Canada, Live 8 and the usual horse manure
July 3rd, 2005 by Bill
"We want the promises to be kept and we will make the firm commitment to a timeline when we know that we can deliver." Canadian Finance Minister Ralph Goodale (echoing the position of Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Canadian government, a G8 country).
I have a difficult time believing the target of 0.7 per cent of GDP to foreign aid is something the Canadian government isn’t sure it can deliver on. If it wanted to, it could. If it was politically expedient, it could.
If it meant coming in with a majority government in the next federal election, you bet your bum the Liberal Party of Canada would be committed to it and doing handstands to let everyone know they were committed to it.
The implication is that it would be economically unsound to make such a commitment. It would be irresponsible to do so. (Far more responsible to let people die and wring our hands over it.) What if the economy changes? What if … what if … what if?
What if you put a foreign aid tax on gasoline? Yes, there would be a great hootin’ and hollerin’ and endless fists shaking in the air but, like every other issue that Canadians get their shorts in a knot over, it would pass. I mean, the price of gas went past $50 a barrel yet we kept paying it. It hit and surpassed $60 a barrel, and still we keep paying it.
But then, gas is a necessity. You couldn’t add to the already high taxes already in place … could you? Here in Edmonton, I can see how necessary the SUVs and hummers and Harleys are as I walk down Whyte Avenue. How would people survive without them? How could they get to the gym and workout – walk? Really, let’s be sensible.
How about this … Charitable donations and political donations are both tax deductible. But what if we if we decreased by half the tax benefit of political donations and doubled the benefit of charitable ones?
A foreign aid tax could be added to cigarettes and alcohol (the old standby sin taxes).
Not that taxes are the answer. Existing revenue could be redistributed. For example, what if the Canada Day celebration money that goes into Quebec ($3.7 million according to one television report) went to foreign aid instead? I think that would go a lot further to enhancing the status of Canada in Quebec than impotent flag waving.
Anyway … that’s my rant on that aspect of Canada, the G8 and Live 8.
Poverty, Canada … and what’s with booing Celine?
While poverty in Africa is a huge problem it shouldn’t be thought that poverty has any national or continental preferences. Poverty is a problem throughout the world. And Canadians may want to remember that a shameful number of children here, in lovely “aren’t we bloody wonderful†Canada, live in poverty.
(One million Canadian children live in poverty – up from 1989. The child poverty rate in Canada is 15.6% - up for the first time in six years and higher than in 1989. See the 2004 Report Card on Child Poverty in Canada.)
I’m not sure why I’m so cranky today about Canada. I’m partly annoyed after reading about Celine Dion being greeted by boos at the Live 8 show in Barrie (for this concert called Toronto). Not that I’m a big fan of hers. But it’s a free concert. It’s supposed to be for a worthwhile cause. If you don’t like who’s one stage, zone out for a while and ignore them. You don’t have to make Canada look like a nation of spoiled children (even if that’s what we seem to have become).
I’m also annoyed by the Liberal government’s complete inability to give a straight answer or take a stand on anything that hasn’t been market researched to find out what the voting public wants to hear and how they want to hear it. Canada is a country governed by a marketing department. Which probably explains why we seem like such asses.
On a more positive note … From what I have heard and read (especially from those who love to sneer at pop stars like Geldof, Bono and others), a lot of people seem to be confused about Live 8. They seem to have expected some magical and instantaneous transformation in the world. Personally, I didn’t see Live 8 as an end but as a beginning. If it is successful, to whatever degree, that won’t be seen today or even tomorrow but over a longer term, and progressively. (No instant gratification here.)
Live 8 is about sticking a bee up some political behinds. The goal now is to start buzzing and keep buzzing until effective action is taken to eliminate the conditions of poverty.
Listen to this podcast
