Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians. Part Two by Dave Jaffe

     Right, Left and Centre: Part Two.


        After U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the Bush administration tried to link Saddam Hussein to the events of 9/11. Yet Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. He didn't like Bin Laden and had no time for the jihadi terrorists. Still, the Bush government kept making Hussein responsible for 9/11 and in March 2003 invaded Iraq. That war is still going on.
     "I supported the invasion of Iraq," Jack admits. "I thought it would be a good thing." Here John was on the same page as liberals such as Michael Ignatieff, the former head of the Canadian Liberal Party. Also the American writer George Packer  was in favour of the invasion. Over 1 million people have died since the U.S. and other armed forces went into Iraq in 2003. Four to five million people have fled the country and a civil war there still goes on. Last year in 2016 over 8,000 people were killed in the fighting.
     John knows a tremendous amount about politics and ethnic groups. Yet he sometimes  ignores wars carried out by democracies. His condemns Islamic and communist dictators which is good. Yet sometimes he gives more democratic countries a free pass. John isn't alone on this issue. Many Canadians fell the same way he does.
     Three other things stand out in John's politics.  First off, he admires and sometimes seem obsessed by what political scientists in Britain call 'C2's'. These are the working class people who vote for conservative political parties in the U.S.A., Great Britain and Canada. Without people like this, the Labour Party in Great Britain, the Democrats in the U.S. and the New Democratic Party in Canada would have won a lot more elections. John also admires the Coalition d'Avenir de Quebec, or the Coalition for Quebec's Future. The CAQ is a Quebec -based party that is supported by soft Quebec nationalists, who are politically conservative. They're often called 'Bleues" or' Blues' in English.
     One of the founders of the CAQ is Francois Legault who now has been in at least three parties. Legault served in a Parti Quebecois government. Then he ended up in Ottawa where he served as a Bloc Quebecois Member of Parliament. The Bloc was a federal outgrowth of the Parti Quebecois. Then Legault skipped to the provincial Liberals. He's now a member of CAQ.
     "That Legault has sure been in a lot of political parties," says Fred, a former resident of Quebec who now lives  British Columbia. "The man's a complete opportunist." John doesn't agree.
     Then, too, John never sees to notice the power of big businesses. In recent years, in the U.S.A., Great Britain and Canada, business CEO's have demanded that governments slash social programs, give big businesses and the rich big tax breaks, and pare down government regulation of businesses. Governments have carried out these demands. This is why nearly all English-speaking countries seem to have become more conservative. As Bob Dylan once wrote, "Money doesn't talk, it swears."
     Last, John has a wicked sense of humour. He can imitate all sorts of politicians and many types of Canadians. He's made this writer laugh many times.
    So John's political views do skew a bit to the right. Yet so too do the politics of many Canadians.
Still if you want to know about the politics of any country in the world, then John's your man. His knowledge of politics will surely impress you.