Letter: Canada defined by its tolerance

Re: The CP article “Tories’ use of provocateurs to entrap Liberals blasted as unethical,” which appeared on NorthernLife.ca Sept. 5.

The state of our political environment here in Canada has me deeply concerned, as well as many others I know. Those people I share my concerns with are students of political history and have a deep love of democracy.

Canada has been a nation of many cultures, tribes, colonies and immigrants. Unlike in Europe, Africa and Asia, we have been able, to a degree, make our vast diversity work.

We aren’t prideful of our history. We know we have done many, many wrongs and the group of Canadians regretting and seeking to right the wrongs of our parents is growing.

The reason why we aren’t at each other’s throats, as seen elsewhere, is because those who we have wronged did not resort to violence. They talked. Such is the Canadian way.

At home, political opinions of differing ideologies were tolerated. We have a communist party, a socialist party, we even have a party whose sole purpose is the breakup of Confederation. It’s all legal.

When Chretien took power, he had promised to wipe out the GST. He then sat down, saw the numbers and went “Nuts!” Likely in French though. He couldn’t get rid of it because it was effective and was healing our economy.

An idea that came from a party that was much despised, an idea that was widely thought as stupid, was actually proving to be correct. So, he kept it.

I ramble, I know, but I am making a point. My point is that our diversity, our difference in opinions and our respect for others’ is critical to Canada’s functionality, to our identity.

Hiring people solely to attack other people’s political opinions is not Canadian. Hiring people to make it difficult to vote is not Canadian. Making yourself difficult to talk to, censoring and muzzling people because their research contravenes your opinions is not Canadian.

I shake my head at the Conservatives’ attack on opposition MPs, to ambush them and get them to reveal their true opinions. If our MPs must be careful wherever they go, lest there’s a “henchman” of the Conservatives willing to take them out of context and paint it as negatively as possible, then we can’t have debate.

We must not tolerate our servants of Parliament being afraid to publish their findings, their professional opinion, lest they be humiliated and driven out of town.

We must have respect for others and their opinions, no matter how much we disagree with them. To do so will otherwise result in the loss of our Canadian identity, an identity we are always forging, moulding and shaping for the future.

Travis Morgan
Whitefish