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Armand, I believe you're wrong about the
convergence. What I see going on is a divergence, in Canada at least and
perhaps in the US as well. We now seem to have two pretty distinct views
of Canada, the neo-con view as exemplified in the recent budget and the liberal
view (neo, small l, large L or whatever). These are very different visions
of Canada. The neo-con view will let the provinces do their own thing and
define their own futures. There will be equalization payments to keep the
poorer provinces alive, but they will be made more grudgingly. The concept
of national programs -- child care, equality of education and health services,
etc. -- will be whittled away. And as far as Native people are
concerned, we are losing patience so they damn well better get jobs and look
after themselves. Hence the demise of the Kelowna Accord.
Given this rightward move, the Liberals and the
NDP, champions of the national approach to programming, will have no choice but
to move leftward. They will have to become champions of a Canada that
Pearson, Trudeau, Tommy Douglas and, yes, even Diefenbaker saw. I would be
willing to bet that within the next few (Tory) years the NDP will merge with the
Liberals because ideologically there will be no point to a separate
existence.
Anyhoooo, given the budget and a few other things
including tea leaves, that's how I see it.
Ed
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