The Policy of Destructionism

Is Canada broken? This is an important question that is being asked more and more lately and therefore deserves careful consideration. In order to frame this issue correctly, we should examine the social contract.

The social contract to a large effect is based on an unspoken covenant between the State and the individual. This has been referred to as the “American Dream” or as the Prime Minister, Trudeau, put it: The promise of Canada is “work hard and you will succeed,” pay your taxes, obey State edicts and your lot will be safeguarded. That is the heart of the covenant.

In many people’s mind this covenant no longer holds true, and because of it politics is more divisive.

But the truth is that the socialist policies emanating from both the federal and provincial government was always going to bring PEI to this point. For socialism does not build anything; it merely consumes what others have created. In the final analysis, instead of bringing forth a new utopia, the real result of socialist policies has been what Ludwig von Mises described as destruction.

The wealth of society is in it’s buildings, it’s machinery, and it’s land that allows labor to be more productive and therefore more prosperous. The laws of entropy demand that to retain the same pool of capital, investments have to be made, capital must be continually renewed else it depreciates.

A policy of destructionism consumes capital; it sacrifices the future to the present by demanding spending increases to pay for programs with little thought given to the future. After decades of such a policy the chickens have come home to roost.

As the latest data shows, labor productivity is decreasing rapidly in PEI. This means conditions will continue to deteriorate, and if the government responds by spending even more money; it will only make the situation worse.

Destructionism takes many forms, but in PEI these are some of the more pernicious forms.

Labor Unions

The fundamental problem with unions is forced membership and the claim that they can prevent strike breakers from taking employment with the organization they are striking against.

These actions grant union members special privileges that are not compatible with a Liberal order based on freedom and justice. They raise unemployment and lower productivity.

If unions relegated their activities merely to collective bargaining there would be no issue, but by preventing employers from seeking laborers elsewhere, they use force to unjustly raise their wage above market level and thus make society worse off.

Since so much of the provincial budget is made up of federal transfers, the unions in PEI are well organized and funded.

This is already bad enough, but in recent years unions have increasingly become activist organizations for all types of issue that have nothing to do with the pay or working conditions of their members. Scott McPhee recounts a convention he attended that perfectly illustrates the sad state of unions in PEI.

I also wrote an article about one particular meeting I attended where Mr. Pursey was also present. To this day Mr. Pursey remains one of the most odious persons I have ever been in a room with. Despite never having met before or being aware of each other, both me and Scott essentially reached the same conclusion about unions in PEI.

By promoting guaranteed incomes, more government spending, more labor regulations, white guilt, and a host of other issues, unions promote destructionism and are a significant factor to the troubles PEI faces.

Unemployment Insurance

Despite the noble intentions behind unemployment insurance when it was originally established, it’s clear now that it’s a powerful tool for destructionism. How else would one describe a policy that leads to both high unemployment and a shortage of workers?

The insured can too easily bring about unemployment, so it’s statistically impossible to properly insure unemployment. Unemployment insurance also destroys the moral fabric of the social order; people are bound to feel resentful when their money is taken via taxes and redirected to people who plan their employment around the requirements for unemployment insurance.

Anyone who has grown up in PEI is aware of this phenomenon.

Félix Leclerc said that “the best way to kill a man is to pay him for doing nothing.” So despite seeming altruistic, those who promote unemployment insurance are actually crippling those who they claim they are helping.

If anything those who argue for more generous unemployment benefits are merely using the issue to raise their own profile or make a living by activism.

Not content with the destruction they have caused thus far, activists in PEI are now desperate to implement guaranteed incomes in order to give even more money to the unemployed.

In their latest presentations in the PEI legislature, they assert that guaranteed incomes do not disincentivize work. I don’t understand how such a claim can be made when you live in PEI. In Canada the average unemployment rate has been 6.2% for 2024, while in PEI it has been 8.6%. That means in PEI the unemployment rate has been on average 35% higher than in the rest of Canada. Could perhaps the more generous unemployment benefits offered in PEI account for this? It seems likely to me, but discussions like this one have stopped being about logic a long time ago.

In the final analysis, both unemployment insurance and guaranteed incomes are about taking money from producers and diverting it to non-producers, which disincentivizes production and leads to worsening conditions.

Woke Ideology

Wokeism is a rather new ideology for PEI, but it has the most potential of any other method to utterly destroy the Province. The earliest roots I can trace are around abortion debates in the year 2012 when Joyce Arthur was constantly coming to PEI. With her we see some of the earliest attempts at cancel culture in PEI where she encouraged pro-abortion activists to not even debate the abortion issue publicly. Arthur also lobbied the federal government in an attempt to silence pro-life groups in PEI.

Some activists, like Josie Baker, took inspiration from Arthur and after working beside her now employ similar similar methods working in organizations like PEERS Alliance and the PEI Trans Gender Network.

Woke ideology is a catchall for a collection of issues ranging from climate change, racism, gender ideology, feminism, abortion, and harm reduction. While these issue may seem harmless at first, woke activists attempt to push these issue by striking at the very heart of society. They seek to tear down the Liberal Order by undermining key human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of association and property rights. So much of Western civilization is based on these ideas that without them the prosperity of the West is lost.

In the worldview of the woke, our current society is unjust. They argue that the patriarchy has set up an exploitative system where certain groups like women, racial minorities, and gay people are unfairly discriminated against. In order to remedy this, they attempt to destroy the current order but provide few ideas of what they would replace it with.

While they say they aspire to build a new, fairer and more prosperous world, in reality their actions are deeply divisive to society. They constantly seek to segregate individuals into groups based on sex, cultural background, race, sexual orientation and other criteria. Then they try and convince these groups that they are oppressed and the only remedy is either some type of government support or some form of new legislation.

The most dangerous aspect though is the zeal with which they pursue their aims. They seek to completely silence disagreeing opinions and as the 1 Million March 4 Children demonstrated in PEI, they are not above using violence or intimidation to get their way. While they routinely accuse their opponents of being fascist, in truth they are the ones attempting to get their way through force. Instead of marching in the streets with brown shirts, they don on rainbow flags and umbrellas.

Woke activists have captured many institutions in PEI already and have secured funding from the government. In 2019 PEERS Alliance received $33,884 from the Province, jump to 2023 and that figure is now at $509,341. And what has the Province received for all this funding? More division in schools from activists that seek to make the State the primary caregiver and more discarded needles in the streets from a failed harm reduction policy.

Conclusion

It is true that for the majority of socialists in PEI they are not consciously aiming at the destruction of society, but since Socialism is not viable, every step towards it leads inevitably to destruction.

For others though this sentiment cannot be shared, for woke activists in particular destruction is their goal. In my brief interactions with them, many seem to be possessed by what Dr. Peterson describes as a malevolent spirit; they are hurt and resentful of Being and wish to tear down the current order. I suspect some of them are actually mentally ill and would greatly benefit from therapy.

This is no longer a metaphor, in PEI the mentally ill are actually running the asylum – or at the very least have great influence.