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Now that I have released my version of the woefully out of touch "Team Manitoba" cards for each member of cabinet. Let me tell you why I did. 1/14
I work in emergency healthcare. I see the impact this government has had on Manitobans. It is no exaggeration to say that their policy choices have harmed and indeed killed Manitobans. Even prior to COVID-19. 2/14
The pandemic has just exacerbated the underlying rot. For years, those living in poverty, people with disabilities & chronic illness, people living with debilitating mental illness or addictions were all victims of the vicious austerity pushed by conservative governments. 3/14
COVID-19 has expanded these casualties to include a broader section of society and it has drawn greater attention to policymakers and the utter disdain they have for the general public and public institutions. More people now feel they have skin in the game, right or wrong. 4/14
Politics in MB is currently a wasteland. While the Progressive Conservatives have a stranglehold on this province and enact brutal and deliberate cuts, the response from the NDP, Liberals & Greens has been an absolute joke or utterly absent. No meaningful response at all. 5/14
Hundreds of Manitobans are dead and what has the response been? What vision has been put forward aside from decrying the bad policy the PCs continue to push? Yeah. Water is wet. Accepting their framing of issues has forced people to abandon their convictions, which leads to: 6/14
Their ideology is bullshit, call it out. Maybe you think I was harsh on them when making these cards. I assure you I was not. Each and every member of the PC caucus is a monster. Without exception. 7/14
In making these cards I actually looked up as much info on these ghouls as I could find. Which brings up the related problem of just how weak our media coverage is of people who hold so much power in Manitoba. Some people had next to nothing written about them. Why? 8/14
However, they all have lost any moral authority or illusion of ethics by standing by Brian Pallister & an utterly failed pandemic response. Not a single PC cabinet member or MLA spoke out, or dissented while hundreds of Manitobans died preventable deaths & thousands suffered.9/14
Collectively we are facing the culmination of multiple crises. Astronomical inequality, the worsening climate crisis, a future with likely more pandemics to come. Things aren't looking too rosy on many fronts. 10/14
Being lead by people who think it's appropriate to put out "Team Manitoba" cards to announce a cabinet shuffle, after hundreds have died as a result of their inaction, is simply not a viable option. 11/14
Do NOT let them get a free ride on this. Call, tweet, email, show up at their constituency offices. Nag them. Mock them. Make them accountable for their choices. Organize, mobilize, connect with the groups doing the work of presenting an alternative vision to austerity. 12/14
If you made it this far & you're reading this, you need to act. Things are too dire not to. There can be no "back to normal" after this. Normal was still killing people by wholly ignoring vulnerable people & entrenched systemic racism & inequality. Fuck that. Tear it down. 14/14
