Valkyrian Chancellor Margaret Harrison

Peace, freedom, and democracy is something that does not come overnight. On Monday, the editorial board of The Vancouver Times published an article attacking Valkyrian Chancellor Margaret Harrison and endorsing the Coalition. While there was little substance in their article, it was very insightful on showing us where they stand and what they actually believed. They showed that they now believe in the lies and distortions fabricated by The New Right. They have abandoned the intellectual leaders of Valkyrian conservatism—Victor Cutter and Jonathan Victor—who previously served as Presidents of Qvait. The article proved that The New Right was successful in pushing an anti-intellectual brand where truth is not only trivial, but is even malleable. However, we at The Sydney Times will never accept that truth is malleable. Truth is important.

And so, what exactly is the truth? Here's the truth: when Margaret Harrison campaigned to become President of Qvait, her campaign slogan was "peace, freedom, and democracy". Where did this slogan come from and why did Harrison choose these words to represent her campaign? The truth is that there was no peace, freedom, or democracy in Qvait heading into the 2016 presidential election. Under Conservative leadership, the Qvaitican government was one of the most corrupt in the South Pacific. Backroom deals and the occasional murder plot perfectly summarised the culture that Conservatives fostered in Qvait. Why else was President MacArthur Knight, a Conservative, was assassinated in his sleep by one of his own people in Executive Qvait? Why else did Qvait plot the invasion of Sporaltryus?

After Harrison was elected the mayor of Darwin in 2005, she faced government corruption on a daily basis. A culture of violence that existed in the city was perpetuated by a police force that took bribes and whipped out their batons if a person looked at them wrong. In 2007, Harrison was the target of assassination when several members of the police force nearly shot her. This is the truth and reality that The Vancouver Times was unwilling to share in their endorsement article. While they ask, "Where has peace, freedom, and democracy gone," we can tell you the cold, hard truth that there was no peace, freedom, or democracy to begin with in Qvait. It was a country that began as an absolute monarchy, turned into a fascist dictatorship, and could anyone seriously expect such a damaged country to be one of peace, freedom, and democracy?

When The Vancouver Times says they want to "[return] the country to conservative hands", this is what they mean. In all reality, they don't want peace, freedom, and democracy—they want to turn back the clock. So, what is it that they want to reverse?

Populist Left leader Taeler Shaw

After the Labor Party won control of the executive and legislative branches of government in the 2016 Qvaitican elections, the government passed the Social Democratic Reform Act 2016, a wide-reaching piece of legislation that affected every facet of Qvaitican life. With one signature, life in Qvait changed so suddenly that it sent a ripple across the country. All of a sudden, all of the following things happened: trade unions where given the right to collectively bargain, same-sex marriage was legalised and anti-discrimination measures were put in place, felony disenfranchisement and capital punishment were abolished, and many immigration restrictions were lifted. With the SDRA, Harrison and the social democrats successfully passed everything that the right-wing staunchly opposed.

However, the SDRA is not the only legislation that the Conservatives hope to repeal. There are several National Health Service Expansion Acts over the years that have been a thorn in their side. After the unification of Qvait and Winston Island, Harrison and the social democrats constitutionalised several popular aspects of the SDRA to make sure that the only way for the Conservatives to undo them was through referendum. Another move that Harrison made was Referendum 2 (2018), which legalised physician-assisted suicide, an issue that the right-wing also staunchly opposed. With its passage, the right to die was the next thing to be constitutionalised. Harrison made sure that the only way that Conservatives and The New Right could reverse everything that she accomplished was through the vote of the people.

As President of Qvait and later as Chancellor of Valkyria, Harrison brought routine audits and transparency to the national government and cleaned up the corruption that had existed. To hold the police force, Harrison nationalised them to come under one umbrella—the National Police. Since then, corruption in the police force has been nearly unheard of with the audits, body cameras, and gun safety legislation. Crime statistics have shown that the country is more peaceful than it has ever been in the past and that was caused by taking guns off the streets and shifting our criminal justice system toward rehabilitation. The government is no longer locking convicts up in solitary confinement and making them forget what ordinary life looks like. Instead, the government is actually teaching them how to be better people. Recidivism is dead.

Socialist leader Amalia Rollins

In the article that The Vancouver Times published, they asked for Harrison's accomplishments. Well, look no further. In 2016, Harrison saved Qvait and now Valkyria from Conservative malfeasance. She was the only one who was bold enough to alter the status quo and bring peace, freedom, and democracy to Valkyria. The people of this editorial board believe that we and the rest of the country owes Harrison a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. Like a phoenix, our country rose from the ashes into something beautiful and this was accomplished under the leadership of Chancellor Margaret Harrison and we believe that she deserves another three years as the leader of our country. Margaret Harrison is not an ordinary person—she is a stateswoman and the greatest world leader of this era.