It was only few days ago that I have been mentioning the hypocrisy of business reporter Brent Jang who would charge the ideological biases of the Saskatchewan NDP governments for not privatizing the provincial Crown corporations while not recognizing the ideological policies demanding smaller governments, deregulations, privatization, and cutting taxes.

We are experiencing trying times where our democracy is being eroded by sabotaging the role of government as a social contract to preserve our freedom. Today's dictum that government has to be run like a business is wrong! Government is the only agency we have to protect us from the abuses inherent in an unequal society.

To day I read that the B.C. Minister of Health Colin Hansen is outraged to the fact that as a consequence of health reform Pat Zanon is walking away from her CEO job at the now defunct South Fraser health region with a $700,000 severance compensation. And who has been creating the health reform? And who has been negotiating severance compensations?

Private governments have been creating health reform, and our governments have been negotiating severance compensations! And yes, we discovered that our governments have become private contractual deals as we began our work, at Ensign, for identifying the roots of our corrupt society in Saskatchewan.

We are right. Our society is corrupt because of the preaching of the gospel of the Free Market; and the preaching of the Free Market has included every political parties, every business, every government, and it has not included the participation of common people at large. Our Free Market economy is a gambling casino for the benefit of corporations and their fortunate sons, yet our leaders contend they work for the people, our leaders contend that governments must be run like a business. And for sure our governments are run like a business as they have become gambling casinos themselves.

In British Columbia, we have hypocrite Premier Gordon Campbell who is running the province like a business, who is outsourcing public services to their friendly businesses, and who is following in the steps of former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow who downsized the province to greatness and balanced the budget! Gordon Campbell is proud to increase sales taxes for all people while cutting personal taxes for the rich; he is proud to fire one third of public employees in three years while we experience a recession due to a lack of consumer demand; he is proud to lift a freeze on educational tuition fees while we need more public education; he is proud to have a strategic plan to balance the budget in three years while he and his friends retain an obsolete mind set. Now think about this, Gordon Campbell's cabinet includes Minister of State for Deregulation Kevin Falcon.

We must not be discouraged in our effort to take back our democracy. Many economists are rallying for the end of the corporate Free Market; and many economists have written a letter to disapprove premier Campbell's economic policies.

While corporations get bigger through mergers and acquisitions and downsize their work force, we have now more economists telling us that an equitable treatment of employees is good for the economy. And while our governments streamline their administration and privatize their services, we have more economists telling us that this streamlined strategic approach doesn't make sense as economic development is more than strategic planning or science.

I have no reservation in labeling Gordon Campbell's budget a fascist manifesto as his economic policies converge the interest of the government/state with the interest of business at the expense of people.

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Minister calls severance pay 'bloody high,' but he won't block it, Jim Beatty, February 19, 2002 Vancouver Sun http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id={87F62EA9-3765-41CB-B4B8-A793E446834E}

BUDGET 2002 NEWS RELEASE. BUDGET 2002. THREE-YEAR PLAN TO BALANCE BUDGET, RESTORE PROSPERITY. Government of British Columbia http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/NewsRelease/default.htm

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE, Third Session of the 37th Parliament of British Columbia http://www.gov.bc.ca/bcgov/popt/throne_speech.htm

Open Letter from British Columbia Economists to: Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, Honourable Gary Collins, BC Minister of Finance February 7, 2002 http://www.policyalternatives.ca/bc/economistsletter.html

Worker Satisfaction and Economic Performance: Microfoundations of Success and Failure, Morris Altman, professor at the University of Saskatchewan http://www.mesharpe.com/65605910.htm

Book Review. Ecological Economics. A Political Economics Approach to Environment and Development, by Peter Soderbaum, Earthscan Publication Ltd, London, 2000. Cecilia Tortajada, Third World Centre for Water Management Mexico http://www.thirdworldcentre.org/home/akbiswas/www/economic.PDF