The voice of a young first-time voter
What happens when voters are keeping up with evidence-based science while the politicians remain unaware that they have fallen behind in their knowledge.
(This letter was written to the elected provincial and federal opposition (NDP) representatives from the Alberta riding in which this writer resides as well as to the leaders of the federal and provincial NDP parties. It was also sent to a number of provincial and federal Conservative leadership candidates as there were two leadership races on at the time of writing.)
I urge everyone receiving this email to read all the way to the end. Nothing can truly be understood without the required context. And without attempting to understand, no agreements can ever be reached. Remember, I am not some weirdo. I am a potential voter you have lost forever.
Hello,
I have just turned 18 a couple months ago. For years, I could not wait for the moment when I would be able to vote, as I have always been quite politically engaged. And for years, I knew that my vote would go to the NDP, both provincially and federally.
But I will not, under any circumstances, be choosing the NDP again, unless they significantly change course from the path that they have taken over the last two years. What used to be the party of the working class, and for the marginalized, has become a party of virtue signaling, name calling, and division, and a party that serves to prop up the very same establishment it used to be an opposition to. (Mind you, looking back, it is clear that the party started straying from its roots long before the past two years, but it only became more evident during that time.)
Now, I understand that not all my criticisms and grievances can be applied to both the provincial and federal NDP, as they both differ quite substantially in terms of policy. However, that does not change the fact that both parties have greatly disappointed me, my family, and many other members in our community. I will be separating my specific criticisms to align with provincial and federal politics further below before returning to discuss how I plan on voting in the future, and why. However first, I must address why my family and I used to support the NDP, and what has changed.
I always considered myself to be economically left, favouring responsible taxes and social programs. But most specifically, I was against anything related to big corporations -- and I still am. I believed that the NDP, by promoting more taxes for big corporations, would help prevent said corporations from garnering large influence over my personal life. I was raised disapproving of our capitalist, corporate system, because it would result in the inevitable takeover of the government by big corporations, to the detriment of the common working man/woman.
In terms of some of the NDPs other policies, such as when it comes to social issues, I never really considered to what extent I agreed with them, rather accepting that they were par for the course, if I wanted to fight against the big corporations. However, this mentality that "I support this party, so therefore I also agree with everything else in their ideology" can become dangerous. Especially if said ideology promotes such behavior to the point of demonizing any alternative viewpoints. This brings me to what has happened over the last two and a half years.
At the start, when this new scary virus spread into our country and our province, we knew nothing about it, nor how to respond. So with fear in our hearts, we accepted the fact that we must be kept locked down in our homes for our own safety. That we must wear a breathing barrier in public spaces. [Have you read why respiratory specialists don't refer to paper masks as actual masks? Link] To keep others safe. For the "greater good". I will not get into a discussion about why people in positions of power decided to lock us down in the first place --something that had next to no scientific basis, as any previous attempts in history to "flatten the curve" through lockdowns or quarantine were always a failure. [link] What is instead relevant to this discussion, is how people who might have had any skepticism towards lockdowns were treated, by not only politicians from the NDP, but from society at large. At first, these detractors were merely labeled a fringe group of crazy libertarians. Easy enough to dismiss the opinions of a group with a different ideology to your own. However, as the months rolled by, and the only perceived end in sight to lockdowns was the upcoming rollout of an experimental medical product falsely categorized as a vaccine, the catch-phrase "we are following the science" became used ever more by people in power, and politicians from the NDP. But this stood in absolute contradiction to the brave scientists, doctors and other medical professionals whose silence could not be bought, who voiced their concerns, or shared their research. Dr. Paul Alexander comes to mind. [link]
It is so much easier to ignore that which we don't want to hear. It is so much easier to ignore that which goes against our ideology, or the ideology of the party we support. It is so much easier to demonize and diminish those we don't agree with. Or to demonize those our politicians don't agree with. The NDP (and yes, society at large, too) has become so caught up in "protecting people" through lockdowns and masks and vaccines, that they decided to turn a blind eye to the scientists like Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Pierre Kory, Dr. George Fareed, Dr. Bryan Tyson, and Dr. Shankara Chetty who have developed a successful treatment protocol for Covid (which between them successfully treated thousands of people), that could have saved lives in Canada if it had been implemented here. [link and link] Where were the NDP in this? You could have spoken out, in the parliament, and in the legislature, calling for the use of ivermectin, and other extremely cost effective and safe treatments. You could have used your positions of power to make the government listen. You could have saved lives, not to mention a lot of money.
