The Purpose, Intent, and Philosophy of this Blog

We live in conservative times. And in this light, I've started this blog titled Make this your Canada, which borrows its title from foundational CCFers David Lewis and Frank Scott's 1944 book. 

In that book, Lewis and Scott proclaimed that while the depression and war that ravaged the previous generation was still being felt, out of that darkness could arise a just, equal, and dynamic Canada. Their argument was, in simple terms, that socialism offered the path toward social, economic, cultural, and political equality. More forcefully, they argued that the vaunted principles of democracy and equal opportunity--values supposedly held as sacrosanct within capitalism--were unattainable without analogous democracy and equality within the realm of industry. It was not enough to have the universal franchise or other liberal freedoms. At its core, and in echoing an earlier work from the 1930s by the League for Social Reconstruction, democracy needed socialism to fully manifest itself.

It is in this spirit that I start this blog, based off the idea that in 21st century Canada, we talk too little about the role of economic justice in providing Canadians with a genuine democracy. Even many self-identified leftist and progressives fall in this category. Within the matrices of this broader discussion, I will focus on issues ranging from labour unions, to electoral politics, to culture, to economics, often from a historical perspective, but also with a contemporary lens. 

While this coverage will vary in temporal and geographic focus, the blog will be centred on three broad principles, inspired by factors such as my research, activism, and my secular and Christian faith in the power of regular people to, when united, do extraordinary things. Specifically, I hold 

1. That capitalism, either to a substantial or total degree, must fade away in order to usher in an era of social and economic equality
2. That private property must be reformed to such an extent that it becomes only a representation of one's personal possessions, and not a mechanism for exploitation
3.  That equality of opportunity, however much of a strong middle point, must not be seen as the end goal
4. That, in the views once held by CCF-NDP stalwarts, democracy requires socialism

While not all pieces will focus on the above themes directly, they act as rough guidelines going forward, to be expanded upon where appropriate; not as ends in themselves, but as a means to more accessible and engaging discussions. 

With all this said, I hope people find these blog posts interesting, thought-provoking, and of a worthy contribution to Canada's historical and contemporary discourse 

Christo Aivalis