If We Were Serious

So, what if we were actually serious about stuff?

Climate Change – We are destroying this planet. If we were serious about addressing this, we would abolish the use of coal as a fuel source right now. We would forbid any use of 100% fossil fuel-powered vehicles within ten years, allowing hybrids for perhaps a decade after that, then abolishing the use of any fossil fuels in transportation vehicles thereafter. 

We would also set aside public investment cash and provide tax incentives for conversion of auto manufacturing from fossil fuel vehicles to clean technology vehicles, perhaps requiring that a certain percentage of vehicles that are sold here must also be produced here. We would require that industry reduce their use of fossil fuels by 5% per year, every year for twenty years, until they used none whatsoever. At that time, the use of fossil fuels as an energy source by anyone, anywhere would be illegal.  

Finally, we would set aside an investment fund for Alberta to assist that province with moving from a fossil fuel powered economy, to whatever may come next.

Fentanyl Crisis – This stuff kills three to four times the number of people who die in car accidents every year. If we were serious about stopping this parade of death, we would immediately forbid the production and sale of this murderous opioid by anyone, anywhere – it does way more harm than any good it could possibly do, and other pain control medications are readily available.  

We would charge anyone caught with enough Fentanyl to traffic it for profit with an indictable offence, punishable by a minimum sentence of five years in a federal penitentiary.  Anyone caught actually dealing this stuff with the result being the death of another person, would be charged with criminal negligence causing death, with a minimum sentence of fifteen years in a federal penitentiary.  

We also need a publicity campaign directed at these people – do the crime, and you will do the time. Drug addicts should be able to benefit from a new, massive, national effort to treat their addictions, including very wide-ranging and readily available recovery programs and facilities.   

Other than Fentanyl, which is likely not safe in any amount, we should decriminalize all hard drugs, treating addiction as a health issue not a criminal issue. Finally, we would sue Big Pharma for recovery of all the health costs associated with their murderous concoction.

Debt – We are heading for bankruptcy both at the government and personal level. If we were serious about addressing the fact that public debt in Canada is now 110% of GDP, while private debt of citizens is now about 175% of GDP (…the highest debt ratio on planet earth on a private debt to GDP ratio), we would balance the federal and provincial budgets within 24 months, and start running small surpluses.  

We would also allow for a debt swap - citizens could replace high interest private sector debt with low interest public sector debt so that, for example, private credit card debt could be exchanged for lower interest debts owing to the Crown. This should be subject to a requirement that the citizen in question not take on any more net private debt than they had prior to undertaking the swap. 

This proposal means that the Feds would have to buy this private debt, but it could then negotiate reductions in the related interest rates with private sector financial institutions. This swap would not include mortgages which are secured against property and which are already heavily insured by the CMHC. 

At the same time, and for those who will get into financial difficulty, we would ease the bankruptcy laws to allow citizens to get out of debt more easily, in a way that is planned and predictable – this is coming anyway; we may as well plan for it. 

Note that some of these initiatives will drive private lenders bonkers, but they are the ones who have lent way too much money to way too many citizens, and these institutions are going to lose tens of Billions of dollars in the looming recession anyway. Many of these institutions will become insolvent, and will seek public sector support to stay afloat…we may as well get ahead of this by making resolving this situation as palatable as possible for everyone.    

Further, we would also double the amount that citizens can save in their tax-free savings accounts so that new savings may offset their older debt. We would increase funding for post-secondary education, to reduce the future debt burdens of today’s students. We would raise the minimum down payment on the purchase of a home to 15% where the mortgage will be insured by CMHC to reduce the accumulation of new mortgage debt.  

Finally, we would require reporting of all private debt on income tax returns, and anyone who has more than 200% of their income in debt would face a small surtax designed to limit any future borrowing.  

Child Porn – This may be a silent epidemic. If we were serious about this, we would mandate a ten year prison term for anyone caught watching this after a set and publicly disseminated cut-off date before which they could delete this from their computers and stop accessing the horror sites associated with it.  

Anyone caught producing this should face a mandatory twenty year prison term in a federal penitentiary – there would be obvious exceptions for people taking pictures and videos of their kids. 

Anyone caught viewing this on their computer or elsewhere, or producing this would be barred from being within three meters of a child under the age of 16 for the rest of their lives, and they would never be permitted to access the internet unsupervised ever again, even after serving their prison sentences. We would also make this an international crime – if you view it or produce it anywhere on earth, Canada’s laws cover you.  

We would massively fund police efforts to trace and combat this, including allowing police to access personal computers both via incursions from the Internet, and by attending freely at homes and simply seizing computers they suspect of having this stuff on them. We would massively ramp up support for children caught in this vile web, including a new publicity campaign to stop this. Finally, we would ramp up psychological treatment of the perpetrators, many of whom were themselves abused. We need to stop this cycle.

Gun Violence – Our youth and others are being gunned down with increasing regularity. This is leaving citizens feeling unsafe in a way that they have never felt unsafe before.  

Addressing this is simple – allow the cops to access any home or auto and simply seize illegal firearms. There could be no charges from such actions as it offends rights against search and seizure, but once the illegal guns have been seized, it is not as if anyone will be able to sue for their return. Much of the violence is gang related – the cops likely know who is in the gangs and who likely has guns. Seize their guns and save their lives, and the lives of others.  

Match this with a campaign to move youth away from the gang-banger culture, to one where they may grow to lead normal, productive lives. 

The answers are clear.  Where is the political will?