Condemning scare tactics about socialism

By Letter to the Editor on November 20, 2020.

After receiving an email from MP Rachael Harder, I confess to being both flummoxed and appalled that during an international pandemic, a Canadian representative would borrow rhetorical flourishes from American conservatives, especially the Republican Party and conservative wings of the Democratic Party.
Given the aggressive undermining of the health-care system in Alberta by the UCP, the recent fiscal mismanagement amounting to more than a billion dollars in lost funding, and the sneaky, underhanded tactics used to fire teachers’ assistants prior to that, perhaps one should not be surprised by fear-mongering about socialism.
A party that somehow thinks it can resurrect the old days of oil wealth with sheer force of will, regardless of the environmental impact, should perhaps not be trusted with one’s ideological leadership and direction. This is also the party responsible for creating a local health-care crisis by shutting down the supervised injection site without creating any type of stopgap or replacement – even after this very representative spoke out in the local newspaper about the humanitarian concerns of “encouraging” addicts.
And yet, I find myself faced with McCarthyist tactics such as this scaremongering about “socialism.” This Cold War-era preaching against the fearful dangers of socialism signals the type of rapacious politics this party truly endorses.
It is, of course, the CPC and Ms. Harder’s right to believe and support whatever they like, as long as it doesn’t amount to hate speech or violence.
But the death by inches inflicted upon the most vulnerable members of this province is very cohesive with “anti-socialist” propaganda. We must push back on this dog-whistling and dehumanizing line of thought.
The AUPE and CUPE members who are striking need to be supported, and the cuts to our health care reversed. The sheer fiscal mismanagement from a party ballyhooing spending from the NDP is the height of absurd hypocrisy. Further, it suggests dangerous tendencies borrowed from American politicians.
If I wished to live in America, I would move there. Since I value our supportive infrastructure, I will instead condemn and excoriate the UCP’s actions, and the CPC and Ms. Harder’s support of them, with the sharpest words I can command.
Michelle Browne
Lethbridge