What every Canadian government, provincial, federal, and municipal, should want for us:

Freedom from want, freedom from fear*, and the ability to flourish.

Quality of politicians: 

Political parties should offer points of view which serve the public rather than themselves. 

All candidates should have demonstrated personal and professional accomplishments, along with a record of non-governmental public service.  Elected officials should be at least as qualified as appointed Canadian Senators. Assessment Criteria – Canada.ca

Freedom from want, freedom from fear

Housing:

We need faster housing builds primarily for geared-to-income rental, with reasonably profitable (for builder/owners) rates but security for renters.  Everyone should be able to go to bed at night confident that they will be able to stay there the next day and call it “home.”  There should be no need for tent communities this winter.  This is freedom from fear and want.

Income:

There should be

indexed basic income together with agreed-upon and well-administered adjustments referenced to medical conditions and cost-of-living factors.  These two features should ensure that NO ONE must seriously consider MAiD (medical assistance in dying) because they can’t afford to live in a place suited to their health.  This should also eliminate the need for food banks.  This is freedom from want.

continuous attention to the remaining needs of those with lower income and troubled social environments, to minimize suffering and crime due to isolation, inadequate housing, poverty, prejudice, mistreatment, colonialism; and domination by particular racial- and values-holding groups and powerful financial groups.  This is freedom from fear.

Quality of living: 

All residences and work places should have near-by places of natural beauty, for the sake of our physical and mental health. Abodes and work places should be located at safe distance from coastlines and flood plains. Coastlines need mangroves, marshes, and wild regions to promote the health of the planet.

Accessibility should be provided everywhere for those of limited mobility, deafness, blindness, and sensibility to various stimuli.

There should be reliable public transportation in urban, suburban, and rural areas, even if assisted by private carriers with government subsidy.

All buildings and infrastructure (including roads and rails) should be proofed against the coming decades of extraordinary weather.  This is freedom from fear.

Food:

There should be a strong agricultural industry with both horizontal and vertical growing, with due attention to minimizing damage to the environment.

Healthcare:

We should adopt former Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpot’s  (Health for All:  a Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada) Dutch model of primary health care, resembling school boards’ ability and requirement to serve everyone in a geographic area.  This is freedom from want and fear.

There should be excellent funding for hospitals and other public forms of physical and mental health care and seniors’ care.  This is freedom from want and freedom from fear.

There should be excellent at-home and aging-in-place service and assistance.  This is freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Climate crisis: 

We should steadily work through solutions to the climate crisis, even as disasters continue, and inevitably increase, so that some day we won’t just be surviving the latest fires, storms, droughts, and excessive heat and then “recovering” from them and their trauma.  We should foster renewable energy such as wind, solar, water, hydrogen, thermal, batteries, and multi-building sharing of energy.  There should be some availability of gas and nuclear when the primary sources are inadequate for domestic needs, but these should not be promoted for export.

Justice:

In Ontario, there must be strong efforts to restore our tribunals’* staffing, fair procedures, and efficacy (see tribunalwatch.ca).  We should fill all judicial and tribunal vacancies.

Special needs:

We require great improvement in funding autism treatment, including speeding up the assessment process and availability of treatment payments for parents, along with attention to the lack of support people in the autism spectrum as they become adults.  This is freedom from want.

We must improve funding and staffing for special students in publicly funded schools.  This is freedom from want.

Flourishing

Pandemic preparation:

We must improve building standards to assure outside air is available in mass residences and offices; competent PPE storage; and public testing availability for reliable indications of infectious diseases.   We should foster construction which provides spaces for multiple functions such as shopping malls with space, if needed, for school classes to help students work at greater distances from each other, in a building with good fresh air circulation and filtration. We should discourage buildings that are so specialized as to exclude any other function. This is flourishing and freedom from fear and want.

We must work with people of various opinions about the appropriateness of requiring vaccinations, and other cautions against spread of disease.  We must not remain stuck between those who feel pubic health is everyone’s moral duty, and those who fear too much State oversight. We must pay great attention to the different views, and find ways to do well for all with minimum threat to anyone:  to do this, we must continuously sponsor respectful conversations among these differences.  We must provide safety for medical practitioners as an honoured and respected profession. This is flourishing and freedom from fear.

Increase university funding:

We must

Restore previously reduced tuition levels and increase government funding, while encouraging private donations to universities and students. 

Eliminate the cap on the number of students funded at each university. 

Encourage people to pursue college and university education for its own sake, to improve peoples’ abilities to think for themselves, expand their thinking and knowledge, and bring to our society new ideas and new discoveries. 

Use basic income to help people for whom post-secondary education would not be possible, to not only pursue studies but also to mix in-person with other students from other socio-economic backgrounds to learn from them, but also to help them appreciate people in more stressed circumstances. This is flourishing.

Accommodating differences:

We must

Work with permanent Canadian residents and citizens who come from other countries, to make Canada a safe place for all of us, not torn by the conflicts within or among their countries of origin. 

Discourage politicians from pandering to voters on the basis of political circumstances in those other countries.  Let Canada be itself rather than a battleground for other countries.  All jurisdictions should cooperate to ensure citizens’ and permanent residents’ safety from espionage and threats instigated by other governments and criminals.  This is flourishing and freedom from fear.

Having a place:

We should do all this because everyone needs a place in life.  Everyone wants a place in life.  You know what a “place” is?  It’s when you get up in the morning and greet your family, or your friends in person or remotely, it matters to them that you are there.   They would care if you were not.

A “place” has public and social contexts –  you feel you can rely on the public systems to work well so they don’t require much attention from you.  You feel accepted in your social context –no one judges you for your differences, you don’t judge them either.  You feel safe, secure, delighted to accept the new day.  You flourish.

That’s a place.

* From Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech on the Four Freedoms

* *Assessment Review Board, Animal Care Review Board, Child and Family Services Review Board, Custody Review Board, Fire Safety Commission, Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Landlord and Tenant Board, Licence Appeal Tribunal, Ontario Civilian Police Commission, Ontario Parole Board, Ontario Special Education Tribunal (English), Ontario Special Education Tribunal (French) and Social Benefits Tribunal.