I endorse Scott Brison

I suppose this was a long time coming.

My decision to endorse Mr. Brison was a completely personal one. There is no way that I can generalize my experiences and political views to such a point where writing a formal endorsement will sway too many people to the cause, unless they share my particular views. But I will try.

What it comes down to is that, of the eleven candidates currently running to be Liberal leader, the one with whom I share a spot on the political spectrum is Scott Brison.

I am fiscally centrist; I don't support the right-wing dogma of tax-cuts, cutting social spending, and "government is evil (unless it's being used to oppress gays or pot-smokers)", nor do I support the left-wing dogma that all social spending is good, the more things run by the government the better, and corporations are supremely evil. I think it is dangerous to manage an economy from an ideological point of view - the American government is currently doing this, and their deficit and debt are reaching staggeringly high levels. The left-wing policies of Trudeau left Canada with a huge debt, but so too did the right-wing policies of Mr. Harris end up leaving Ontario with a large deficit (which they hid from the voters, lying about the state of Ontario's finances until the bitter end, obviously aware that they were going to lose the election, and they could try to blame it on McGuinty's Liberals.) Governing from either of the "wings" on fiscal matters is not sound economic policy.

I think the GST cut was garbage as economic policy, and I like the fact that Scott has had the courage to stand up and say that he would reverse it and bring in some tax cuts that would actually stimulate the economy. I find his promises to be innovative; I like that he tries to find new ways of doing things, to save money, which can then be used in more productive ways.

On foreign policy, I am distinctly to the right of most of my fellow Liberals, and I neither hide this nor am I ashamed of it. I support the continued presence of Canada in Afghanistan, and I am proud of Mr. Brison for not pulling a John Kerry, who lest we forget, "voted for it" before he "voted against it". That line made me cringe coming from Kerry (and it probably cost him the election) and I don't like hearing it from the other contenders. Brison and Ignatieff are supporting perfectly defensible positions, especially considering that their positions are identical to the position taken by the Liberal government as late as January and February of 2006, a position I wholly supported, and a position, if I recall, supported by most Liberals. To be fair to some like Mr. Dion, I am aware that some Liberals voted against the Afghanistan extension because Harper was using it to play politics. But the fact that the prime minister was using Canadian troops to divide the Liberal Party is no reason to play into his hands - in fact, it doesn't make sense to play into his hands like that. I know that Dion supports the Canadian presence in Afghanistan, I just wish he'd shown that support in the House of Commons when the vote was called.

Finally, the most important issues to me are social/cultural issues. This is just who I am - I see as the gravest of injustices the unnecessary restrictions governments places upon the freedom of their citizens. All of the candidates endorse same-sex marriage, and that's good, but I have to wonder about their support for other things. For example, legalizing marijuana - currently, an insufferable amount of non-violent, all-around good people are charged every year in this country for possession of a drug that is less harmful than alcohol and less addictive than tobacco. Some are in jail for it. It's not right, it's not fair, and it's patently unjust. It's also unfair and unjust that women (and men) who choose to trade sexual acts for money can be charged criminally for doing so, as can their clients. And it's completely unjust that the only protection these sex workers can get is from pimps, often violent, or worse. They should be able to get protection from police and government, not the exploitative scum of society. Even if some of the other candidates pay lip service to social issues (and to my knowledge no one really has talked about social issues yet) Brison has talked the talk when the talk meant something, when it wasn't just a popular political position to take. As a Progressive Conservative, since 1997, he was for same-sex marriage - remember that in 1999 a majority of Liberals voted for a Reform Party motion against same-sex marriage - for legalizing marijuana, etc. So I think the best chance of any movement being made on these issues is under a Brison government.

That's really all there is to it. If you agree with Scott's positions, if you match him (and myself) on the political spectrum, I would encourage you to vote for him. If you don't, there's really not much I can do to change your views.