I’ve been spending the last several months trying to recover from a rough year. A lot of changes happened in my life starting in May, and I needed to take a break from most of my usual activities. I needed to find time for myself. I apologize for my lack my blogging, and for anyone who missed me.

As many of you know, I ran in the last federal election. This was a lot of hard work, but surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly?) it was refreshing in troubled times. I’ve regained my faith in human beings. From the high school students that I talked to at forums, to the seniors I shared coffee with - I learned a lot. The results, I will be honest, were not spectacular — but I do believe I made an important impact in Calgary Centre.

Thank you to all my friends who have been here with me through these troubled times. You’re value is immeasurable. Even though I have not opened up to everyone, your genuine concern has been heart-warming.

In 2007, President George W. Bush refused a sign a bill into law that would have expanded SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program.) Bush claimed that congress was trying to “federalize health care.”

This expansion of SCHIP would have cost $35-billion, a number far short of the recent $700-billion bailout provided to the markets by the American taxpayer. The expansion of SCHIP would have included 4-million more participants in the state fund, a fund that provides insurance coverage for children in families with too much income to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford to buy a policy in the private insurance market.

The argument against the expansion of SCHIP was weak. Scare tactics were used, and the word “socialized medicine” was repeated across the airwaves of the country.

The arguments for the bailout were clear by the Bush administration. Wall Street was in trouble, and it needed an infusion of cash quickly or else a financial meltdown was inevitable.

So if the Bush administration believes that subsidies and massive bailouts to industry (aka corporate welfare) will help industry get back on it’s toes, why do they refuse to believe that the expansion of social programs will help those in the general public that are falling between the cracks, get back on there feet? That was a rhetorical question.

This is very contradictory. This is not free-market capitalism, and this meltdown exposes the truth. Ideal capitalism will never exist, just like ideal communism will never exist.

This is what is called cry-baby capitalism. When times are good, economists are preaching deregulation. When times are bad they demand bailouts and government handouts. This financial crisis that the world finds itself in proves one thing, unregulated markets do not work, (Something that former Chairman of the USA Federal Reserve and cheerleader for unfettered capitalism, Alan Greenspan, agrees with.)

This crisis needs to be a wake up call for the entire world. Instead of blindly trusting these so called free-market crusaders, we need to look at each and every issue and make decisions based on the best interest of the citizens of this world. Pretending that the market is some kind of Saint that will do no wrong, will not work. This is proven as the gap between the rich and the poor grows wider each year.

America has a chance to refuse the ideology that governed their country for the past 35 years. But Americans need to be on guard. Once this crisis reaches it’s full impact, there will be calls for more privatization and more unfettered capitalism. The justification for this will be the lack of funds in the USA treasury due to the bailouts.

Don’t let the same people who created this mess, try to fix it.