Jagmeet Singh: Canada’s 21st Century Man
As the Conservatives flirt with Nazis and Trudeau flirts with Trump, Canadians everywhere are joining the NDP for Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh.
Jagmeet Singh is starting to look like Canada’s new standard-bearer for the global uprising against runaway capitalism that unites supporters of Bernie, Trumop, Brexit, and Corbyn in common cause. And in the days after Charlottesville’s Unite The Right Rally, as White Nationalist violence reverberates around the world, Canadians everywhere are taking a moment to reflect on Nazis marching in the street in 2017.
In the months since the May 28 CPC Leadership Race, the Conservative Party has continued its dangerous flirtation with The Rebel Media, a controversy-baiting digital media outlet that vehemently defended the White Nationalist groups in Charlottesville. These self-described Neo-Nazi groups, which violently attacked peaceful clergy in the morning before Heather Heyer was killed, have been widely condemned by organizations including the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The Rebel Media prominently features Gavin McInnes, creator of the Proud Boys, a “Western Chauvinist” organization, members of which were at this weekend’s White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
Relying largely on foreign funding from viewers and donors (aka “Premium Content Subscribers”), from around the world, they have become a clickbait factory of hate. From their social media pages to their youtube subscribers, there is a clear prevalence of US-based Trump supporters backing The Rebel’s work online. And now that the knives are out for Ezra Levant as The Rebel suddenly finds itself having to distance itself from the alt-right, McInnes’ weak response to the participation of his organization’s members in the violent KKK rally was to “disavow”. Words that are too little and too late for victims like Heather Heyer and the worshippers recently killed by domestic terrorism here in Canada.
White Nationalist Nazi-sympathizers are marching in the streets, Ezra Levant’s Rebel Media defends them, and elements of their movement are committing acts of mass murder on both sides of the border. We already defeated these ideas once. It’s time to do it again.
Canada has been lacking political leadership for too long.
Justin Trudeau is the kind of guy who fawns over himself for appointing a representative cabinet without seeing the hypocrisy of paternalistically taking credit for giving them power. They still have to answer to him, an ego-obsessed white man who, like Trump, grew up riding the coattails of his rich and powerful father. Great at politicking but lacking in moral fibre, Trudeau is a career politician raised by the elder PM Trudeau and seemingly ruled by Political Expediency. In DC with Trump, Trudeau flexed his handshake arm for the cameras then turned around and gave Trump exactly what he wants by boosting military spending by $60 Billion. Hopefully, this was a lazy attempt to appease Trump and not a serious commitment to spend money that could go to Indigenous communities on Armed Predator Drones, the weapon of choice for America’s imperialist aggression around the world.
On the environment, Trudeau giddily signed the Paris Accord after authorizing pipelines that will scar the landscape for countless generations, risk spills, and increase global GHG emissions while lining the pockets of fossil fuel industry shareholders. On LGBT rights, he marches in Pride then turns around and authorizes Harper’s sale of tanks to Saudi Arabia, a country known to be allowing its military and police to murder trans people in the street, saying it’s important to “keep our commitments”. Congrats, Justin, you and Gerald may be effective administrators for continuing Harper’s racist legacy but that isn’t what real leadership looks like.
In the NDP, something important is happening. A young, progressive, hip Sikh MP from the GTA named Jagmeet Singh has skyrocketed to national prominence, building a broad cross-generational, cross-class, cross-race coalition that’s beating Trudeau’s record-breaking leadership race fundraising numbers.
What’s he doing differently? Jagmeet is expressing the shared frustration of millions who continue to experience the squeeze of stagnating quality of life despite a lifetime of hard work in an economy that is supposedly growing. It’s part of what unites the followers of Bernie, Trump, Brexit, Corbyn, and a growing number of Canadians.
As we reach late-stage Capitalism and robots/AI replace many blue and white-collar jobs, the newfound efficiencies enjoyed by businesses like Loblaw’s go disproportionately to the profits of billionaire shareholders like Galen Weston. Even discussing an attempt to fix this fundamental flaw of capitalism is often excitedly labeled “wealth redistribution” by panicky right-wing pundits but Jagmeet’s website lays out a clear and achievable fair taxation plan that gets to the root of the issue. He proposes increasing taxes on capital gains and creating a 40% tax on inheritances over $4 million (exempting primary residences so it won’t cover family farms or that Cabbagetown semi-detached you hope to own one day).
As the Liberals continue to busy themselves with bending over backwards for Trump, the NDP looks ready to put forward Singh, a candidate committed to building the fair 21st Century economy that millions of Canadians from all sides of the spectrum are waiting for.