But alas, it is so much easier to follow your own version of science, than it is to admit that you are wrong. That your approach did not save the lives you said it would. That something else would have been more effective. It is so much easier to remain ideological, to think that "my approach is right, and everyone else's approach is wrong" without ever listening to the other approach. In fact, you went out of your way to silence any opposing views. (Or at least, you didn't try to stop the silencing of other opinions). You stood by as doctors here in Alberta were fired for saving lives, for example, Dr. Nagase [link]
The greatest Irony is that by "following the science" you did the opposite. The scientific process is an ever continuing cycle. As new information is discovered, it changes our past view of how the world works, and leads us to new understandings, and new theories, about our past observations. Many times throughout history, past theories were determined to be invalid upon the discovery of new information. These are basic concepts I learned in school. But you decided to willfully forget your education for ideological reasons.
Now, I understand that you genuinely believe that the Pfizer and Moderna Shots were vaccines. You genuinely believed that they were safe and effective, and that they were fully tested. But if that is the case, you have fallen for misinformation. [link] You see, while you were so busy name-calling, bestowing upon those you don't like for political reasons the titles "anti-vaxxers", "science-deniers", and "conspiracy theorists", you were doing the job of Pfizer and Moderna. You see, you are right about the danger of the spread of misinformation. There always is someone who gains something from it. In this case, Big Pharma escapes having to face the embarrassment of losing billions of dollars when the world discovers that their products do not work as advertised. That they are neither a vaccine, nor safe, nor effective. It is just unfortunate that this misinformation has made it into the mainstream media. Because it means that you believe it. Because trust in government is (understandably) a part of your ideology. But once again, I ask you, stop following your ideology so stubbornly for a second, and look where we have ended up.
Remember when I mentioned that my family supported the NDP because we feared the corporate takeover of government? Well, big pharma has taken over many of the major institutions in this country. For starters, the media, as already mentioned. Their tool for sliding into the rest of our system, by misleading people like you. You see, you, the party of the working class, the party that was supposed to stand against the dominance of major corporations, fell for their con. By supporting Vaccine Mandates, by dividing our society along the lines of the vaxxed against the unvaxxed, by firing nurses and teachers or denying students access to university because they believed in their own bodily autonomy, you gave our country to big pharma. It wasn't the pro free-market right-wingers that allowed big pharma to take over our country, it was you, the party that is supposed to stand up for workers rights, that is supposed to be against privatization. I find it so incredibly ironic that you, who are so insistent on preserving our public healthcare system (which I agree needs to be preserved) -- to the point that any mention at all of allowing small private businesses from having some stake in the system is considered far-right blasphemy -- you are the very same ones who handed the system over to some of the largest private and most powerful corporations in the world.
But what is so much worse than merely letting these companies take over our healthcare system, is what they are doing to it. Several times throughout this letter I have made mention of the fact that the mRNA Gene Therapies produced by Pfizer and Moderna are not actually vaccines. This is because they use a different technology than traditional vaccines. A technology developed by Dr. Robert Malone, but later abandoned for use in vaccine development when it was determined to be too dangerous. And now, Big Pharma have used their control to silence Dr. Malone's concerns about their products. Dr. Malone isn't the only one who has stood out, who has watched as the Shots have been rolled out across the world, and left hundreds of thousands dead and injured in their wake. There are plenty of Canadian doctors too who have been sharing their data and concerns about these injectable products and their deleterious effects on human health, including Dr. Jessica Rose [link] and dozens of others. [See the signatories here: and recognise that there are many more among the 700+ medical professional members of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance).
Now I know what you are thinking. "This Anti-vaxxer is talking about the vaccine being dangerous. What an idiot who listens to other idiots. He has no evidence to support any of his claims." Now of course, I already addressed all of this in the previous paragraphs, so I would turn the accusations on you for not paying attention. But as for the supposed 'lack of evidence' that people like you claim to be on my side of this debate, look no further than this: The largest cause of death in Alberta in the year 2021 was "Unknown Cause of Death". [link] Moreover, this is (thankfully) not normal. Normally "Unknown cause of Death" is towards the bottom of the list of killers. Now, to anyone with any ability to think logically, it is intuitively obvious what the cause is: The vaccine roll-out started in 2021. Sadly, pathologists' reports are the best "report card" to demonstrate the LACK of efficacy and safety of these injectable products. Dr. Ryan Cole shares the most recent list of pathways of harm identified to date in this speech starting at the 1 hour 12 minute mark
Press Conference Replay: Dr. Aseem Malhotra's New Peer-Reviewed Papers Lead Calls for Immediate and "Complete Suspension" of All Covid-19 Vaccines - 9/27/22 2:23pm https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/newsroom/
The list includes damage related not only to the actual contents of the vaccine and the effects of teaching the body's cells to make spike protein but also related to the use of lipid nanoparticles as the "delivery vehicle" for the vaccine content - a tool devised for brain cancer treatment is now being used to deliver mRNA to any and all parts of the body (and fetus and placenta in pregnant women) because it can cross the blood-brain barrier. IF YOU HAVE NO TIME FOR ANY FURTHER READING - THIS ONE TALK ALONE IS A MUST-SEE. It starts with British cardiologist and former pro-vaccination advocate Dr. Aseem Malhotra. He now admits to having been "willfully blind" to all the reports of vaccine harm and inefficacy "until I was not." It was his father's death at the hands of a vaccine injury that pulled the scales from his eyes.
