WHITBY, ONT. -- Clearly, I make mistakes. I wrote a whole book on the mistakes I made in my life. The ups and downs, challenges, shame and pain. But I would have never imagined that I would have been wrong with the recent federal election call.
I had assumed, given the influx of new Liberal MPs elected the same year as I was (October 2015), that the prime minister would wait until October to drop the writ, to ensure those first-time MPs would be guaranteed their pensions.
I thought this would be even more likely, based on the recent decisions not to run again, by some of the more prominent MPs and former cabinet ministers. Well, indeed I was wrong. Hint: I will likely be wrong again.
And so, Election 2021 is upon us - a competition, pundits across the country are considering a “lock” for the Liberals. I still believe this is the case, even in spite of the Progressive Conservative win in Nova Scotia earlier this week.
Look, say what you want, Trudeau has survived SNC, WE and scandal after scandal, blackface and public gaffes. So, with that said, let’s look at what the next five weeks, and possibly four years can look like based on some election issues.
This week I will start with my favourite – inequity. In the first federal election, post-2020’s pandemic and worldwide call for racial justice, one would have to be clearly missing the mark if they failed to recognize inequity and what we will do about it, as part of their platform.
Oh wait, that already happened with the Conservative 160-page plan which did not contain the words “race, racism, Islamophobia or Black” once. And while many of us may expect this from the Conservatives, it is important to critically examine the Liberals’ rhetoric versus action on racism, especially issues related to people of African descent.
When criticized, the Liberals present a laundry list of investments in Black communities totalling hundreds of millions of dollars. It looks impressive, but the funding is not tied to accountability measures that will create the types of systemic change required to address an issue as deeply entrenched as anti-Black racism.
Are dollar signs and a promise to do more, enough? In fact, the Liberals have not demonstrated a desire to actually confront the realities of anti-Black racism, particularly evident in the stories that have come to the fore as part of the Black Class Action lawsuit - where workers of African descent, especially women, within the federal public service, have been discriminated against, harassed and bullied for years, often times being passed over for promotion for decades, without consequence.
The Black Class Action Lawsuit was filed in December 2020 to address these very issues, and while this Liberal government did not create many of the problems, their inaction to adequately address them, speaks louder than any of the platitudes that government representatives will respond to my criticism with.
They have failed to properly address racial disparities in their own house, can we expect anything different for Canadians?
In the end, the next five weeks, and possibly four years will consist of the Liberals hydroplaning over the surface of issues because it is politically expedient to do so, instead of doing the heavy lifting and getting to the root of systemic problems.
There are some big issues at play in this election: we are already immersed in the fourth wave of COVID-19; fires rage out West as the climate crisis takes things to a new level; the Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan; and Canadians are struggling with anxiety about the economic and social fallout of a global pandemic that just won’t go away.
As Gyptian says, “These are some serious times.” The question to ask yourself is: Do the Liberals have what it takes to handle these issues? Or will they continue to spend their way out of every problem, without seriously addressing real issues?
Former member of Parliament Celina Caesar-Chavannes quit the Liberal caucus in 2019 to represent her Whitby, Ont. riding as an independent
