid. Someone miscalculated and tried to build a power station in these donor’s back yards. Most sensible businessmen disagree with the idea of government handouts to corporations but if their competition is capitalizing on one they have no option but to buy in as well. Remember ‘corporate welfare bums’. Meanwhile have you read the auditor general’s report lately. Do we really want to emulate the American model where the rich live in protected gated communities and send their children to private schools while public services shrink, schools deteriorate, and ordinary citizens cope with the likes of Detroit or St. Louis or entire subdivisions taken over by gangs as in Southern California?
To answer your questions I don’t believe your government’s policies are going to attain either ends.
Of course I want safer streets but we may differ in our opinion as to the means of obtaining that end. Have you read Jane Jacobs? Our streets remain safe because neighbours use them: Children walk to school, their mothers wheel them to playgrounds, walk to the store, in cities couples walk to work, social events, theatre and use mass transit. In American cities and states where this has ceased to be so it is an offense to allow your child to walk to soccer practice. Children who are taxied everywhere grow up unable to navigate their own neighbourhoods. Parents cause unsafe traffic around school grounds not designed for the volumes that have developed and their children become overweight through lack of exercise. Our massed media are guilty of concentrating on violence and crime at a time when the demographic who commit such offences is at an all-time low along with the crime rate itself. This coverage has created a sense of apprehension that has lead police services to demand ever bigger budgets and politicians such as yourself to pass legislation that invades privacy and civil liberties in the name of protecting us from them.
Who wouldn’t want lower taxes. But remember the state of California where citizens were given that option and the state approached bankruptcy. Alas our politicians set a poor example with the likes of entitled examples such as Bev Oda and Mike Duffy, gold-plated pension plans, and patronage. Canada’s most profitable companies pay no taxes and their owners employ tax accountants to find means such as family trusts to avoid paying taxes. Their donations to political parties are directly deductible from tax paid. Someone miscalculated and tried to build a power station in these donor’s back yards. Most sensible businessmen disagree with the idea of government handouts to corporations but if their competition is capitalizing on one they have no option but to buy in as well. Remember ‘corporate welfare bums’. Meanwhile have you read the auditor general’s report lately. Do we really want to emulate the American model where the rich live in protected gated communities and send their children to private schools while public services shrink, schools deteriorate, and ordinary citizens cope with the likes of Detroit or St. Louis or entire subdivisions taken over by gangs as in Southern California?
To answer your questions I don’t believe your government’s policies are going to attain either ends.
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