Before I move on to discuss how you, the NDP have handled yourselves, I have a simple request for you. Take the time to look at the links I have provided in this email. It is your duty, as elected officials, to listen to the people you represent. You cannot just dismiss me as a conspiracy theorist and move on with your day. It would be highly irresponsible of you. Remember what you are paid so handsomely to do. You are not paid to be stubborn ideologues, I can assure you of that.
Now, I understand that you, the NDP, have not been in power over the last two years, either provincially or federally, and that therefore it is not entirely fair for me to blame all of this on you. However I am very thankful that you weren't in power, because it could have been a whole lot worse. You might not have any actions that speak over the last two years, but you have plenty of words, and they speak loudly enough.
For the Alberta NDP: How dare you not only stand with Jason Kenney in announcing lockdowns, mask mandates, the 'restrictions-exemptions program' vaccine passports, and the jailing of pastors, but you constantly goaded him to do more at every turn. Your job as the official opposition is to hold the Government accountable to the people, not to applaud it when it tramples over peoples' rights, in tandem with large corporations. And your job should certainly not be to facilitate such corporate-government overreach. Every politician and public leader and decision maker can be forgiven for trusting in public health guidance in the first months after the pandemic was declared. That is only rational. But then, as more and more of your constituents started pointing out the difference between what public health officials were saying and what scientists actively working in these areas were finding and reporting, it would have been incumbent on you to take a deeper look and to be OPEN to the idea that Big Pharma companies like Pfizer (who have been on record as having defrauded the public many times before) just might have it in their powers to once again use the media to engineer a major profit machine for themselves.
For the Federal NDP: Stop being so focused on virtue signaling and start focusing on political issues. Jagmeet Singh is one of the worst politicians I know of when it comes to ignoring the real issues at hand, instead being hyper focused on becoming a sort of "Hip celebrity". I would like to think, Jagmeet, that your confidence and supply agreement holding up Trudeau's government was a mistake, resulting out of you not paying attention to the real politics because you were so busy building your persona. You would certainly like people to think that way, with your out of touch comments about "holding the government accountable". But the truth as I see it, is that you have long since abandoned the true beliefs of the NDP, instead wishing you could be part of the much more successful Liberal party. In order to fulfill your ego boost, you have decided to rip your whole party down. This agreement, I might add, serves no benefit to the NDP. It isn't a true coalition, so you don't get a seat in the cabinet, and the only thing you get in return for mindlessly approving whatever the Liberals want are some empty promises to implement your dental care plan sometime in the future. Now these criticisms are not only directed to the NDP's incapable leader, but to all the other MPs as well. Because any of you could have stopped this. You could have been brave, and done your job, to represent the people, and provide opposition to the government. Why did none of you step up, and try to remove Jagmeet Singh, a leader who clearly doesn't care about his party?
I think I know the answer. You yourselves seem to no longer care about the traditional beliefs of your party, to step up for the working class. You have all forgotten your own ability to think, instead following blindly behind the new identity ideology, and bashing, shaming, or silencing all those who disagree. In this information war waged by Big Pharma and its allies Big Tech/Big Media and Big Finance you have become the victims of deliberate corporate disinformation and have turned those in the working class who are pointing all this out into your opponents. Sadly.
Several months ago I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Leslyn Lewis when she came here to Edmonton as part of her campaigning to become leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. I asked her how she, as leader of the Conservative party, would get young people like myself, who are often caught up in the NDP's and Liberal's empty woke Ideology, to choose Conservative. Her answer was simple: The Conservative party is about freedom. Freedom to believe what you want to believe, and freedom to live your life the way you want to live it. This is what made me realize what is truly wrong with the NDP. You expect everyone, both those who vote for you and those who don't, to have the same beliefs as you. It has become something you demand of everyone around you. That everyone bow down to your holy ideology. And those who don't, those who have always disagreed with that ideology, or even those who are only starting to ask questions, are to be shamed or attacked.
