It's time we focus less on race, sex, and hollow slogans in Canada

With less than a year until Canada's next Federal Election, campaigning has already begun. The question on the ballot, like Ontario's Provincial Election, is do you want a progressive government that continually focuses on race, sex-based policies, and hollow chants (i.e. "Diversity is our Strength"), or a moderate government aiming for middle ground that focuses on uniting Canadians, keeping taxes low, and focusing largely on the economy. As much as feel-good chants and hollow rhetoric tend to work on those less politically inclined, they do not ease Canadians fears and anxieties of what lies ahead.

Liberals moving further left while abandoning the centre

Like the United States' Democrats, Canada's Federal Liberals, and Wynne's former Ontario Liberals, continue to veer further left of the political spectrum, while giving up precious middle ground at their own peril. As a moderate who leans conservative, I cannot in good faith support a party that does not put the interests of Canadians first. From job-killing policies, to making it harder to do business in this country, to claiming business owners and Doctor's are tax cheats, while simultaneously killing pipelines that would have created tens of thousands of jobs in Canada, this Federal Liberal government is making life more difficult for the average middle class Canadian to survive. Canadians, for the most part, are modest individuals, who want security, stability, and a good paying job, while wanting what is best for their family and themselves. Unfortunately, the current Federal Liberal government fails to recognize this while promoting racial differences not unity, equity not opportunity and ideological gender-based policy. They're doing all of this while figuring out endless ways to continually tax Canadians to pay for their financial mismanagement in an attempt to balance the budget while putting this country further into the red. As a result of these misguided policies, Canada and its provinces are pushed to the brink in terms of health care costs, employment gaps, increased social service costs, and an ever-growing housing crisis that will continue to get worse.

Misguided immigration approach

Consequently, Canada will need continued legal immigration to fill these ever-increasing cost gaps. However, the question remains what a suitable number of legal immigrants per year is acceptable, while not further burdening Canada's already strained social and health care systems. Recently, the Federal Government announced that by 2021 the target for new arrivals in Canada will rise to 350,000 which is nearly one percent of Canada's population. With no plan in sight, this justification seems to be presented on the fact that Canada needs more "skilled" labourers and essentially a replacement, in all honesty, of an ageing population. However, this begs the question of whether or not Canada even has one hundred thousand so-called "skilled" employment positions that Canadians living here cannot fill. There is simply no plan or vision here by Trudeau's Liberals, just as is the case along the Quebec border where illegal economic migrants continue to flood through daily. The Liberals refuse to impose any strict border control, all while using their go-to accusation that anyone questioning immigration policy or border control is fear mongering and inherently racist. In Toronto, approximately 40% of shelter occupants are refugees according to the City of Toronto, however Ahmed Hussen, Canada's Immigration Minister, refuses to acknowledge this all while verbally sparring with his Ontario Provincial counterparts, and calling his opposite members "UnCanadian" for questioning policy decisions. Questioning policy decision and direction is not "un-Canadian" nor racist or bigoted, it's wanting what is best for Canada and Canadians that pay the bills for such a disastrous government. If Hussen has an issue with opposite members questioning the decision making of the current government, Hussen should look in the mirror to see who is "un-Canadian." This country allows for transparency, honesty, and common sense border and immigration laws, that do not result in one being labelled a racist, xenophobe, or bigot, and this is something Hussen needs to understand.

