Like the US adminstration that it admires so much the Harper Conservatives have taken Canada down the road to totalitarianism and away from democracy. While they didn't rig the 2006 election, the Conservative justification for changing the government was complete fabrication. We have an even greater democractic deficit and even less accountability.
One of the first steps Harper took on taking office was to bring in the same media consultants that have allowed Bush and Cheney to get away with...well with everything. The Executive Branch in the US doesn't even recognize any checks and balances on it's power anymore and is a defacto dictatorship. Over 1,100 signing statements circumventing laws passed by Congress have seen no limits put on the White House and information has been fabricated to allow the initiation of a war that has probably killed more than a million people, left 4 million orphans and about the same number of refugees.
In Canada the changes have been more subtle. Our mission in Afghanistan has changed from a rebuiling operation to a warfighting mission against a local insurgency that shows little hope of ever being resolved. The media has also come under much more direct control of the PMO. No longer can reporters approach Cabinet Ministers without prior approval and questions must first be sent to the PMO for vetting before they can even be asked. There is no longer any spontaneous discussion with the people we trust to represent us.
The Conservatives have also taken partisan politics to a level not seen in this country for many years while at the same time claiming the opposition is responsible for the problem. They have made Parlimentary priviledges into political tools, refusing to allow the same access to constituents to the other parties as the Conservatives enjoy. A few Conservative MPs have even gone as far as to try and circumvent the role of opposition MPs by appointing "go to people" in their ridings, making the federal government a "support for services" game not a true democracy.
We've seen an unprecedented level of attack on the opposition leader, especially in Quebec and above the levels usually seen even during election time. Instead of trying to make a minority Parliment work the Conservatives have tried to eliminate any effective opposition and deprive Canadians of the real representation we deserve. They've gone as far as to distribute pamphlets to their MPs detailing how to disrupt Parliment further than all the other measure already have giving us a Parliment that doesn't really function anymore, while endlessly whining about how their own bills are being held up. At the same time access to information has been severly limited so as not to allow the leak of any embarassing information, this has recently extended to Environment Canada, it's insane to limit access to this service in a country with as variable weather as Canada for purely political purposes.
Cutbacks to social programs that have helped bring the people of this country closer together while at the same time increasing the funding to Quebec to garner voter support is as cynical as any Liberal program of the past. Ignoring the dangers presented by the fossils fuels industry also shows the contempt felt by Harper for the welfare of the people he's supposed to represent, all so the the people who stand in the shadows behind him can continue to enjoy their great wealth.
Instead of trying to fix the weaknesses in our democracy the Conservatives have done everything possible to take advantage of them to further a political agenda that few really understand and even fewer would support. We don't neeed more central control from the PMO in Canada so that a few can benefit, we need to give more power to the individual MPs that the PEOPLE selected. Not some faceless functionaries in the PMO who don't care about the needs of Canadians, only the limited agenda of a few, most prominently Steven Harper.
Canadas new Government is a failure as it is neither Canadian and does not represent Canadian values. We need more freedom in this country not less, that was the lesson the Liberals learned in 2006 and the one the Conservatives will learn this year.
One of the first steps Harper took on taking office was to bring in the same media consultants that have allowed Bush and Cheney to get away with...well with everything. The Executive Branch in the US doesn't even recognize any checks and balances on it's power anymore and is a defacto dictatorship. Over 1,100 signing statements circumventing laws passed by Congress have seen no limits put on the White House and information has been fabricated to allow the initiation of a war that has probably killed more than a million people, left 4 million orphans and about the same number of refugees.
In Canada the changes have been more subtle. Our mission in Afghanistan has changed from a rebuiling operation to a warfighting mission against a local insurgency that shows little hope of ever being resolved. The media has also come under much more direct control of the PMO. No longer can reporters approach Cabinet Ministers without prior approval and questions must first be sent to the PMO for vetting before they can even be asked. There is no longer any spontaneous discussion with the people we trust to represent us.
The Conservatives have also taken partisan politics to a level not seen in this country for many years while at the same time claiming the opposition is responsible for the problem. They have made Parlimentary priviledges into political tools, refusing to allow the same access to constituents to the other parties as the Conservatives enjoy. A few Conservative MPs have even gone as far as to try and circumvent the role of opposition MPs by appointing "go to people" in their ridings, making the federal government a "support for services" game not a true democracy.
We've seen an unprecedented level of attack on the opposition leader, especially in Quebec and above the levels usually seen even during election time. Instead of trying to make a minority Parliment work the Conservatives have tried to eliminate any effective opposition and deprive Canadians of the real representation we deserve. They've gone as far as to distribute pamphlets to their MPs detailing how to disrupt Parliment further than all the other measure already have giving us a Parliment that doesn't really function anymore, while endlessly whining about how their own bills are being held up. At the same time access to information has been severly limited so as not to allow the leak of any embarassing information, this has recently extended to Environment Canada, it's insane to limit access to this service in a country with as variable weather as Canada for purely political purposes.
Cutbacks to social programs that have helped bring the people of this country closer together while at the same time increasing the funding to Quebec to garner voter support is as cynical as any Liberal program of the past. Ignoring the dangers presented by the fossils fuels industry also shows the contempt felt by Harper for the welfare of the people he's supposed to represent, all so the the people who stand in the shadows behind him can continue to enjoy their great wealth.
Instead of trying to fix the weaknesses in our democracy the Conservatives have done everything possible to take advantage of them to further a political agenda that few really understand and even fewer would support. We don't neeed more central control from the PMO in Canada so that a few can benefit, we need to give more power to the individual MPs that the PEOPLE selected. Not some faceless functionaries in the PMO who don't care about the needs of Canadians, only the limited agenda of a few, most prominently Steven Harper.
Canadas new Government is a failure as it is neither Canadian and does not represent Canadian values. We need more freedom in this country not less, that was the lesson the Liberals learned in 2006 and the one the Conservatives will learn this year.
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