I am a bit annoyed when I hear of a left or right wing government when our real problems are ones of democracy, of poverty and social inequality. Certainly we need political parties to advance our social and economic causes, they bring different leadership, different social and economic perspectives, but again these political parties must speak a common language, a social and economic language everybody can understand. And the common language is that language which provides our well-being and therefore the people active participation in our communities' life, having jobs, having healthy families, having education, pursuing our social and cultural aspirations.

We don't have to have a fight against the corporation domination, we must just change our language and pursue our social growth not because we increase our GDP but because we live healthier lives. Our social and economic problem is not one of being more or less capitalistic, or more or less socialistic; we can't change our social and cultural experiences, but we can all pursue the social and economic vision to be healthier. Therefore, all of our political and economic efforts must be measured in terms of how these efforts will affect our well-being, and not how these efforts will affect the GDP. And as I already mentioned in a previous article, we have social economists who are getting away from traditional economic indexes of performance, and they are putting more emphasis on our well-being and on how active social programs(2) can increase our well-being(3). And the corporation and the trade union businesses would just be a matter of consequence.

Therefore, the current strive of our Canadian bankers, business leaders and politicians to rally our passion to overcome the US standard of living in the next 15 years(4) is a futile and senseless crusade. And as the bankers have been making money at the expense of people at large(5), so we have Canadian Crusader Charles Baillie, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of TD Bank Financial Group, preaching the bank's gospel that our goal should be to increase our standard of living so that in 15 years it is not just equal to the United States, but it is better ... On average, we have to have 1.6 percentage points faster growth than the United States, every year, for 15 years. If the U.S. economy were to grow on average 3.4 per cent per year, we would have to grow 5 per cent(6).

And the GDP Canadian saga continues at the expense of democracy and for the ongoing benefit of the bankers(7), the government, big corporations and their friends.

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. Nader blasts corporate domination, MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT, The Globe and Mail, March 2, 2001 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/20010302/UNADEM.html

2. Growth, inequality and social protection, Roman Arjona, Maxime Ladaique, Mark Pearson OECD, January 26-27th , 2001 Chateau Laurier Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario http://www.csls.ca/jan01/pearson.pdf

3. Business must not be as usual, and the "Dalhousie School" of Economics, by Mario deSantis, February 26, 2001 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2001_300/desantis334/dalhousie.html

4. Canada can outdo U.S. economy, Martin says, Alan Toulin, National Post, February 28, 2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010228/487081.html

5. The real challenge of David Dodge, Brian K. MacLean, Financial Post/National Post, December 26, 2000 http://www.geocities.com/brian79

6. Address by A. Charles Baillie, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer TD Bank Financial Group to The Canadian Club, Toronto, February 26, 2001 http://www.tdbank.ca/tdtoday/speeches/26feb01.html

7. Profits up at CIBC, bank raises dividend, CBC Canada, March 1, 2001 http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/03/01/cibcearnings_010301