Summary of political beliefs

[D.R.M.]

A lot of these issues are unique to Canada, so don't be surprised if you aren't too familiar with a lot of them.


Social Policy

Same-Sex Marriage: Marriage is a civil institution with the function of legally uniting people who love each other, at least in their own eyes. Any two people who think they love one another should be allowed to get married. This means couples of the same gender should be able to get married. If theocrats really believed marriage was “sanctioned by god” this would mean atheists or followers of a different religion couldn’t get married, clearly something against human rights as civilly determined.

Abortion: I support abortion on demand up to the Third Trimester. In the Third Trimester abortion would be allowed for health issues.

De facto Secularism: The only religious reasons that ought to be considered when drafting or debating bills in the Senate or House of Commons should be that of religious liberty. End the State-funded Catholic School System in Ontario and keep Faith-Based Arbitration out of the legal system.

Intellectual Freedom: Support the right to state ideas in any medium which aren’t slanderous, defamatory, or libelous in exception to advertisements.

Drugs: Legalize “soft drugs” and treat drug abuse as a health rather than criminal matter and fine users of “hard drugs”.   

Stem Cell Research: Should be legal and supported, if not funded, by the federal government.

Immigration: Keep Canada’s current immigration laws, as is.

Euthanasia: Doctors should be able to kill somebody in unbearable pain/no chance of survival with their consent. 

Health Policy

Healthcare: Stop creeping privatization; keep Canada’s single-payer public healthcare system, and fund research & development into medical technologies. Anyone under 20 should have access to government funded dental care.

Daycare: Fund a federal daycare program for children and offer tax credits to stay at home parents.

Tobacco: Ban smoking in public places, put a 90% tax on cigarettes (on top of the GST) and keep the ban on cigarette advertisements. Use revenue from the tax to fund programs that help smokers quit.

Anthropogenic Climate Change & Pollution: Subsidize automobile industries that produce “green cars” and industries working with to develop environmentally-friendly energy sources. Extensively fund research & development into alternative energy sources and impose a progressive carbon tax.

Drugs: Continue educating school children on the dangers of drugs, use fines from hard drug users to invest in Drug Rehabilitation Centres.     

Alcohol: Keep the legal drinking age as is in Canada (18 years). Continue to teach children and the public at large about the dangers of alcohol abuse and fund rehabilitation centres. Place a 2% tax on alcohol on top of the GST. 

Trans Fat: Impose a 12% tax on anything with Trans fat on top of the GST.

Sexual Education:Teach Junior High School and High School Students about the dangers of unprotected sex and on how to use a condom. When going through birth control methods, mention abstinence.

Crime: Keep Canada free of capital punishment. Prisoners convicted of violent crimes should be forced to preform labour which will generate income for the prison. The prison should use the income for rehabilitation programs. Introduce mandatory minimum sentences for child molesters and do not let child molesters out of prison unless surgically or chemically castrated (as in California)

Government Reform

Head of State: The Monarchy is an anachronistic and aristocratic institution, decided by heritage rather than merit. It’s out of place in a country with equality rights embedded in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Monarchy discriminates on the basis of religion, baring Catholics and all non-Anglicans from the thrown. “Defender of the Faith” as part of the Canadian Monarch’s title shows how at odds with a country of multiple faiths the institution is. The Monarchy would be replaced with a Governor-General elected by Parliament, akin to the President of Ireland, with the approval of the Commonwealth of Nations, hence making Canada a Commonwealth Republic. The office of Governor-General would be mandated by the constitution to be nonreligious/secular. Canada’s horrible citizenship oath, as a result, would lack reference to the Queen.

Electoral System: Merge electoral districts of smaller population together to create multi-member constituencies. That is, districts that sends more than one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons. To be precise, there would be four MPs from each multi-member district. Candidates must have a certain quota of votes to be elected (the Droop Quota). In essence, elections to the House of Commons would be done with the single transferable vote system.

Senate Reform: Democratize the Canadian Senate, elect members to the Canadian Senate through the single transferable vote system. Increase the number of days the Senate has to sit.

De jure Secularism: Remove “God” from the Preamble to the Canadian Constitution and add on “Freedom from and of Religion” to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Amend the constitution to bar Federal, Provincial, or Municipal Governments from giving preference to one religion over another in any way.

Aboriginal Governance: Give First Nations reserve councils more autonomy and money, as the aboriginal population is booming on reserves. Also elect an additional Member of Parliament from each province to represent reverse and aboriginal interests. 

Civil Service: Make civil servants record their spending and publish records of their spending on their department’s website each month. Additionally implement U.K. style reforms, with the exception of privatization, to the civil service in order to make it more effective and efficient.

Foreign Policy

Trade: Placing tariffs on foreign products usually hurts impoverished third world producers. But trade, as currently conducted, benefits the multinational “middlemen” more so than the producers. This is why we should renegotiate trade agreements to give third world producers a more equitable share and place high tariffs on products made in sweatshops or by child labour. In summary, Fair Trade.

United Nations: Hold elections to determine Canada’s Ambassador to the UN and try to reform the Human Rights Council to get Human Rights Violators off it. Give 0.7 % of Canada’s GDP to UN humanitarian aid programs and increase the number of Peacekeepers supplied by Canada by a third and follow up on Canada’s peacekeeping dues.     
 
Israel/Palestine: Condemn human rights abuses by Israel in the Occupied Territories. Condemn terrorism of Hamas. Officially support absorbing the “Occupied Territories” into Israel and giving all Palestinian residents citizenship in a secular/multicultural Israeli democracy (One State Solution). 

Fiscal and Economic Policy

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Require everyone with a television to get a Television license, as to fund the CBC.

Labour Unions: Encourage labour unions and pass anti-Strikebreaking legislation to protect workers on strike.

Taxes: Keep the GST at 6%. Increase corporate income tax, both domestic and foreign. Introduce taxes on cigarettes, alcohol, Trans fatty foods, and a carbon tax (as stated above). Keep most personal income taxes as are, except increase taxes on those making 3 million dollars a year and above to 40% of their income taxed. Eliminate tax shelters in the Upper Income Brackets (those earning 126,000 - 3 million [my new tax scheme introduced the 3 million and over bracket] and those earning 3 millon and over).

Corporations: Aside from increasing their taxes, try and limit the number of corporations chartered and encourage sole proprietorships over corporations.

Telecommunications: Create “Canada Telephone Service”, a nationalized crown corporation dealing with telephone services.

Pensions: Make regulations to prevent employers from under-funding pensions.

Minimum Wage: Let collective bargaining decide that. 

Work Week: Introduce a 35 hour work week.

Tuition: Give out Australian-style tuition rebates to students who stay in Canada after finishing university.   

Universities: Increase funding for Universities by 12%.

ATM Fees: Ban ATM fees.

Cooperatives and Credit Unions: Issue statements of moral support for these organizations.

Science

Canadian Space Agency: Mandate the agency to cooperate more with privately-run space organizations, such as Canadian Arrow, to put Canada on the “space exploration map”, so to speak.

Evolution: Encourage Provincial governments to make evolution crucial in high school biology curriculum.