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I live in Toronto, Canada, and have been very invested in the upcoming city election. In municipal elections in Canada, candidates are not officially affiliated with any one political party. However, it's usually pretty easy to see where a candidate lies on the political spectrum.
There is a mayoral candidate, Rob Ford, who is extremely right-wing. His entire platform is to create huge spending cuts, with an added side of racism, classism, and homophobia.
I've been volunteering on a city councillor candidate's campaign since July, and, quite frankly, I am sick of rich conservatives who only care about "fiscal responsibility".
There is a real culture of selfishness that permeates the right wing here, especially the rich. The only thing I've seen them talk about is how we need to spend less, and how they need to be taxed less. Even the ones who find Rob Ford's many racist and homophobic remarks distasteful only seem to think so because they think he's a bad speaker who needs to know when to keep his mouth shut, not because they think racism and homophobia are actually morally wrong.
They never think they'll know anyone who's disadvantaged in some way. They never thing being disadvantaged will happen to them.
They don't care if homeless people die on our streets on subzero winter nights, because they don't see the homeless as real people. They see them as an annoyance. They know it will never happen to them.
They don't care about the bullying of LGBTQ students in schools, because they are sure that none of there children are gay or trans.
They don't care if subway stations are completely inaccessible, because they think they'll never have an accident or illness which requires them to use a mobility aid.
They don't care if people can't access HIV prevention programs, because they are convinced, as Rob Ford said himself, that "If you're not gay and you're not doing needles, you won't get AIDS."
Quite frankly, I am sick of people complaining about being taxed, and not caring that the tax cuts they want will hurt vital social programs.
We, as progressives, have to be different. We have to care about others. We have to fight for the most disadvantaged in our society, whether or not we are part of that group.
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