I don't know who Marianne LeNabat is, but she's either very confused or trying very hard to create a story out of thin air.<p><i>The country is helmed by a prime minister, Stephen Harper, known for his brazenly right-wing views and executive unilateralism.</i><p>Brazenly right-wing? Ok, he's part of the Conservative party; but he's one of its most moderate members. Executive unilateralism? That's mostly about keeping the right-wing nuts in his own party in line -- Harper refuses to allow members of his own party to put forward any legislation which would place any restrictions on abortion or gay marriage, for example.<p><i>the undermining of the country’s universal health care system</i><p>Federal funding has increased at a rate of 6% per year for the past decade. Starting next year, it will increase at at a rate equal to nominal GDP growth. When did "increasing funding every year" turn into "undermining"?<p><i>In reality, Canada Post has netted a profit for sixteen of the last seventeen years</i><p>Only if you subscribe to the notion that future pension obligations will be paid for by the magic public pension fairy.<p><i>Services are “delisted,” i.e. taken out of universal medicare coverage, but private supplemental insurance becomes available to cover them.</i><p>I have no clue where this is coming from. Seriously, I can't think of even one service which has been delisted in the past 30 years. (And in any case, Canada's constitution says that health care is a matter of provincial jurisdiction, so if such a delisting had happened it wouldn't be the federal government's fault.)<p>I could go on, but I think I've made my point.
The author represents a socialist view of Canada that idealizes a period from '75 to '95 when federal parties spent lavishly on the social system funded via national debt. This resulted in Canada's own debt crisis (peaking at 70% of GDP), which we were able to resolve by devaluing our currency and running surplus for most of the next decade (now hovering below 40% of GDP). This is epitomized by her statement:<p>"Since the 1990s, the centrist Liberal Party has embraced a hysteria about balanced budgets and debt repayment to justify cuts to social welfare programs and taxation"<p>The widespread "right-wing conspiracy" amongst the media & political class is rooted in the reality that any Canadian politician that actually increased taxes to fund social programs was quickly & loudly removed from office.<p>The current Conservative government has been removing environmental restrictions, silencing the federal scientists tasked with regulating them, and slowly reducing federal environmental research. These actions appear to be designed to spur more resource development & resulting government extraction fees. Its important to note that this Conservative leadership came from the province of Alberta, which has benefitted from a two decade resource boom. Alberta has had the strongest economic growth and lowest tax rates in Canada. A template for success in some eyes.
First-past-the-post voting and a united right facing down a split left. Also, our biggest trading partner tanked their economy in tandem with our oil industry taking off.<p>Finally, over a decade of previous easy success left the liberal party flabby and complacent.