Seeing the Whole Picture
by Yvonne Palmer

I used to be moderate, but now I am liberal. I would say I am a social liberal and fiscal progressive,  meaning I would like to use taxpayer money to help social problems in our society, but to try to better our laws, make them more progressive, to help fund our government, which can then in turn use the money to help fund social programs.  

I think for the longest time I wouldn’t have considered myself liberal, but much more moderate. I became more liberal over time, almost to how you say progressive in your description. I can't quite go all the way [to progressive] because there are more liberal things that were applicable to me, but I think it's important to know over time how people's political affiliations can change. … My work the last 9 years was The Program, and I think it has definitely made me more aware of social inequalities, economic inequalities. I mean I knew they existed, but now they are kind of in my face every day, you know what I mean? So, I wouldn’t say I was ever unaware, but when the work you do is directly related to some of these things – I mean it's something I work with a daily basis now, so that's different than being aware of it. I think that that's why I lean more liberal than I did for the first 50 years of my life.