Envy is a cancer — feeding it is wrong

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/05/2023 (853 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Last year this government cut Galen Weston a cheque for $300,000.” — Manitoba Opposition leader Wab Kinew in Question Period, May 8.

“During question period Wednesday, the New Democrats relaunched their attack on the Progressive Conservative government over its $453-million education property tax rebate program. The program is designed to eliminate the tax over a 10-year period and includes about $40 million in rebates for commercial property owners this year.” — the Free Press, May 10.

Dear Mr. Kinew,

My friends, readers and listeners always know how I vote.

It’s not that I don’t respect the secret ballot.

Because of my unique relationship with Manitobans over five decades, I feel I owe them as much information as possible about who I am and how that informs my thinking. They know my biography, my heritage, and most importantly, my values.

I reveal all because all of us have biases based on the stories of our lives. I am a common man, the son of common parents. I tell stories based on my Canadian common sense.

I put my biases right in the shop window for everyone to see.

Mr. Kinew, I have lived in Manitoba for most of the last 40 years.

I have never missed a vote. My mom and pop paid a high price for the cratering of democracy in Hungary, the country the three of us were born in. Among the values I inherited is a deep respect for democracy. Since 1983, in provincial elections, I recall voting for the Manitoba Liberals twice. The rest of my votes went to the Manitoba PCs.

You might be wondering why, as a son of working class immigrants, I have never voted for the NDP. This week in the People’s House on Broadway, you delivered the answer to your question. You stoked envy and resentment of people who are much richer than we are — the Westons.

That may suit your politics, Mr. Kinew. But not mine. My family has always viewed class envy as the enemy of common people. It targets people for their achievements. I’m not big on targeting people, Mr. Kinew, whether its about heritage, faith, gender, sexual orientation, or even income.

My maternal grandmother Elizabeth was a common person. In Hungary, she owned a small family business, an upholstery shop. She owned it before the Nazis dragged her off to a concentration camp in 1944. She survived by doing slave labour until she was liberated in 1945.

When she returned to Budapest, she discovered that her store had been seized by the communists. The Nazis stoked hatred of Jews by encouraging the envy of Jewish wealth. The communists stoked hatred of all private wealth by encouraging the envy of anyone who owned a business — large or small.

My grandmother put her core value in three words. Envy is cancer.

Mr. Kinew, my dad, Mike Adler, worked in his tiny family business, Adler’s Tailor Shop, for more than 30 years. His lungs were damaged goods because of things done to him in a Communist prison camp in Soviet Siberia. Mr. Stalin wasn’t a kind man, as I am sure you have read.

My dad’s tailor shop was a bit easier on his lungs than the factory he had worked in for several years after we arrived in Canada.

Immigrants are the backbone of family business.

It’s always been this way.

In our day,the immigrants were Hungarian, Ukrainian, Polish, Mennonite, German, Dutch, Icelandic, French, Scottish, Irish and English. In today’s Manitoba, many small family businesses are owned by immigrants from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, China and many other parts of Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

The idea that businesses are getting tax rebates doesn’t bother me in the least, Mr. Kinew.

I like seeing hard-working families getting a break. And you can’t get it to bother me because a business started by Galen Weston’s family is also getting one.

You won’t get me to loathe the Westons, Richardsons, Thompsons, Chipmans, or any other wealthy family.

You won’t get me to resent private wealth by encouraging me to loathe the wealthiest among us.

Manitoba’s family businesses aren’t stealing money from common people. We are the common people. If some do uncommonly well, I’m happy for them — not envious, resentful or hateful.

Mr. Kinew, I’m not telling you how to conduct your politics. I just wanted you to know how uninspiring it is for those of us who love family, hard work, and opportunity.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster. charles@charlesadler.com