Obama's America: Canada?

A Canadian columnist writes a column entitled "Obama's America looks a lot like Canada". My emailed response:

Ms. Francis,

As an American I was quite intrigued by your recent column about Barack Obama's vision of America. A few points:

1. The basis for much of your column rests of on a recent unspecified poll that gives Obama a 7 point edge over McCain. The election of course is not until November -- 8 months from now. Eight months ago Clinton was crushing Obama in the polls. Further, McCain is a known quantity in American politics, while Obama is not. It would therefore stand to reason that there are more undiscovered demons hiding in Obama's closet than McCain. Poll numbers rarely remain static.

2. Regarding your contention that "Obama is uniting those left behind by the Republicans and other social Darwinists who have exclusively looked after -- to quote President George Bush -- the 'haves' and 'have mores'" it should be noted that one of Obama's biggest constituencies is actually those that are the most prosperous and educated. A cursory examination of poll data demonstrates this to be true.

3. "Enormous tax cuts go to rich people, while the rest are given a stern lecture by the Republicans about the benefits of hard work and the American dream, which, by the way, is mostly unobtainable if you were born a member of a minority or if you cannot stay healthy or are uneducated." Obama's very candidacy belies this statement regarding minorities. Indeed, ethnic minorities such as Persians and Indians are some of America's richest demographic groups. Those that lack education and good health experience challenges in every country -- it is something far from particular to the U.S.

4. "Republicans have created budget deficits with their tax cuts for plutocrats, CEOs, Wall Street hedge fund pirates, lawyer ambulance chasers, overpaid doctors and insurance companies. (Their combined profits last year were nearly what provinces spend on providing health care to 32 million Canadians)." The federal government has actually seen its tax revenue increase at a substantial rate in recent years. The real cause of the deficit -- which is under 3% GDP -- is spending on the war and social programs, such as the expansion of Medicare benefits (namely prescription drugs) under Bush.

5. "Tax cuts to rich people are regressive and don't help people who don't make much money or pay little, if any, taxes. They are an instrument of class division." It's difficult to cut taxes for those that don't pay very much. Indeed, Exxon Mobil's recent tax bill of $27 billion was more than what the bottom 50% of taxpayers paid combined in 2004. If you are making a call for a flat tax to be implemented to heal such class divisions, however, I support you.

6. Your portrayal of the U.S. as a third world country is both insulting and inaccurate. You may want to ask yourself why if America is such an awful place over 22,000 Canadians emigrated to the U.S. in 2004? (source: 2004 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics) Meanwhile only around 6,000 Americans emigrated to Canada in the same year -- despite a population 10 times larger!

7. You write that "Americans will have the same health-care benefits as its politicians" -- but this doesn't even occur in Canada! If it did, why did Liberal MP Belinda Stronach travel to California last year for cancer treatment? Is this a privilege afforded to all Canadian citizens?

If you want to attack your southern neighbors, feel free, but I would appreciate it if you could be most honest and fact-based in your approach.

Regards,

Colin

Update: Diane Francis posts my response on her blog -- seems I wasn't alone in my sentiment.