I believe in a genuine free market where consumers are offered choices and business needs to compete in order to deliver the best product. Most of us embrace this vision in one form or another, but in the hands of many right wing parties the idea often become bastardized.
It's another form of the rights vs responsibility argument I laid out some weeks ago. The idea that the market will solve all problems by the simple force of our own self interest is an alluring fairy tale because it allows us to ignore one entire half of the moral imperative - responsibility - and dwell solely in what our own individual rights are, a simple and sometimes more appealing view because its easier than concerning ourselves with the consequences of our actions that extend beyond ourselves.
One form of that is a certain apathy that evolves in some political parties. Harper has been badly caught out in this trap over the past days as the world's economy continues to recieve bad news and he continues to whistle dixie.
We're seeing another form of this in our Vancouver civic election. During last night's mayoral debate, Peter Ladner of the centre-right NPA announced that his first order of business as Mayor would be to take a vacation. Ladner's statements would be comical if they weren't so jaw droppingly out of touch with the problems facing the city. Meanwhile, Vision Vancouver candidate Gregor Robertson stressed the need to take urgent action on the overwhelming challenges of homelessness and affordable housing we're facing in this city.
Until we bring a strong sense of responsbility together with our passion for individual rights we'll only be half a society. In the mean time, here's the video from last night's debate in Vancouver.
