I read this absurd article (
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Columnists/Ne ... 6-sun.html) the other day, and felt the need to share it. The basic thesis of the piece is the repetition of a trite piece of conventional wisdom that left-wing folks in Canada are found of spouting, namely "the most liberal American Democrat is more conservative than the most conservative person in Canada."
So, the author looks at Obama's positions on a few select issues (namely abortion, guns, gay marriage, and Afghanistan) and concludes that Obama is "far to the right of Stephen Harper," who is usually considered pretty far-right to begin with in this country.
I imagine this will be a popular article with a lot of folks, because the author is basically saying what a lot of Canadians very much want to believe. Because the modern sense of Canadian patriotic-nationalism is tied up to liberal politics and anti-Americanism, it is very necessary for a certain "script" to be followed at all times. America must ALWAYS be a worse country than Canada, and America must always be a worse country because it is more right-wing. Thus, even when America elects a liberal government, the liberals must actually be conservative, and when we elect a conservative government it must actually be liberal. Otherwise the entire order of the universe as we know it would be turned upside down.
But in terms of substance, it's worth analyzing just on what basis Obama is considered to be “far right,” anyway. Look at the author’s examples, slowly.
Obama has an approach to abortion, guns, and private healthcare that is not an extremist, black-and-white, “one is always supremely evil, one is always glorious” stance, but rather falls somewhere in the middle. Having a moderate position on any of these issues, in the eyes of the author, makes one a member of the Canadian “far right.” You must favor completely unrestricted abortions at all states of pregnancy to be a good, liberal Canadian. You must favor a complete ban on any right of gun ownership. You must have full faith in government-run, socialized medicine, which obviously needs no reform and should never be tampered with. And opposing same-sex marriage and supporting the war in Afghanistan? Truly no liberal in Canada would ever support such heresy. Except of course for the Liberal Party, until very recently.
What’s also notable about this rather meager list of “evidence” of Obama’s right-wingyness is not whether or not Obama passionately believes in the pro-gun, anti-gay marriage cause or whatever — which I think it’s quite obvious he does not, at a personal level — but rather the fact that he felt the need to give some concessions to those sides anyway, to make himself more electable. The American people, as a whole, do not have extremist, left-wing positions on issues like public healthcare, gay marriage, guns, and abortions. And neither do the Canadian people, most of whom opposed gay marriage, want restrictions on abortion, favor some form of two-tier healthcare, and are okay with gun ownership. The difference is that in the American political system politicians actually care what voters think, where as in this country we have a much more top-down system, in which the politicial elite is constantly declaring this-or-that issue to be "off the table," for their own strategic reasons (which usually involve pandering to Quebec). We also don't have any method of citizen inspired direct referenda, making us even more subject to the whims of a generally unrepresentatively left-wing political class.
Obama is a liberal. The basic facts of his life are liberal, and his entire adult life has been devoted to liberal causes. America has a liberal president. Accept it, Canada.
CKA Uber 
CKA Elite 
