A last minute plea for a nation at risk

It’s the day before the election and I can say honestly that I am terrified for the fate of my country. I do not have a soap box. I am not running for office. Many if not all of you know where I stand politically, and many of you disagree. Fine. Disagree if you will, but for the love of your country if not for respect for me, please give me the credence of an ear and an open mind. Let me make one last plea for the good of the nation before you go to the polls and do whatever most of you have already made up your minds that you’re going to do.
I’ve spent this election arguing tooth and nail against the Liberal Party, against the Green Party, and against the NDP party. I haven’t really paid any attention to the Bloc Quebecois, but then again, I only know about four people who would be in a position to vote for them anyway, and I don’t think any of them would. I’ve spent time defending the Conservative party – for good and for bad – to the ends of the blogosphere. It’s time to defend something else – something more important than the Conservative party, the Liberal party, the NDP, or any other party out there; something more important even than you and I. It’s time to defend the one thing, politically, that I truly believe in – to the exclusion of all other ideologies, and all other parties. It’s time to defend my country because the reality of the situation is that as the doomsday clock draws ever nearer for us, this country is, at heart, what is at stake. We are faced tomorrow with a choice – a choice to push that clock ever nearer to midnight and destroy this nation that I love, or a choice to pull ourselves back from the brink. So I ask you all to listen to my final plea, and that, as our countrymen have before us in time of crisis, you rise up to defend this nation – to defend Canada.
We have been faced time and time again in the news, in the papers, and by the talking heads representing every political interest and every agenda with words of crisis. Words and rhetoric designed to scare us into action one way or another. We are in the middle of a financial crisis. We are in the middle of an environmental crisis. Canada is faced with a crisis, and it is my firm belief that it’s very survival is at stake. With an arsenal of good intentions and bad ideas, Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May will do in four years or less what Paul Martin and Jean Chretien couldn’t do with thirteen years of lies, theft, and corruption. It is my firm belief that these two will destroy this country.
It is my belief that this nation has only one hope for the future in the coming trial – that hope is Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada. Many of us are concerned about the type of country that our children will inherit. Having seen the plans that the Liberal, Green, and NDP parties have for my country, my greatest concern is that there will BE a country for our children to inherit – that there will be a future that is protected by the security of a job, and enriched by the finer things in life afforded to them by a good job, and a low cost of living. A future that exists in a greener world because of the policies put forward today: a future that, if the Liberal or Green party have their way, will not be possible.
The Conservative Party has been trumpeted about as uncaring and unfeeling, but I believe it’s time to correct that record. The fact is that Canadians are scared to lose our jobs, our homes, and our savings just as our neighbours to the south are. We are scared to be the victims of crime in our own homes, in our own neighbourhoods, and in our own streets. We are scared of not having clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. We’re scared that we won’t be able to provide a good standard of living for our families. Stephen Harper has presented us with an option that will answer to those – even if his rhetoric hasn’t. The Conservatives answer our fears for our environment in a way that also preserves our jobs, homes, and savings – through cautious, but progressive steps. These steps will not raise our cost of living in these times of economic uncertainty, and will work to preserve the jobs we have, as well as make new ones. The Conservative Party of Canada is looking out for Canadians at a time when we need our government more than ever to protect us. For me, that means that I can go to work every day secure in the knowledge that I have a job that I can reasonably expect to go to tomorrow because the demand for my services will still exist, and the company I work for won’t have folded due to economic pressure. That means that I get to reap the rewards of my work, and not see it all lost in taxes, and that the costs of goods that I need are low enough that I can afford them. It means that there will be a roof over my head to come home to when I’ve been away working, and it means that there will be money in the bank when I need it most. These needs will not be met for most of us if the economic platforms of the Liberal, NDP, or Green parties are turned into law. The Conservative Party offers me the hope of a job, of clean air, and of financial security – something the others assuredly aren’t.
Whether we see a carbon tax, the cessation of expansion of the Athabasca Tar Sands, the multi-billion dollar ramp-up of spending, or a combination of these, the economic platforms presented by the Liberal, Green, and NDP parties present us with one option and only one option: steadily increasing prices, steadily rising taxes, and less and less money in our pockets to pay the rent or put food on the table – ultimately, if things are allowed to progress, they give us the option of a bankrupt nation. We are afraid of losing our jobs, our homes, and our savings – yet this is the option that these parties present. I want to tell you that there IS hope, there IS another option: an option for moderation and caution – an option that will ensure a clean future through investment in green technology; an option that will protect out jobs by securing our resource sector as well as investing in our manufacturing sector; an option that will protect your savings and your homes by carrying on the sound economic practices that were put in place over the last two and a half years.
Leaders from all parties have said that in this election, “the choice is clear”. I echo their words: the choice IS clear. The choice we are faced with is between the high taxes, inflationary economic practices, and deficit spending – a recipe for the financial destruction of our nation – and the Conservative Party of Canada. Friends, the fate of our nation is in our hands – my only hope is that we be found worthy of that trust.