Failure, thy name is Harper

Canadian democracy is failing and the blame solely rests on Stephen Harper and his cronies.

Paul Wells identifies it perfectly in a Macleans.ca blog, “Canada’s Parliament has not functioned as a legislative body since May, and is not likely to start working any time soon.”

Here’s how the blame falls:

1. April/May: committees are filibustered by Conservative MPs and chairs in an attempt to “grind parliament to a halt,” at Harper’s request.
2. Harper spends the summer taunting Dion and the Liberals to call an election. Rather than try to continue to work as a minority, he seemed desperate to go to the polls.
3. In late August/early September, Harper declared parliament dysfunctional and had the Governor General break the law he created to hold an election.
4. During his campaign he lambasted Dion with attack ads for 5 straight weeks. From notaleader.ca to an animated puffin pooping on Dion’s shoulder, this was likely the dirtiest of campaigns in Canadian history.
5. Near the end of the campaign, Harper was cornered on the National by Peter Mansbridge and refused to either admit he would have to cut spending, raise taxes or run a deficit with the coming recession. Harper solemnly vowed to the country that he would not run a deficit.
6. Failing to win a majority, but garnering a slightly boosted minority, Harper called on all MPs to work together and cooperate.
7. Being oblivious to what he said during the month of October, Harper prances around the world to spread the good news that deficits are cool again and they are vital to saving the financial crises.
8. Perhaps not thinking we have access to the news of what he does overseas, Harper then tells us in his economic update that there will be a small surplus for the next few years and ignores the 70,000+ jobs that have already been lost in BC and Ontario.
9. But more than just that, he decides he also hates women, unions, and rival political parties and attacks all three in the same bill.
10. Seemingly surprised that these are the issues to set off other parties, he limits himself to only attacking women with the bill in an effort to appease the bloodthirsty masses.
11. Knowing full well that this is the most opportune time to knock the not-so-benevolent dictator from his throne, the opposition presses the attack, signing the coalition documents and challenging his power.
12. Harper begs the nation and sends his Ministers of Truth ™ to inform Canada that the other parties are trying to destroy Canada and overturn the results of the recent election (which he still hasn’t done anything since). Being better funded than his opposition, and having the media on his side, Canadians buy the lies.
13. Still fearing for his political life, he cries foul to mommy again and gets Parliament closed until late January when he promises again to play nice (actually he hasn’t done that yet, but perhaps cooperation to him is more like rape).
14. Realizing that he still may go down in January, he decides he needs to fill the senate, which he’s long advocating reforming, with his own cronies, which he’s criticized everyone else for.
15. By using the term separatist more than even Bouchard in the 90s, Harper has reignited the idea in the mind of many Quebec sovereigntists and potentially reignited a flame that was almost out.
16. Not to mention: Canada is now among the worst countries both environmentally and in how we provide child-care.

Harper’s tools across the country still claim he represents a “responsible” government that has the strongest economic policies for the times.

Well, I just don’t see it.

The claim of responsibility is Triple-A Alberta Bull Shit. Federal politics The rest of Canada doesn’t deserve the kind of sleaziness we’ve grown accustomed to provincially here. There is nothing responsible about fucking around for nine months to try to trick Canadians into thinking the only way our government can work is if we hand over 155 or more MPs to your party so you can steamroll the rest of us.

And where is his great economic policies? His economic update was blasted by economists for leading Canada from being able to handle the recession, to driving us to a Depression. Harper claims to have a masters in economics, but I think with even the USA going from Bush to Obama we can pretty much accept that Neo-Conservativism (and it’s school of economics) is Dead.

Harper has one goal, that’s to get his theocratic uber-conservatives to power. Once there, Canada loses.

We lose our resources, our oil, wood, and water, to the States. We lose our potential of being a progressive nation that respects all human rights. We lose our stance as peace-keepers and potentially move toward peace-makers.

Michael Ignatieff: If you don’t want to support the coalition, fine, have an election. But as leader of the Liberals, you right now hold the key. So at the end of January when Parliament resumes, you have only one respectable choice for Canada – remove Stephen Harper from office.