The Canadian Conservative Legacy
The Conservative party of Canada has been in power for years and they have only been able to get elected to a minority government.
What are your views on the accomplishments of the Conservatives and what legacy will they be known for?
They've done nothing of substance, the wave of protest against the federal governments' lack of transparency and accountability has been largely ignored by a conservative government that only seems to act in it's own interests.
-We've watched as one defence minister- Dennis O'connor- Resigned in disgrace over lying about a government sponsored study linking the Afghani government( and indirectly ours) with torture, and another one- Peter MacKay- would have probably been forced to step down if PM Harper hadn't taken the highly undemocratic action of suspending Parliament. How are we even supposed to be represented by our
ELECTED members if they're not even able to sit in the house.
- Some other undemocratic actions performed or allowed by Harper:
-Dick Harris trying to take over Nathan Cullens riding with a "goto person" suppossedly allowing residents of the riding to directly ask the conservatives for favours in return for votes.
-Harper nullifying the 2006 election result in Vancouver Kingsway
immediately after the election. The move was seen as being to the benefit of the conservatives at the time, Harper seemed to care not at all the chilling effect it had on the whole system. Why even vote if the PM is going to decide the issue over voters choice.
- The federally run SPP conference in Quebec where undercover police officers infiltrated a legal demonstration and tried to incite the police to violence against the mostly mature and peaceful crowd.
Looking at the governments that Harper consistently supports, including Columbia who's highest members have been directly connected to right-wing paramilitaries who have murdered thousands and helped create one of the most violent police states in the world; the Afghani government with its' strong links to corruption, the heroin trade, torture of prisoners and widespread vote rigging, the Afgani government under Karzi probably stuffed a million or more votes in the last election, the only reason Karzi is still in power is his closest rival gave up due to the futility of fighting the stacked election deck.
Makes you truly wonder where the conservatives would take this country if they ever achieved the majority they have forced Canadians to sacrifice so much in terms of our freedoms in their pursuit of. We have less transparency and accountability now than we did even under Chretien, Harper has forced the press to walk to his tune, sidelined Parliament and blocked effective access to information. Not in our interests by the way, but in a singleminded pursuit of power.
The problem before the conservatives took power wasn't that the Liberals had too much power but that the electorate(us) had too little. We're being told everything is OK now that the conservatives have taken control and to just trust what we're being told- even when it clearly isn't the real story as with the Afghan detainees.
We deserve better...