David Staples: Letter to friends and family who plan to vote Liberal

Dear friends and family planning to vote Liberal: I’ve listened to you. You’ve said you’re either voting Liberal or leaning there. That’s fair enough.

First off, it’s a free country. You voting your conscience and your interest is critical to that process. Second, you are friends and family.



You’re dear to me, always will be, no matter what party you support. As you know, I’ve voted Liberal and NDP in the past. It’s never easy to change parties.

The reaction of old friends is often hostile. Just now, I’m voting for change. As I see it, Canada is desperate for a new path.

Before you cast your ballot, I’m reaching out. All of us fear the huge, growing divide between Canadians, between left and right, East and West, male and female, Black, white and brown, gay, lesbian and straight. I fear that same gap might grow between us.

In making clear why I’m voting for change, I hope to answer some of your concerns. Maybe you’ll see things differently. Conservatives have been out of power for a decade at the federal level.

In many ways, they richly had that coming. Simply put, they had too much hostility for folks unlike themselves, from marijuana smokers to women seeking abortions, from Indigenous people to gays and lesbians. But I’ll suggest that dynamic has changed considerably.

Social conservatism — once a driving force in Canadian politics — has made way for more tolerance, including within the Conservative party. For example, party Leader Pierre Poilievre has made it clear he’s pro-choice. But if he ever did budge from that pledge, he’d face a revolt in his own party.

I know you’re worried about acceptance and equality. You want to make sure all Canadians of any colour, creed or orientation get a fair shake. This matter of conscience has become the top priority for me, as I’m the father of four young men.

It’s why I support a sharp change away from the new Liberal status quo on equality. A new form of racism and sexism now grips many Canadian institutions and businesses, one that systematically discriminates against white and Asian men in job hiring and promotion. Mark Carney is a leader of a social movement that, in essence, supported selling out these men so that folks in other groups could get ahead.

Perhaps there was good reason for this policy push. But I see rising despair and anger in young men. Many of you who have faced discrimination against your own group in the past should grasp the pain it causes better than anyone.

The Conservatives promise to end this new racism and sexism. The Liberals have a blind spot and will bring more of the same. I’ve heard you say you’re worried about climate change.

I’ll suggest there’s one sure path ahead, but it’s not the one Carney will take. His path will see federal policy force the adoption of energy systems — from the cars we drive to household appliances, from our manufacturing sector to farming — that are far more expensive and inefficient. This will in turn make everything we do and produce more expensive, especially in comparison to the colossal nations states that scoff at Carney’s approach, such as the U.

S., China and India. The sure path? Focus on creating abundant energy for the world so all can join in our prosperity, mainly by bringing on no-emission nuclear power, something both Conservatives and Liberals now support, but also by exporting our low emission LNG to coal-burning in China, India and Europe, a plan the Conservatives push but the Liberals have thwarted.

You say you fear U.S. President Donald Trump.

With Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and policy, who doesn’t? But how can we stand up to Trump if we handcuff and strangle our own economy? Carney promises to put extra taxes and continue with excessive red-tape on Canadian industry, a path that is a proven failure in struggling Canada and Europe. How much more investment will flee Canada to the U.S.

or Asia, where business is far more free to expand and innovate? How many more businesses will depart, not to mention the best of our young men leaving for greater opportunity and sickened by Canada’s targeted discrimination. Finally, I’ll mention the last decade of higher crime, greater public disorder and out-of-control immigration. If the Liberals ever took responsibility for their policy mess, I’d be more open to them.

But they refuse. They gloss over it. I see it as a responsibility to hold them to account.

But mostly, I hope all my children can prosper in Canada. For those reasons, I’m voting for change. dstaples@postmedia.

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