The Election

Sadly, I haven't and won't have much time for commenting on the election.

So in short, my preference this election is for the Liberals. I see Stephane Dion as an intelligent person with integrity who shares my primary concerns (environmental issues, child poverty) and the green tax shift is very smart policy in my opinion. Watching the debate, I get the sense that Dion is also aware of the threat posed by peak oil, realizing that moving away from dependence on oil and gas for our energy needs is the key to our propserity going forward.

Second choice would be Green and then NDP third, although I think voting Green instead of voting for the greenest mainstream leader we're likely to see for a while is counter-productive unless one is a very hardcore Green.

Strategically, the best plan for progressive voters is probably an 'anything but conservative one', voting for whoever has the best chance of defeating the local Conservative one in your own riding. Luckily, for me in Vancouver centre, the best chance to beat the Conservatives is the Liberal candidate, Hedy Fry - so that's one way at least, that our archaic election system won't mess with my vote this election.

Some of the reasons I don't want to see the Conservatives in power:

1) The environment. The Conservatives have a mindset where environmental protection is in opposition to economic growth and economic growth takes precedence. I don't sense that the Conservative party believes in the threat from climate change or has any real intention of trying to do anything about it other than the minimum it can get away with. As an Alberta based party, they can't really be expected to lead the move away from dependence on fossil fuels either.

2) Iraq. If the Conservatives had been in power during the run-up to the Iraq war Canada would have joined in. Who knows what could be around the corner in terms of potential ill-advised military adventures in the next few years. Electing a Conservative party would increase the chances of Canada joining into such a venture.

3) Lack of conservatism - with a small 'c'. Someone with a conservative mindset generally wants to respect tradition, to limit growth in the power of the government, and to respect the checks and balances built into the political system. However, in my opinion, the Conservative party wishes to remake this country into one much more similar to the U.S., as opposed to the 'second tier socialistic country' (in Harper's words) that it is now (in their opinion).

But in pursuing this goal the Conservatives see the traditional institutions, the checks and balances as things that stand in their way. So, far from wanting to reinforce the strength of Canada's independent institutions that check the government's power and to work within the system, the Conservative's want to weaken those institutions and remove anything that prevents them from remaking the system as they wish. This was expressed by Harper in a rare moment of candour when he referred to how the courts and the media and the Senate and the civil service would prevent them from fully implementing their desired plans.

In government we have seen the Conservative party at war with the media, at war with Elections Canada, in a battle with the nuclear energy safety regulator and further Conservative government will lead, in my opinion, to more attacks on and more weakening of, the independent institutions that provide a check on the government.

4) Income inequality - My belief is that a reasonable equitable distribution of income is one of the primary foundations of a country that people want to live in. Conservative policies, in particular tax cuts for which the vast majority of the benefits go to the wealthy, tend to work against income equality, which I see as corrosive to the health of the country over the medium to long term.

5) Fiscal management - The Conservative party is made up of many strands and one of the few things they agree on is that they want to take power and they don't want to pay for government services. Wanting to take power leads them to increase spending, and not wanting to pay for government services leads them to cut taxes. The result is deficits, which we see time and time again from right wing governments. Given the still substantial public debts the country has, we need to keep paying down the debt further as quickly as reasonably possible and the Conservative party is the one I least trust to do that.

This is just off the top of my head, so I'm probably missing things, but that's a rough approximation of where my thought are for this election campaign.

Bravo to Our Primary & Secondary Schools

According to today's globe, Canadian students are falling back in OECD tests.

Meanwhile, according to the headline in the Vancouver Sun, B.C. students are among the world's best in reading, math and science (registration required).

Personally, I recommend going straight to the source, the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The report is free to download, and even if you don't like numbers and tables as much as I do, it still makes for fascinating reading.

Basically PISA has done two studies of reading, math and science skills among 15 year olds, the first in 2000 and the second in 2003.

Here are some of the key points about Canada's performance:

1) We rank near the top in math (5th in OECD) and reading (3rd), and a little bit further back in science (8th).

2) Neither our absolute or relative ranking has changed very significantly since 2000. The only statistically significant changes were an improvement in one area of mathematics, a small decrease in scores among our top scoring readers and a general (albeit small) decline in science.

3) Canada scores very high on almost all measures of equal opportunity for students. We have one of the smallest variations in score based on economic background, which school you attend, social background or immigrant status. On gender gaps we were roughly in the middle of the pack (girls do much better on reading, guys do a little better on math and it's a dead heat in science).

4) For those who like to compare us to the U.S., there is no comparison. The U.S. is below average on just about every measure while the reverse is true in Canada. And this is despite the U.S. spending roughly 33% more than we do per student ($79,716k vs $59,810 in equivalent U.S. dollars).


The only real messages I take out of it for us are:

1) The system is working pretty well, any suggestion of a crisis or a need for radical change should be viewed with deep suspicion.
2) We need to focus more effort on science education
3) The example of leaders such as Finland and Korea show that we could do even better if we have the will.
4) The Globe should take a lesson from the Vancouver Sun in writing accurate headlines. I can't imagine someone reading this report and not having the 'Canada is kicking ass' reaction outweigh the 'Canada is falling behind' reaction.

I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement or that we should just sit back and relax, just that we should acknowledge that what we have is pretty impressive.