We must stop the number game played by our hegemonic leadership of any political colour. We are experiencing the devastating results of neoclassical political economics all over the globe and we hear our patriot Prime Minister Jean Chretien wanting to share Alberta's wealth for all Canadians while his Shawinigan's businesses get federal welfare and go bankrupt.

We need political and social changes, and I realize now that such changes cannot occur within our institutional settings; needed changes can only occur within the exercise of our own civic responsibilities.

And listen to these latest news about Saskatchewan. The Saskatoon police is telling people that the streets are unsafe at night, while Statistics Canada is hailing Saskatchewan as the province with the third highest productivity rate (GDP per job) at $54,000 a mere $2,000 behind Ontario's, while experiencing the highest productivity in the extraction of natural resources.

Let us stop the GDP number game, let us change the linear mentality of our leadership, let us have our streets safe for all, and this is our civic responsibility as our governments and businesses are working to produce bigger numbers at the expense of people's lives.

References

Related social and economic articles published by Ensign

Firm in PM's riding goes under despite $618,000 in federal aid, Andrew McIntosh, National Post, August 25, 2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010825/666289.html

Youth crime a growing problem in Saskatoon, CBC Saskatchewan, August 24, 2001 http://sask.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/08/24/youth010824

Interprovincial productivity differences: 1996-97, The Daily. Friday, August 24, 2001 http://www.statcan.ca:80/Daily/English/010824/d010824a.htm