Author: Pete Vere

Well, he’s not Ann Coulter, but St. Blog’s very own John Pacheco has thrown his hat into the upcomming provincial election in Ontario. John’s running for the Family Coalition Party, which with the homosexual marriage issue still fresh in people’s minds, has the potential to break into major party status this election. (FCP is already the largest of Ontario’s fringe parties and has been steadilly gaining for years.) John’s playing a particularly important role for the FCP, in that in Canadian politics the leader of the party must run for legislative office. John’s running against Dalton Camp, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. Dalton, as I previously mentioned, has the backbone of a paralyzed squid. You can stop and visit John’s campaign website at Pacheco.ca. Please keep John in prayer and offer him encouragement.

With a couple elections looming or in full gear, there’s a number of interesting comments over at Musings, the weblog of Enter Stage Right. Many of them concern the sorry state of conservative politics in Canada. I can sympathize, particularly with regards to the provincial election in Ontario. Although she has gotten somewhat of a bad rap across St. Blog in recent weeks, what we really need in Canada is a visit from Ann Coulter.

Let’s look at the leaders of the three major parties. Ernie Eves is the current Premier of Ontario and the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. (Keep in mind this party tends to emphasize the adjective more than the noun). He’s currently shacked up with some woman who heads a state-funded television station. He’s also flip-flopped on the gay marriage issue. Fiscally, he’s nowhere as brave as his predecessor. So basically, if Ernie Eves were an American politician, he would be the 1996 election campaign — he’s got the morality of Bill Clinton and the fiscal policy and charisma of Bob Dole.

Moving on to Dalton McGuinty, Jr., head of the liberal party. Dalton became MPP when his father, Dalton McGuinty, Sr., suffered an untimely death during his term of office as a Liberal member of provincial parliament. Dalton Sr. was a good Catholic and solid pro-lifer. Dalton Camp Sr. can justly be compared to Democrat Governor Bob Casey who stood up to Clinton over the abortion issue. McGuinty Jr., unfortunately, never seemed to have come out of a teenage rebellion and thus couldn’t wait to jettison his father’s moral legacy. I cannot really compare Junior to any American politician — it’s hard to envision Janet Reno as effeminate, but calling Junior a Kennedy Catholic would concede too much orthodoxy. Regardless, Dalton McGuinty Jr. is the type of politician that would make you seriously consider voting for Jesse Jackson if he were the only alternative.

The last of the three major leaders is Howard Hampton, leader of the socialist NDP. Howie’s basically a cross between Grimace from the McDonald’s commercials in terms of personality and Al Sharpton in terms of policy. What distinguishes him from Dalton in terms of leadership is that Howie is at least honest.

Canadians are raised to believe that our universal and socialized healthcare system is superior to the healthcare system in America. In fact, this is a topic of frequent debate in our family because my parents still believe it. Even Canadian conservatives have long accepted this claim as fact. In my latest Enter Stage Right column, I compare our family’s experience with the healthcare systems in both countries.

Here’s an excerpt: “Yet Canadians forget that our universal health system is not free; it comes from the high taxes our government collects. In contrast, I pay no Florida state income tax under Governor Jeb Bush. And what about President George W. Bush, the Governor’s brother, who recently lowered my federal tax rate? Dare I mention that before President Bush’s tax cuts, I still paid a lot less in taxes each year than what my best friend and former accountant from back home tells me I would have paid as a Canadian resident under Jean Chretien’s regime?

“Now add the fact my wife is a stay at home mother and the U.S. tax code permits joint tax returns for married couple. In contrast, as many Canadian social conservatives so aptly point out, the Canadian tax code penalizes married couples. And the premiums I pay for family health coverage in the United States are deducted from my taxable income. Thus when my wife and I add up what we pay each year in taxes, health insurance premiums and deductibles for medical services, we would pay more in taxes if we still lived in the Dominion of Socialized Healthcare.”