Fear Mongering at its Finest
It looks like the federal government has expanded its campaign of trying to frighten Canadians into the international sphere. Our foreign minister, Lawrence Cannon, tested out the new strategy at a recent speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto recently. No doubt the elite were empowered and gratified to hear that our country, in addition to protecting the interests of our citizens at home, imagines itself charged with the responsibility to deliver safety and freedom across the entire globe, all for our benefit when we travel.
As reported in the Toronto Daily Star by reporter Linda Diebel, Cannon delivered a speech that was "dark and described a bleak and scary world" riddled with terrorism, drug dealing and crime. The nuclear threat posed by Iran and North Korea featured prominently too, just in case the other concerns weren't enough to make us truly frightened.
Just what is this all about? Do they think their scare mongering about imaginary crime waves at home is so successful they just want to go Big on the international stage too? Or is the scare mongering about Canada not successful enough, so they are adding the international component to jack up the volume? Maybe it's just posing for the G-20 Summit this summer, which is what his speech was supposed to be about.
Whatever the reason for it, I don't like it, and I don't think scare mongering Canadians into a perpetual state of fear does anyone much good, especially when the boogey-men are so often imaginary, and the facts to support their contentions just aren't there. In fact, the truth is the opposite, in the case of the alleged crime wave they are using to justify their increased criminal sanctions against Canadians.
If only we could find politicians, and a political party with a positive vision for Canada, instead of the Orwellian double talk and blatant disregard for the truth that is this government's specialty. I'm sick of being manipulated, and sick of living with a government that thinks it's appropriate to frighten its citizens.
