Auto Maker Merger and the Unified Left

If those two can get it together, why can't the liberal left. I mean really...

General Motors and Chrysler are talking about a merger that will create a monumental change in the North American auto industry. There is discussion about eliminating a large number of their car lines, including the perennial favourites Pontiac and Buick.

This is of course in response to the lazy and arrogant way that the Big 3 North American auto makers have been acting since...well since Henry Ford let you have one colour on your Model-T. Even though they saw international auto makers Toyota, Honda etc. moving up fast to overtake the market, they just kept pumping out cars that no one really wanted. When the world was going into the realization phase of the climate change crisis we are gripped with today, and other car makers were going to improved fuel efficiency and hybrid cars, the Big 3 were pumping out Hummers, bigger and bigger trucks, and muscle cars from the glory years.

GM and Chrysler realize that their competition is no longer within the Big 3, but now on an international stage. In Canada, particularly southern Ontario, we see the auto working jobs dominated by Toyota and Honda, and we can no longer say that we need to buy North American -- Buy From Your Neighbours -- because our neighbours are making Toyotas.

To survive these companies have to get leaner, meaner and more responsive to the market. They can't rely on the loyalty of past generations, when it is the real world marketplace that is driving decision-making. I buy Pontiacs because that is what my brother-in-law sells, but I like to look at the Nissans.

So, if these foes of ages past can get together and realize that they are more alike than enemies, why can't the parties of the Canadian left get it together and offer us a unified voice? This would require that a lot of egos disappear and that the parties, and their peons, get out of the way and allow Canada to become the number one goal.

The last election proves that although they have the reigns of power, the Conservatives are not the party of choice for the majority of Canadians. Stephan Harper was never going to have a better opportunity than the 2008 federal election to win a majority, and he couldn't pull it off. Now, it might be that he is as arrogant a leader as this county has ever produced, and Canadians saw right through him, but it was more likely that people just didn't buy into their platform...wait, hold on, they didn't have a platform did they...hmmm, maybe that contributed to this....either way, the Conservatives couldn't pull it off.

I am not scared of socialism, I don't have the Cold War perspective on the evils of the Godless Commies and their socialist values. I can see the value in socialized medicine, and I will fight to the end to maintain what the rich elite what to take away from the average Canadians. It's funny, but when you hear the most vicious of the anti-socialist crowd, the old white male, blathering on about how bad the socialist Liberals are, "Particularly under that damn Trudeau," one can't help but laugh. These are the same guys who want an end to socialism, unless of course it means having to pay the real cost for all those drugs that decrease the size of their prostates and lets them pee.

I do not subscribe to an unrealistic approach to running government on the level of the NDP, but I realize that a little socialism is a good thing. I saw John McCain accusing Barack Obama of being a socialist recently, and then when challenged about his support for the multi-billion dollar bank bailouts and nationalization of banks and mortgage companies, he said, (and I'm paraphrasing) "Yeah, but, that was because there was a crisis."

The philosophy being, when in a crisis, go socialist. Socialism is a boogie man and one that we need to gain some perspective on.

The Liberal Party, the NDP and the Green Party of Canada need to get together and create a unified voice which will be the voice of the majority of Canadians. It will require the parties to go out into membership and ask what is important to them -- not how do we win -- but rather, what is important to you, and to the future for your families.

It is time for a change, and the change requires a unified left.