Maybe, and just hear me out, maybe they should have spent money on things that help regular Canadians, instead of things that further enrich the rich.
Of course, that implies that the point wasn't to further enrich the rich, and that the Liberals wouldn't prefer to switch seats with the Conservatives every few years, as long as the money train keeps running.
I agree, but to some degree, people own their government, and this government is, more than many, responsible for much of the causes
of climate change.
I'd say the same thing if Florida sinks into the sea, or South Texas and Louisiana are swamped, or north Alberta catches fire.
It's hysterical to hear right-wing commentary about how New York Democrats are socialist Marxist communist hippies when the reality has much more goose-stepping to it.
It's amazing how only one side doesn't want to appear partisan, while the other one is openly talking about jailing opponents, dissidents and the media..
They are playing the same game they always have: use carrots like this to get voters to the polls, and hold off on those carrots until an election year.
The problem is that it doesn’t reliably work. Progressive voters just see three and half years of very little progress and six months of fearmongering and pandering, which causes as much or more apathy than it does engagement.
If you look at what the Right does, by comparison, it’s interesting. They throw red meat to their base on day one, and keep it up for the entire term. They know that they need to keep the base pumped and expecting results, which is a big reason why conservative voters turn out at much higher rates: they feel listened to.
Wait, the threat to capitalism from the modern Democratic Party, which is a bunch of weak-kneed neoliberal do-nothings, is worse than the threat of fascism from a guy who said he's willing to use the power of the state to punish enemies?
Ask the Russian oligarchs that fell down stairs, out of windows, ran into mysterious rains of bullets and/or drank radioactive tea how they feel about selling out democracy for profit.
Oh wait, you can't ask them.
These nitwits don't realize that even if they're not the first line in Niemoller's poem, they'll at best be the last.
Maybe y'all should have spent the time making things better for poor people in real, measurable ways, instead of fellating billionaires.
Maybe, just maybe, that would have avoided the rise of right-wing demagogues promising easy fixes for the problems created by the inaction of the neoliberal establishment.
But no, it was more important to make sure that the rich got richer than to worry about democracy.
The Liberals could have done this eight years ago, or even three years ago.
That they didn't until their collective backs are up against the wall tells you that they never really intended to do this because, done this late, it will be trivial for the incoming Conservative government to undo.
If you want examples of things that a political party really means to do, look at what they do early in their administation. In the Liberals' case, this pretty much amounts to "nothing" because Liberals, provinicially and federally, actively try to do as little as possible, "leading from behind" and doing only that which is performative and/or designed to offend as few people possible. The LPC really wanted to buy TMX for Alberta, for example. They did not want to do electoral or tax reform or pharmacare or what-have-you because they saved it for an election-year bribe.
Another really good example is Mike Harris' Ontario: he wrecked the welfare state on day one, ramming through the common-sense revolution platform in his first year so that it would be impossible for his successor to undo.
Doctors are compensated this way because our tax system punishes wage earners, so this setup was done to allow them to make more money without fixing the overall issue of fairness.
Maybe, and just hear me out, maybe they should have spent money on things that help regular Canadians, instead of things that further enrich the rich.
Of course, that implies that the point wasn't to further enrich the rich, and that the Liberals wouldn't prefer to switch seats with the Conservatives every few years, as long as the money train keeps running.