Attack, Attack
One of my friends – yea, I have a couple, did a job attacking Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Canada Progressive Conservative Party in a long article comparing the same/differences in British Columbia vs Alberta Harm Reduction Strategy.
Harm reduction, linked to doing what can be done to save lives of people who take fentanyl, etc. and immediately are put on a path to death. Without a direct and almost immediate intervention, people will die. Last year, in British Columbia, 2,264 people died compared to 1,817 people in Alberta.
That is 45.28 per 100,000 in BC and 40.92 in Alberta. Now, one can “bend statistics every which way but Sunday to “prove a point” and politicians are great at doing that. They must have teams of people just trying to figure out how to “tell us the truth without lying.”
At Sustainable Circular Economy, a boutique environmental firm in Vancouver, we see this every day in the debate about how to do the world a world of good to save us from climate change and global warming. Our goal is to provide what we hope is credible information that will allow communities and businesses make reasoned choices towards actions that are good for people, the planet and sustainability.
It is really frustrating when we hear politicians not talking “truth and consequence.” They bend the truth – they may not lie. But, how do we as the typical citizen make reasoned choices?
Back to the issue of Pierre Poilievre. The numbers can be “bent every which way but Sunday” to prove a point, and I am not going to debate the numbers. What I do not like is the fact that politicians rely on the 30 second sound bite to give us information to make sometimes, life altering decisions.
With the opioid crisis, we have been facing down that barrel for a number of years and in my view, no strategy is working. To me, the issue is not what a politician says; it is what a politician does to protect and help the people, the planet and sustainability.
And, “Experts in the field say the COVID-19 pandemic deepened the opioid crisis by increasing isolation, diverting medical resources and heightening overall mental health pressures.
The numbers back that up. In Vancouver, 2,264 people died from drug overdoses in 2021 compared to approximately 1,825 from COVID. Look at the resources to COVID compared to drug overdoses.
British Columbia has spent more than $1 billion so far in COVID-19 health care costs. That is somewhere around $500 million per year. For harm reduction, the spending is in the $166 million range.
My intention is not to debate the numbers, but to provide some context to truth and consequence. Were we ever given a choice to lead so the leaders could follow?
My Friend has his Reasons
I am sure my friend has his reasons for attacking Pierre Poilievre. But, attack one, and attack them all. Every time Trudeau’s lips move, I question his “truth and consequence.” I saw a clip of Trudeau this morning talking about what he did and did not know about the Chinese involvement in our election process. Now, he says, he was never briefed by CSIS. Not what CSIS says, and possibly the truth is, he may not have been briefed directly – so, he is not lying, but that does not mean he was not briefed by his staff. The question could be, did anyone in the PMO receive a briefing? I put more faith in the truth from CSIS than in our leader.
I have to laugh. Trudeau sounded just like Richard Nixon during Watergate – oh, yea, he still has not owned up to the $6,000 a-night hotel room. For 5 nights, $30,000 and the Liberals have the audacity to suggest they are doing great things providing low-income folks a one-time $500 help.
What do we want?
From our perspective at Sustainable Circular Economy, where we are passionate about doing the world a world a good and evaluating options towards environmental sustainability against the backdrop of a circular economy where the considerations are what is best for the people, the planet and sustainability. That includes doing what we can to raise the level of discussion to include truth and consequence.
If you, your community or business wishes some help through this morass, to identifying reasonable solutions, we would love to help you. We want to be part of the solution.
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