The 2021 federal election has been decided and political analysts have looked at the results and concluded what the majority of Canadians already knew.
1. That this COVID-19 virus must be defeated as quickly as possible. Even if some Canadians deny that vaccination helps control it or that COVID-19 is even dangerous. In some provinces, hospitals are filled to over capacity and some patients are being moved to another province for care and other, less severe patients are sent home.
Some cancer patients and other elective surgeries are being put on a delayed schedule. Many provinces are demanding proof of double-vaccination or vaccination passports before people can gain entrance to stores or events. Talk of compulsory vaccination, which was never mentioned before, is now on every news channel.
2. Work on stopping and reversing climate change has already begun. Agricultural podcasts have started with university leaders explaining how to capture more carbon, reduce water runoff, improve water retention in soils, etc. Financial incentives are beginning to encourage farmers to buy in as soon as possible. Electric vehicles are also being promoted with cash incentives.
3. Getting businesses and people working seems to be a much tougher task. Some businesses have already closed their doors for good. Although many people have adjusted to working mostly from home, some others are happy to sit at home and get paid by the government to do so.
4. Reversing Canadian divisiveness will be our new federal government’s toughest challenge. In some of Canada’s western provinces oil has been the major part of their economy. Various divisions of the oil industry provided most of their jobs.
Some taxes that have been charged for years in other provinces have never been because of the profitable oil industry. A global shift away from the use of fossil fuels will create a tremendous job shortage in some provinces.
Meanwhile in the east of Canada there was been an increasing brain drain from Quebec as bilingual, well educated Quebecers have found better paying, less stressful jobs outside Quebec.
Some laws that were created to make the majority French speaking population more comfortable, like the sign law that forced businesses to replace English signs with predominantly French signs, even in areas of Quebec with a very small French population, has made visitors and potential buyers from other provinces uneasy as to whether they could be served in English or even what was sold in that shop. Quebec road signs like “risque de brouillard” leaves many out of province tourists feeling uneasy.
More language laws in Quebec, like the law forcing businesses to operate only in French, have turned away many large and medium sized businesses or even their head offices. Some companies operate internationally and English has become the world language of commerce through no fault of Quebec.
With the businesses and head offices moving out of Quebec the higher paid employees that paid the highest taxes to the government also left. If the company left their shops or manufacturing in Quebec, it provided work, but lower paying blue collar jobs pay less taxes. Teachers, professors, nurses and doctors also have found higher pay outside Quebec.
Quebec has introduced many of these language laws to increase the French population in Quebec but the bilingual, well educated French have left as well as the English. Quebec’s latest proposed Bill 96 will even reduce the number of French youth from attending English CEGPS which allowed those who spoke French at home an opportunity to improve their English as they furthered their education. This ability to become bilingual would allow them to seek higher paying jobs that would have more interaction outside Quebec This would not affect the more affluent Quebec families who send their children to private or international schools which teach English and French. The English are not pushing the French out. The bilingual, well educated English and French are leaving Quebec for better paying jobs.
Reversing this divisiveness and jealousy will take some unpopular and tough decisions which will eventually lead to increased prosperity in both ends of the country.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
