Who gets to be the PM?

Re: Would you hire any of Canada’s federal leaders to run your business? (June 26)

Well, I’m sure we all appreciate Craig Wallace enlightening us on who is really qualified to be prime minister of Canada. I have a couple of issues with his list of qualified candidates.

The first one is that this is still supposed to be a democracy — so every Canadian should really be eligible for the role, not simply those of power, privilege and wealth. The civil service is there to provide the expertise to advise on policy and manage implementing legislation.

The second issue is that at least two of the three candidates Wallace suggests are just another set of neo-liberals who think of people as disposable liabilities and who are driving this country into the ground while privatizing everything from education to medical care.

What we need is a prime minister and a government to put an end to the endless cutting of services for the poor, sick and working class, while handing tax cuts to the already too-wealthy oligopoly in this country.

We need someone to reverse the race to turn every aspect of public life into a profit centre. We need a PM and party for whom the idea of Canadians living in tents is a national disgrace; jurisdiction be dammed — not one single Canadian should be living through the winter in a tent and standing in a food bank lineup. And frankly, the much-lamented deficit is a manufactured artifact made and used by the neo-liberals to justify all the cuts and misery for average Canadians.

Wayne Stansfield, Hamilton