Democracy: Hugo Chavez and Venezuela vs. Stephen Harper and Canada
Finally, the Earth is rid of that megalomaniac dictator who dared to equitably share oil wealth. Venezuelans at last have a shot at true democracy.
That’s been the narrative over at Maclean's since Hugo Chavez passed away on March 5 after a battle with cancer.
A new infographic titled “The state of Democracy in Canada & Venezuela” portrays things a little differently.
First up is a chart comparing what percentage of Venezuelan voted for Chavez to Canadians for Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the four consecutive elections both men won. Chavez consistently received a larger portion of the population’s support by margins of 15 to 27 points over Harper.
Next is a glowing assessment of Venezuela’s 2012 election by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.
“Of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world,” the elder statesman said.
That was followed by negative observations of national polls in Canada.
Towards the end of the infographic are a number of the Chavez government’s impressive accomplishments that many people might not be aware of.
That list (not independently verified):
- Free education from daycare to university
- 5th in the world in % of university students
- Reduced unemployment by 32%
- Reduced poverty by 44%
- Reduced food imports by 60%
- Cut infant mortality in Venezuela by half
- Cut child malnutrition by half
- Reduced inequality by 54%
- 96% of the population has now access to clean water
- Increased the number of health clinics by 169.6%
- Tripled the number of doctors
- Reduced public debt by 31%
For a similarly positive take on the subject of Chavez and democracy, watch this video of British MP George Galloway debating a student at Oxford University.
Comments
2 Comments
HellSlayerAndy
Mar 7, 2013 at 6:30pm
"That’s been the narrative over at Maclean's since Hugo Chavez passed away on March 5..."
That's also the narrative at the CBC (listening to their World At Six broadcast even now) -- so suggesting MacLeans is unique in it's propaganda met-narrative is really missing the point as elites in this country generally THINK that anyone that suggests the public might a 'right' to anything, including political inclusion, is deranged.
But the main observation here is that during the reign of Chavez, Venezuelans were asked TWICE by his government for their opinion on changes to the Constitution. In the entire history of this country, Canadians have been only asked by their politicians ONCE for their opinions outside of these four year personalty contests and that was the Charlottetown Accord. Of course nearly 70% rejected it in spite of ALL party support (save Reform), ALL provincial support, all business support, all union support, etc etc.
The point is the elites of the this country were ridiculously out of touch with the public and despise them. Regardless of which party you are talking they consistently collude to keep this country's democratic traditions firmly placed in the 19th century.
Often in the West and it's 'democracy' is treated with the same brush -- however there are virtually NO jurisdictions in the world where a vote of 57% in favour of a simple change to how votes are counted would be dismissed as 'not enough' as it was in BC.
Chavez, regardless of what you think, genuinely liked HIS people, while Canadian politicians HATE the public and treat them with nothing but endless contempt.
Bruce Hynes
Mar 8, 2013 at 7:16am
Good grief; have you people nothing better to do? The one thing in the favour of Venezuelans is that they do not bitch and whine as Canadians do. Have you visited there? Better, have you lived there?