The Liberals focus on identity politics instead of the basics

With Canada's health care system, housing crisis, and social care systems bursting at the seams, this Federal Liberal Government does not seem to care about the rudimentary basics that holds a nation together, but rather furthers the division between Canadians while attempting to secure votes. In 2015, Trudeau chose a gender parity cabinet simply because it was 2015. However, as reports indicate, this was simply a scripted question and answer, much like this government's choreography since then. Trudeau's finest acting performance may have been in Waterloo, Ontario, when he rehearsed how quantum computing works in a scripted response, while barely being able to form a string of sentences together any other day of the week. Moreover, since 2015, we've seen nothing but identity politics in this country at steroid levels, particularly in the area of gender. Now let me be abundantly clear, I have zero issue with women competing for jobs and opportunities, so long as the best and most qualified person is chosen based on their abilities, skills, and knowledge, and not on their genitalia. This notion to advance women based on only their sex will lead to regression in society.  The women I know want career advancement based on merit, not some token level gender quota based appointment hire which is exactly what identity politics does. This only sullies women's integrity and character and reduces them to nothing but body parts which is exactly what Trudeau wants. By promoting gender equity and parity, Trudeau, the self-described feminist, can proclaim he is trying to advance women's rights in Canada while watching the women's movement regress. Likewise, Kathleen Wynne played the dubious game of identity politics, of politicizing sex ed in the classroom, and paid a hefty price while totally obliterating her party to non-official party status at Queens Park. As an example, one only has to look to the gender wage gap myth to score cheap political talking points. Patty Hadju, Minister of Employment, claims that women working full-time on average make 88 cents for every dollar that a full-time man makes in Canada. This is very misleading. If you average all the income that men make in Canada divided by all the income that women make, there will be an obvious gap. Firstly, more men tend to take on more dangerous jobs that most women are unwilling to take on and are compensated as such. Secondly, some men are also the leading breadwinners in the family, while their spouse looks after the children along with other duties, and may take on a part-time job. If one were to take an average of this example alone, there would be a massive gap between a full-time breadwinner vs a part-time employee. Likewise, even if you want to take the average of a man and woman doing the same full-time job and the exact same position, you would find no gap exists. Further, it is disingenuous for Minister Hadju to even suggest such a notion, when men and women are paid the same in the House of Commons dependent on position or Ministerial position. Employment laws make it illegal to pay men more than women, and vice versa. If companies wanted to save on their bottom line, they would hire only women for these vacancies given this inane rhetoric.  Despite the number of times Trudeau claims this to be true, it is nothing more than a cheap political talking point that has been proven false time and time again. With that said, Canadians should be concerned with how divisive this Canadian Prime Minster has become with his half-baked policies. When one continually points out the differences between sex and race as an example, this further divides people by the same thing that should be bringing people together.

Trudeau isn't uniting Canadians

Lastly, rather than unifying Canadians, Trudeau uses hollow and meaningless slogans like "Diversity is our Strength" to further the flames of division in this country. As much as Canadians should be celebrating our differences, Canadians should be celebrating the values that bring us together as a country. No country has ever remained as a nation if it continues to be broken down into smaller and smaller tribes of diversity, ethnic background, and sex. This only reinforces our differences, not Canada's strength which is unity. Likewise, this separates individuals on political lines, and forces those into groupthink, totally disregarding individual thought, autonomy, independence, and any sense of rational thought for people to think for themselves. The political left in this country sells their victimhood policy brilliantly to those ever ready to purchase these empty shells while not looking past cute slogans or trying to improve or think for themselves. These Liberalized parties know that if they continue to pander and spend, while taxing a shrinking middle class that shoulders the burden for these hollow policy decisions, they should get re-elected again. Another slogan that Trudeau likes to champion is: "grow the middle class", that Trudeau, a millionaire, who was raised in a life of privilege knows completely nothing about. It is no wonder the deficit continues to grow under Trudeau, whose drunken sailor spending policy and announcements are hurting Canadians, not helping them. Since Trudeau was elected nearly 100 billion dollars of direct foreign investment has fled Canada, while part-time jobs are on the rise, including a gig economy, where people are forced to work secondary jobs. The middle class continues to face this burden daily as they are the ones propping up this governments spending. As a result of these economic policy decisions, the spread between rich and poor will further, and this leads to a divided society that is forced to accept government handouts this Liberal Government wants so they can remain in power. Canada has never seen a more divisive Canadian Prime Minister in our history. Our job as voters is to recognize these facts as blurred as they may seem, and vote for a government that has the best interests of all Canadians and not a divisive leader who is solely interested in dividing Canadians at every level.