Re: Enough is Enough

Travers McCord | Apr 27, 2022

Upon reading last week’s letter to the editor (Enough is Enough), I felt compelled to respond.

Immigrants are not granted housing subsidies except where a claim of asylum is approved, and that support is time-limited. The rest must fend for themselves in the housing market as do native-born Canadians. Immigration & Citizenship Canada has reported roughly 10,500 asylum claims in 2022 to date. If one begrudges this modest charity while war rages in Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere, I suggest they recall the plight of the refugee Loyalists who founded this province – when they were granted land by the British government. It is part of our history here.

This serves to highlight the main issue at stake: government assistance. Mr. Lloyd calls for CPP increases, swift access to subsidized housing for seniors, price relief at the pumps, and unspecified “help” from Ottawa. At the same time, he decries billions in spending as an inflationary trigger – but how will this wish list be paid for, if not with billions more? If cuts are the source of funding, what should be cut? Health transfers? Military spending? Massive new welfare programs can’t be funded solely by streamlining existing operations.

But I forget so easily – Trudeau is all that’s wrong with this great country. It couldn’t be that we face difficult choices in difficult times.

Growing up, I was often told we country folk favoured self-reliance & limited government. But hearing from Mr. Lloyd and others in these pages, it appears many of us in truth hail from the David Dingwall school of thought: entitled to our entitlements and consequences be damned. We talk as libertarians at election time and as ardent statists at the first sign of adversity – or at the first glimpse of self-interest.

It'd be laughable if it weren’t so tragic.

Travers McCord