Round Table Reflection

In this discussion, our class was separated into groups and each given one of five political ideologies. Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism, Fascism and Communism. My group was given Liberalism. We where then given time to research and plan what we where going to say to deal with the given problems.

1. Openness to Syrian Refugees entering the country
2. A new privately owned mining company wants to begin operations in Alberta
3. A protest against a new government policy is planned for downtown Vancouver
4. Increased demand for food, clothing and basic shelter during the winter months by citizens of the lower mainland
5. Increase in the number of vehicle break-ins around Port Coquitlam

Going into this I had no idea what liberalism was, and I learn many things from this discussion. While researching a liberal solution for each of these topic, I learned the basics to liberalism. Liberals are considered to be a party that looks to the future, and sees every individual as equal, unlike the statue quo that the conservatives want to keep, and unlike the fascist leaders that make their country bow to them. A good example of a liberal group was at the tennis court oath at the French revolution. The people of the third estate held an assembly with a democratic vote to vote on beginning a revolution or not. the people that stood on the left or the “left wing” voted to revolt against the monarchy, while the people on the right or “right wing” voted to keep the monarchy, or the status quo (to Liberate the people or Conserve the monarchy). Liberals value the Liberty and Equality above all else, and support ideas like freedom of speech, freedom of press, Civil rights, free market and gender equality. Liberals typically have high taxes and more government social services, as well as liking to have control over economy and industry.

To deal with the problems in a liberal state of mind we had to use the values above and create solutions that fit them. for the question about Syrian refugees, a background check and criminal record check would be needed of course, but we would welcome them with open arms, as the people of Syria are still people just like you and me and need a place to call home.

for the privately owned mining company wanting to operate in Alberta, we are happy to have their business, but we will tax them a lot for operating here.

When we heard there was going to be a protest, we said we would have some safety forces on call in case the protest gets violent, but we will let the protest happen because everyone has a right to protest.

for dealing with an increased demand for food, clothing and shelter, we will happily tax the citizens to provide more of each of these things to the people who need it.

with a higher number of vehicle break ins, we would tax the people more to put more security systems in place, as well as hiring more policemen to protect the people.

I found the activity interesting in that it was kind of hard not to be biased towards your own ideology. (I don’t know if it was the same for fascism and communism) but It was quite fun to get to be in a big discussion rather then small groups. I found it challenging to vote fairly based on my actual values, but it kind of felt like a competition that we wanted to win. Overall I enjoyed the activity and would like to do more like it in the future.