nothing is ever a “the republicans are kind of right” moment because they’re clearly criticizing carney for the wildfires in this moment because he’s also a strong man politician with a “canada first” rhetoric—something that US fascists feel threatened by, because nothing frightens a fascist more than a bigger strong man in charge of a mother nation—but like. this is the Liberal party’s fault, and our current prime minister is at the heart of the rot
for context the canadian Liberal party is barely “liberal” any more. the left-most members of the party are neoliberals and the right-wing members align somewhere along with the self-styled “sensible” republicans who have resisted or pushed back on trump—like Dick Cheney, or Thomas Massie, Rand Paul or Chuck Grassley—none of whom are remotely liberal in any sense of the word, and most of whom would be considered far-right in any reasonable political system
and the Liberals here in canada have recently accepted into their ranks many former members of the Conservative Party of Canada who are uncomfortable with the very unsubtle fascism being pushed by Polievre—though they likely feel so at home in the Liberal caucus because Carney’s politics align pretty much 100% with those of former Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper
quite genuinely if you go one to one on the policies Carney supports today they’re almost all causes that Harper also championed
most significantly? austerity and decreasing spending or fully defunding a wide range of public programs that cover everything from forest management to employing park rangers to covering costs of childcare etc
also quite significantly both the Carney era Liberals and Harper’s Conservative government have quietly but efficiently eroded environmental protections and engaged in sneaky politics that allow them to circumvent the environmental regulations that can’t be repealed or rolled back via executive action
(for example: there’s currently a bill that’s stalled in the Senate that, if enacted, would allow the federal government to bypass nearly any regulations of any sort in order to complete a project that is “in the national economy’s best interest” Bill C-5 would likely make it possible for the federal government to push through any pipeline, mining site, hydroelectric dam, etc that they wanted to see happen regardless of environmental protections. if you’re a canadian please write to your representatives to say that you unequivocally oppose the bill, not just as written, but the entire bill and the intention behind it)
my point here basically comes down to: dear US neighbours to the south, i’m sorry. this isn’t something that the average canadian has the power to prevent, but it is on some levels the fault of the broader canadian voting public, and it’s definitely the fault of canada’s leaders
we’ve elected a PM who fairly transparently hates this land and who has further defunded extremely necessary programs—both those that prevent forest fires before they happen and also ended funding for federal firefighting and financial support to provincial and regional wildfire firefighting programs
it’s going to keep happening because canada is not currently putting enough money into preventing and fighting these fires. i’m ashamed to live in a country with so little regard for the land and the planet we all share
when one country fails to plan to prevent natural disasters it always impacts most neighbouring nations and may even impact the planet as a whole
fwiw the US is also currently dropping the ball on forest fire prevention—but I’m not as focused on that because i don’t live in the US so it’s not something i can actively rally fellow voters to push to change
but for my fellow canadians: it’s really important to put pressure on our representatives to change this. fire season starts earlier and earlier every year. my province has been burning since early June, when it used to mostly be late-August that was dangerous
our cities are clogged with smoke, our communities are constantly at risk of burning down—costing people their homes and small businesses—and austerity is to blame. pandering to big resource extraction companies that pollute the land & exacerbate global warming is to blame. rolling back environmental protections is to blame
we’ve got to fight to get more Green politicians and NDP representatives into parliament. the NDP is a lukewarm socdem shitshow these days and rapidly sliding towards centrist neoliberalism every day, but they’re still anti-austerity and invested in funding necessary government spending on things like wildfire prevention
we also need to actively decolonize and give the land back—we know that Indigenous land management techniques can restore biodiversity, improve sustainable industry like fishing and farming, bring jobs back to rural communities, and prevent forest fires and so much more. landback protects nature, protects the land and those who live on it, and saves lives—especially in remote and rural regions of this country where the lands are either owned by the crown or by mining & other resource extracting corporations
we need to pressure our politicians to make changes and we also need to advocate for a regime change—our current “business as usual” politic is destroying the land before our very eyes. wake up and tell our leaders that the lack of forest management and fire prevention is inexcusable
we’re lighting our country on fire and people are losing everything all so a handful of corporations can rake in the cash. it has to stop
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