I can’t understand why this paper continues to publish the gibberish of Tom Fletcher who pontificates ultra-right wing conservative idealism as if only he had a direct line to God on the meaning of truth and wisdom.
We have a person who seems to prefer a country of war hawks, environmental abusers, climate change deniers and perceives unionists and the poor to be social demagogues. He seems to stand for the pursuit of wealth above all else, abhors social programs such as healthcare and public education and would prefer starvation for the poor over programs to bring people out of poverty and ensuring everyone can exist at a basic level of human decency.
In last week’s schizophrenic column he discusses Canadian culture. First he implies that the U.S. doesn’t let us have our own culture because he has not learned about the metric system. Then he implies that we should be happy and keep our mouths shut with Trumps election as president despite the fact that he has clearly come across as a racist, white supremacist, homophobic who treats women and girls as objects for abuse. He suggests we should admire Kellie Leitch who accepts some of Trumps regressive attitudes. He seems to be very much in favour of screening immigrants for anti-Canadian values, as if any hopeful immigrant is going to insist they are ISIS terrorists and believe in weapons of mass destruction.
Perhaps he thinks that all immigrants should be white Europeans.
Fletcher pooh-poohs Justin Trudeau’s statements that rather than a true single Canadian identity we are a people with a belief in some significant and core values such as free speech, respect for basic human rights, equity and justice. He implies that being identified as “generically nice” is a bad thing!
With the exception of our horrible experiment to assimilate our First Nations people, what defines us is that we have attempted to have a cultural mosaic of all the nationalities making up the Canadian people rather than the American melting-pot approach. I agree we have a proud military history but I am most proud of the role we have played as peacekeepers in conjunction with the United Nations. I much prefer that Canadians be viewed as “hall monitors” to being viewed as school yard bullies. It’s time for Fletcher to put his tainted pen down and become a politician who as proud Canadians we can reject.
Terry Green
Summerland