What should change after the pandemic?

Despite all the craziness that the COVID19 virus brought into our lives, It’s good to see that people can focus on the positives. Looking at social media we are seeing people get along much more online, with a lot less hate and division on social media. Which is great! There are far more posts about things that people did with their families, all the baking projects they have done, their video conversations with old friends, and people just having lots of fun online. It’s like COVID was able to get rid of all the negativity on the internet just by existing.

This wasn’t the only positive effect that we’ve seen. The environment has been able to take a breather. Areas that were extremely polluted such as India and China have had their skies become crystal clear. People in India are commenting on how it had been so long since they saw a blue sky the same way that we would see it in Canada or the States. That’s not all people are reporting seeing the Himalayas all the way from the Punjab region hundreds of kilometers away. That would be like seeing Red Deer from Edmonton,

All over the world, animals and fish are being seen once again where they weren’t seen before in a long while. All along the west coast, people are reporting seeing whales. Fish and Dolphins have been spotted in the Venice canals. Here locally near Edmonton, it was reported that two moose were casually walking down the street without a care in the world. For those of us who are in the generation x and the older millennial generation, our grandparents would have belonged to the WW 2 generation. 

All these positive changes was what their world was like. Many more farms, the cities and towns being a mix of urban and rural type areas, incorporating large plots of farmland. You know when Trump talked about ‘Making America Great Again?” This is the type of world he was referring too. Almost like it’s the 50’s once again.

Much like the previous generations, families are now able to spend more time together. With all the schools closed, parents are taking a very active role in their children’s education. There has been an appreciation for the science of teaching with many parents joking somewhat seriously that teachers aren’t being paid enough. All the professions that people didn’t respect as much are now being held in high esteem. Retail workers, medical professionals, janitors, Government administrators, truck drivers, farmers, and many others all finally getting the respect their work deserves. 

As Conservatives, we talk a lot about family values. Because that’s at the heart of everything we are fighting for. Unfortunately, though, we forget in this crazy barely making ends meet a world that we sometimes put other things in front of family in the name of family. I myself will be guilty of that. But we can bring the family front and center again. It’s time we do that because what happened, is the wakeup call we needed as Conservatives and as Canadians. If we don’t change our lifestyles, we’ll once again get caught up in that monotony of the rat race struggle, the only conversations we have without children is “hi” and “bye” while always feeling behind on everything.

There are some very simple steps that I would argue that would bring us back to that golden age where families spent time together, where people made ends meet, and where there was the perfect balance of environment and urban living.

Because that’s what it’s all about. We can say it’s about the economy, about the environment, about jobs, etc, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to take care of our families, which make up our communities which make up our nation. At the end of the day, we’re trying to take care of each other. That’s why people like Donald Trump chose that as their campaign slogans. They understand that people are trying to go back to that golden era, where everything seemed possible and families could actually be there for one another. 

This COVID crisis brings us an opportunity to bring us back to that age and continue to live in it indefinitely. This is what we propose, and we believe that this will help keep all the positivity that we have discovered in the past few months. 

• Lose our dependence on foreign nations for our consumer goods. If other countries don’t maintain a proper standard for their people such as the environment, then we limit our trade with them. This keeps pollution down, local industries strong, and promotes democracy around the globe.

• Every industry should have a minimum of one day where it is closed. It doesn’t matter if its retail, or fast food, every company should have a day where they are closed. Having every company closed on a weekend makes it extremely hard, so we could allow retail companies to close on Wednesdays. By doing this, this gives workers a break and allows them to have time with their families.

•  Large companies need to place a cap on higher executive salaries, and their tax rates should be based on a formula that is related to worker pay, benefits, and hours. The more well-paid workers are, and the more full-time employees there are, then the company has fewer taxes. The more a company does the bare minimum for workers, it brings in automation (cash registers for example) and keeps workers impoverished than the more taxes they should pay. Any company that had workers that are forced to take handouts from the government because they are producing the working poor, then the higher reimbursements they should be forced to give in taxes to Government. The Government isn’t there to provide subsidies for companies that refuse to pay less. Governments shouldn’t have to set a minimum wage. In Europe, many countries don’t have minimum wage and yet they are paid $20/hour even at McDonald’s.

• Place a cap on salaries of professional sports players, CEOs, and executives.

• Any publicly-traded company should have representatives from the employees on the board of directors.  Keep in mind, we the people own the stock market, through our RRSPs, mutual funds, savings accounts, etc. We should dictate what happens

• Make the politicians afraid of us again. For politicians to implement recall legislation.

• Change the relationship we have with the world and different countries. No more hypocrisy. If a country like Saudi Arabia violates human rights, we don’t buy their products. Done.

• When area’s in cities and towns are developed it should also make sure to incorporate many green spaces, allow for farmlands, forested areas with urban areas. The more connected these two are, the better standard of living we will have. 

• Canada must be self-sufficient and have every single type of industry in case of emergencies.

• Canada must make its citizens self-sufficient, encourage ways that people can provide their own food, trade their own food, produce their own power, learn skills to be independent. That way come what may, everyone would have their own surplus of money, and they don’t have to worry about bills. 

Some of this may seem far fetched but think about it. Are we working to live? Or Living to work? OR living a more extreme version where we just work and go on autopilot in our lives not really living? Let’s bring ourselves back to the times that used to be, for our families, and for our own souls.