You don’t care. You don’t care about housing for the homeless. You don’t care about people sleeping on streets. You don’t care about lack of medical care in our hospitals. You don’t care about ever crowing seniors centres. You don’t care about refugees families fleeing chemical bomb attacks or dead children washed up on shores. You don’t care about the environment. You don’t care about someone having to work 4 jobs to get by. You don’t care about he education system. You don’t care that young people have to pay more to go to college or university or trade school. You don’t care that people on social services don’t have enough to live never mind get back on their feet. You don’t care that things will not be better for our children and grand children. You don’t care.

Of course in your head you’re arguing with me or saying you give to this charity or volunteer for that cause but all of that does not prove that you care. What it proves is that you give to charity or volunteer while poverty increases, homelessness increases, education systems degrade, health systems degrade, women are run over in Toronto, and that our fellow Canadians who live on the streets or who work at Walmart are looked on as disposable. You d’on’t care.

If you did really care you could change, in an instant, all of the negatives above and we would live in a better country. But you haven’t and I don’t think you will.

Here’s some interesting fact “For every dollar corporations pay to the Canadian government in income tax, people pay $3.50” or that “Canada’s 102 biggest corporations …have avoided paying $62.9 billion in income taxes over the past six years”

or that ““Last year, Canada’s Big Five banks — BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank and TD — occupied the top five slots on Report on Business Magazine’s Top 1000 ranking of the country’s most profitable companies. Collectively, they booked $44.1 billion in pre-tax profit. (Their just-reported 2017 profits were even higher.) ….analysis found those five banks avoided $5.5 billion in tax.” https://projects.thestar.com/canadas-corporations-pay-less-tax-than-you-think/

Also important to know is that according to Policy Note writer Iglika Ivanova “ There has been two fundamental shifts in who pays taxes in Canada since the late 1990s:

A shift of the tax bill from business to families (through large reductions of corporate income taxes and a proliferation of business subsidies and tax credits)

A shift of the tax bill from higher income to middle and modest income families (through personal income tax cuts at the high end and an increased reliance on regressive taxes) https://www.policynote.ca/how-have-taxes-changed-over-the-last-half-century/

But we, and an electorate, could change all this. We could make sure banks pay their fair share, that corporations pay their taxes, that the wealthy pay a tax like we had in the 60’s or mid seventies. We could do that and fix every major social, infrastructure, and wage problem we have in Canada in the next 5 years.

But you won’t. Instead people will say and post on social media that immigrants are taking our jobs, or the Fraser Institute will post something about taxes going up by 1000% and you’ll repeat knowing it’s not true, or you’ll complain about teachers making to much money, or about how your city is spending money on transit and what the hell do we need transit for anyway, or you’ll buy a new BMW SUV or Ford F150 and sigh sadly over the whales dying on beaches whose bellies are filled with plastic, or you’ll blame the politicians because they’re all crooks or useless but you elected them.

 The picture above is from a series done by the Toronto Star  and is a great example of how we used to care as a country. Can you imagine today that? Can you imagine if we said to our municipal, provincial and federal governments that we want you to build 20,000 new homes a year for those that need them and hoe this would change everything on our country? Can you imagine that? 

I know you can.

But will you? Will you do something about it using the most powerful tool you have …..your vote? Well it is Christmas time isn’t it. And isn’t Christmas a time for miracles? And couldn’t we use a miracle right now? You could use you vote next time and create a miracle. Demand that Banks and corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share and then that hope for a miracle will become a reality. That’s all it would take to fix all our infrastructure and social issues from transit to homelessness from bridges to eduction. Your vote.

But turning Christmas wishes into realities is your choice. The questions is will you make that choice and change the course of Canada from less caring to a caring and just one or not? Well that Christmas Miracle is up to you.