Communism and socialism are close cousins, and socialism is often considered a stepping stone toward full communism. It can be used as an incremental approach toward communism rather than the more traditional method of using revolution to get there. Most people understood this, thus socialists in democratic nations typically kept their views in the closet. They don’t appear to be afraid to show their socialist leanings today, however, and we should be concerned.
Socialism calls for solid government control over the means of production and, eventually, property. Industries are pressured, regulated, and unionized until they become economically unviable. The next step is the nationalization of the industry as the government takes control of it—and blames capitalism for its failure.
Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project is a prime example of that cycle. The government made the economic environment so unfavourable for Kinder Morgan to expand the pipeline that the company fled. Then, the government bought the pipeline and began the almost interminable process of doing the expansion themselves. Today, the pipeline remains hopelessly delayed and way over budget while defenders of the purchase say it is due to a failure of free markets.
Those examples are of creeping socialism. Whether by mistake or design, the government creates an environment where it can take control of an industry ostensibly on behalf of citizens.
Whenever socialism has been overtly pursued by nations, the results have been invariably catastrophic as governments don’t even try to cloak their interest in seizing the assets of private markets.
So why do some people still pursue socialism when it clearly is a flawed economic model?
It all comes down to ideology. When one becomes an ideologue, they embrace a fervent sense of adherence to the tenets of their political belief. They embrace it like a religion, no amount of reasoning will break them free from that.
Dedicated socialists have traditionally realized that if they are overt in their beliefs, they will become unelectable in free societies. Canada’s NDP is an example of that. Although it occupies a significant level of political support, it can’t win federal elections because people won’t vote for avowed socialists.
How far left has the Liberal Party drifted when one of its senior members is willing to declare himself a socialist?
How desensitized to socialist ideology has the public become when they become indifferent to overt socialists holding the federal reins of power in the country?
Minister Guilbeault’s declaration may have slipped under the news radar for the most part, but it signifies a turning point in Canada.
When socialism is no longer taboo in mainstream politics, we should all take notice. Socialism is much easier to get into than to get out of.
