Wouldn't it be great to have dynamic political representation by someone who questions whether the market can take care of our economy?
We all know we need businesses to identify and respond to human needs and aspirations. But extractive capitalist ventures that run rampant over democratic processes are not cutting it.
Back in the 1990s I hoped that corporate social and environmental responsibility was going to see us through our issues - that environmental and social costs would be weighed into the profit equations so that markets could evolve in response to our planetary realities.
It has not happened nearly enough. Instead, corporations still bulldoze ahead, with relative impunity to the social and environmental injustices created in their wake.
We need to reclaim a democracy and a government that holds private economic interests to account. A government that knows market mechanisms need skilled mechanics.
Every undergraduate class in economics covers the limits to capitalism and the external controls that are necessary to keep capitalism in check. The capitalist system requires governments to set those boundaries and controls.
We need governments willing and capable of setting those boundaries, and a democracy able to keep those governments in place.
I urge you to find a federal, and in due course, a provincial candidate in your riding who understands that we must seriously hold extractive capitalism to account. Those candidates exist, and in the words of one of them, “change is the only constant.”
Heather Plaizier,
Mountain View County