However, giving people the freedom to believe what they want to believe, and to live the way they want to live, allows for opportunities to have a civil discussion with others. Your ideology claims to be so tolerant of others, yet you silence people with a difference of opinion. You claim to want to have open discussions on subjects, but you have no intention of actually listening to what others say. Over the last two years, however, I have found myself in agreement with many people on the subject of vaxx mandates, etc. whom I would have considered members of the other side of the political aisle in the past. This has opened my mind to hearing and considering other opinions, and has caused me to change my own stances on some issues. Or rather, I have developed a stance on issues I previously had no stance on. Remember how I said above that I never really considered to what extent I agreed with the NDP's social policies, instead taking them as par for the course when it came to supporting your economic policies?
Because I have grown past the blindness granted by Ideology, and because I have opened myself to listening to new ideas, I have formed my own beliefs on many social issues that now stand contrary to your own. Now is not the time to discuss that. Unlike you, I am not trying to force you to believe a certain way on any of these issues. Instead, my point is this: I cannot support you anymore because you have made it clear that you do not respect anyone who has a different opinion than your own. Perhaps you should rethink that part of your ideology, and look at what has caused all the interest lately in the Conservative party: the Freedom that Leslyn Lewis talked about.
This brings me to my last point. Where does all of this leave me for the future. Well, for one, I do not see myself ever supporting the NDP again, but neither do I see myself firmly supporting any other party again the same way I did with the NDP as a child. Politics is much more nuanced than that. However, I find that both federally, and provincially, the parties I am in the most agreement with at the moment are the "right leaning" parties. I should note that another way I have come to change my thinking is that the categorizations of right and left are long obsolete. They serve more to divide people over synthetic barriers than to accurately describe anything. What we need instead is the understanding that the fascist end of the far right (where Big Business dictates what governments do) and the total communist end of the far left (where government using the tools provided by Big Business dictate what the people can and must do and what they can't) both end up providing us with the same result (a population controlled by Big Business via weak "puppet" governments). What we need now is to see the political spectrum like a ring - and the only way to break the power of the resulting dictatorship when the far left and the far right join up in the back, is for right of centre and left of centre citizens alike to meet in the middle to jointly oppose the tyranny many already see coming our way.
I have CC'd this email to several people not from the NDP, because I think it is valuable for them to hear my criticisms of the NDP. Dr. Leslyn Lewis, Roman Baber, and Pierre Poilievre all did the right thing, and stood up for Canadians against medical Tyranny, all three of them deciding to run for leader of the Conservative Party, and therefore to become Justin Trudeau's replacement. I would like to Congratulate Mr. Poilievre on his victory, and I hope you can take some of the criticisms I have outlined in this letter to heart to help you defeat Trudeau in the next election. That is not to say that I am 100% committed to voting Conservative. Maxime Bernier, leader of the PPC was one of the very first vocal opponents of any mandates related to Covid-19, and his anti-mandates stance stood out in the last election, in contrast to Erin O'Toole. I also hope you can take my criticisms in this letter to good use in your future campaigning. Leslyn Lewis is one of the smartest and most principled people in politics I know of, and had my full support in the Leadership election. And while you may not have won, I would like to thank you for being a shining example of how I expect all politicians should have handled themselves in the position of the opposition to Trudeau's government.
The same goes for Roman Baber, who spoke out within his own party, the ruling Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, against the mandates, and was even kicked out of Caucus for his beliefs. Such courage is what I truly admire in a politician, and I fail to see any people in the NDP showing anything remotely similar. The same can be said about Todd Loewen, one of the candidates running to replace Jason Kenney as leader of the UCP, and Premier of Alberta. He too (along with Drew Barnes) was kicked out of his caucus because he spoke out against mandates. Why did the Opposition NDP not join him in his opposition to Jason Kenney? Todd, I wish you all the best in the Leadership race, and if you win, I hope you can make use of the information I shared in this letter to fight the NDP in the 2023 election.
The same goes for Danielle Smith, another candidate running to replace Jason Kenney. Smith left politics for several years and went over to the media, during which time she was exposed to many differing viewpoints on many different issues. Take note, NDP people, because I think you should try this too. Perhaps this way you could be better at your job. Smith worked for both the mainstream media and, after facing censorship when she wanted to discuss certain issues, independently, giving her the opportunity to truly listen and learn.
This is the most important skill anyone, whether politician or not, can have. I ask you, Politicians and Members of the NDP, to consider what I have shared in this letter. I have made it quite clear that I will not vote for you again, but if you were to relearn the most basic of human skills (listening), and leave behind your ideological blindness, perhaps I could be persuaded otherwise.
Sincerely,
XXX
First time voter, and concerned citizen.