Never in our nation’s history have we faced a greater threat to our livelihoods than we do today. We collectively face a threat to prosperity and national security, in the form of right-wing populism, the likes of which we saw briefly encapsulate continental Europe, until its dictatorial intentions were revealed in full and the people of Europe rejected it.

There is a wind of change blowing across our land, but it is a wind of hope, not of fear. It is a counter, an instinctual reaction to the evil forces that conspire against the people of our country. A storm has been brewing for some time now, we’ve seen it coming. From our Southern Border, we’ve seen the incursion of extremist views and conspiracies, stemming from the MAGA movement, spurred onwards by crooked right-wing media outlets like Fox News. We’ve seen the tentacles of foreign hostiles seep into our domestic politics.

Recall Maxime Bernier, having lost his bid to coup the Conservative Party of Canada, struck off to establish the anti-Canada PPC, an organization we now know is corrupt to the core and owned by corporate elites.

PPC Candidates even received money from ArriveScam. These people wish to wage a holy war against us, seeking to enrich their friends at the expense of the teacher, the nurse, the doctor, the EA, the bus driver, the mailman, the farmer, the rancher, the technician, the electrician, the welder, the plumber, the small business owner, the entrepreneur, the fisherman, the truck driver, I could go on for hours. The PPC hates the common people, and seeks to use us all as a means to enrich foreign corporate coffers. We won’t let it happen.

Look to your right, and your left. We are the wall. The last line of defence, in the trenches between democracy as we know it, and oppression that we wish not to know, and that we’ve fought through our history to oppose. My family, in 1848, took up arms to bring a democratic state to Germany, a Constitutional Monarchy. Prussia and Austria, fueled by dictatorial desires, both refused to cooperate, and set about killing all those who stood up for the idea of a fair, free, and democratic society.

When the Prussians again came for our freedom in 1864, we fled to America. We worked the fields of Ohio and Nebraska for decades on end, feeding America and the world. My Great Great Great Grandfather hand-plowed his crops at the age of 87. But when our family was denied the opportunity to fight for freedom in the First World War, and when we were offered an abundance of wealth and opportunity to farm in Canada, we packed up the farm and moved to Saskatchewan. We’ve been here to this day, and we fought in WW2 to defeat the right-wing populist Nazi dictatorship imposed upon our ancestral lands.

But no fight of a threatening magnitude has ever been brought to Canada itself on this scale. That is why I, as your MP for the Prairies, will continue to fight against those who seek to take away your freedom and tax away your hard earned dollars. Unlike the PPC, the CCF has cut distortionary subsidies to corporations. Canadian’s paycheques should never be so grossly wasted. I’ll give you an example of what happened when PPC members last held sway in Government. $2 million in taxpayer dollars via “economic development” subsidies were given to a French company to build a fish plant in Quebec that would employ 250 people.

The Government claimed it was creating jobs and thought it was attracting investment and growth. Instead, a local fish plant that employed 300 people closed. $2 million in taxpayer dollars were used to effectively cut jobs and create no growth. Subsidies behave this way across the board. We can see clearly that growth slows under Canadian Government’s that rely on subsidies, with economies stagnant, inflation high, debt on the rise, taxes up, and real wages falling. That is not the CCF way, I’ve seen subsidies cut across Canada, and we’ve been able to balance the books, cut taxes, build homes, and stop crime as a result. That’s growth that works for everyone.

We have to realize that the PPC is addicted to debt. Their financial plan to deliver for their corporate donors won’t provide growth, and will ruin provincial finances. The Government and Canadian consumers will be forced into more and more debt, until the brutal austerity of the early 90’s will become a necessity. The PPC is out of touch, and out of ideas. We can’t afford their plans to borrow on the backs of Canadians to pad their own pockets. Foreign corporate coffers own the populist movements that have been on the rise around the globe. Only if we reject these movements as our friends across the pond have done can we deliver a safe and secure society for all.

The PPC has openly admitted to being pro-poverty. We have proven through the PBO that a guaranteed basic income in the form of a negative income tax will be fiscally neutral and will reduce poverty by 49% in one year. Inefficiency is waste, and waste cannot be justified. Politicians who seek to protect waste can only be in league with the forces that are conspiring to proffer off of Canadians. The CCF will protect your paycheques. This election is our Great War. We must take a stand now, today, a last stand, to defend democracy.

This is our Alamo, our bridge. Let us blow the bridge and leave evil stranded on the other side. Let us defend the holy land from those across the Southern Border who seek to pursue a war upon our people, a covert war of monopolies and foreign corporations that will loot the pockets of us all, take food off the table, bleed us dry and let us slip away. No more. We will pull Canadians ahead in the face of those who would drag us down. We will help our neighbours out when we are told to fear our next of kin. Hope beats fear, day-in, and day-out, 24/7 and 365.

Let us recall the words of Tommy Douglas, a story he told many times over the years.

“Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me.

And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats. Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for the last ninety years and maybe you’ll see that they weren’t any stupider then we are.

Now I’m not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws—that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren’t very good for mice. One of the laws said that mouse holes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds—so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much effort.”

“All the laws were good laws, for cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice couldn’t put up with it any more, they decided that something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats. Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign.

They said: “All that Mouseland needs is more vision.” They said: “The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouse holes we got. If you put us in we’ll establish square mouse holes.” And they did. And the square mouse holes were twice as big as the round mouse holes, and now the cat could get both paws in. And life was tougher then ever. And when they couldn’t take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried half black and half white cats. And they called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat.”

“You see, my friends, the trouble wasn’t with the colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice. Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to the other mice, “Look, fellows, why do we keep electing a government made up of cats? Why don’t we elect a government made up of mice?” “Oh,” they said, “he’s a Bolshevik. Lock him up!” So they put him in jail.” “But I want to remind you: That you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can’t lock up an idea.”

They can’t lock us up. They can’t put us down. They can’t hold us back. Our voices shall not be drowned out by those who seek to oppress us. We are the future, we hold the means to change the world, to change our country, to build our communities for the better. Let’s build a brighter future together, for our ideas are without bound, and a new day dawns tomorrow.