Category: Canadian politics

"Greed is Good " But Capitalism is Better

Here is my original defense of capitalism and critique of the themes in Wall Street money never sleeps. Capitalism has improved more lives and created more wealth than any other economic model that has been adopted in world history. And yes I will see the film eventually.

Wall Street Journal online

Hollywood wants its heroes to be virtuous, but it defines virtue in a way that excludes any action that is self-interested. If virtue means putting others ahead of self, then it’s clear that most people, let alone most capitalists, aren’t very virtuous. As a result, the one Hollywood defense of capitalism that everyone knows is Gordon Gekko’s speech from “Wall Street”: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” But even if Gekko’s defense has an element of truth, it’s uninspiring, which is why Gekko remains the villain of “Wall Street,” and not the hero.


A better defense of capitalism is to focus on capitalist virtues. In “The Pursuit of Happyness,” for example, Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman played by Will Smith, confronts adversity with hard work, creativity, ambition and intelligence. “The Pursuit of Happyness” is syrupy at times, but the story of Gardner’s rise from homelessness to a successful job as a stockbroker is full of drama and uplift, which makes it all the more surprising that more films don’t use the business world as the setting for great cinema.

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Do As I Say

Source Free Thinking Film Festival Ottawa2010


Hypocrites come in all shapes and sizes. And when it comes to politics, hypocrisy is just part of the game. But the press only tends to cover half the story. For decades, the American people have benefited from the media’s meticulous investigation of hypocrisy among conservative leaders. Meanwhile, liberal hypocrisy gets a free pass.


But not anymore.


In a film that will forever change how we see America and its leaders, filmmakers Nicholas Tucker and Lucas Abel take us on an unforgettable journey through a political landscape filled with hypocrites and humbugs. Along the way, they reveal a disturbing national truth: that the two-faced mantra “do as I say, not as I do” has become the unwritten golden rule of some of our most prominent liberal leaders. 

The Godfather of the Tim Hortons Party

Maxine Bernier is a light  for  liberty and freedom that shines throughout Canada.

Source John Ivison

So far, the popular storm that has given birth to the Tea Party in the United States has only produced provincial squalls in Canada. Yet, Mr. Bernier is one of the few links between the disparate movements that are united by their discontent at big, interventionist government.


He has emerged as a champion of zero budget growth and has spoken out against the Harper government’s habit of buying votes through baubles such as the proposed new hockey stadium in Quebec City.


Mr. Bernier himself downplays the prospect he could form a Canadian Tea Party, or move provincially. “I’m a Conservative. And these [less government, more freedom] are Conservative ideas,” he said.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak’s Three Priorities

It’s not hard to make priorities when you listen to the people and you know what you want to do.
Source Ottawa Citizen

“We’ve set three priorities for this session,” Hudak says of his Opposition MPPs. The first will be defending “the family budget” from the increasing burden of taxes and fees in Ontario.


Hudak says one message came through loud and clear during a summer spent touring the province: “Life is increasingly unaffordable under Dalton McGuinty.”


Priority 2 for the Tories will be cashing in on the growing public anger with hydro rates. Hudak said he will be attacking runaway growth in bureaucracy and rates in Ontario’s energy sector that are crushing family budgets and “turning the lights off” at industrial employers.


The second priority will include attacking the $7-billion wind and solar power deal the Liberals have signed with Korean giant Samsung — the one that’s supposed to produce thousands of green jobs in Windsor and Essex County.


And finally, the third priority for the PCs this fall will be “rooting out waste in the government and redirecting it to services,” Hudak says.


That third priority includes Hudak continuing his attacks on the Local Health Integration Networks, which his party says divert $250 million per year away from front-line health care to an unneeded and unwanted new layer of health care bureaucracy in Ontario.


The only part of their recent record the Liberals seemed to want to defend Monday was the $50 tax credit for children’s activities the party announced this month. And even that bit of supposed good news is more of “an insult” to working families than it is a tax credit, Hudak scoffs.