Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Doing It For Their Country



Stephen Harper may be defeated in the upcoming election because the economy has tanked. But, Ralph Surette writes, there are other reasons -- better reasons -- to send him packing:

This is not an election like any other. What's at stake is nothing less than the integrity of Canada's most fundamental features -- the justice system, the electoral system, the public service, the tax system and Parliament itself -- all of which Harper has relentlessly assaulted and would complete the job of reducing to his personal playthings if only enough people could be kept deep enough in the dark to give him one more majority.

It has been a mark of Harper's manipulative genius to keep all this under the radar. It has also been the signal failure of the opposition parties to raise their sights and crystallize these crucial arguments against him. (Thursday's leaders' debate brushed past all this -- a segment on "democracy" dealt mainly with electoral reform, the Senate, the role of MPs and so on).

Along with the dismantled watchdog bodies, the fired and muzzled scientists, the harassment of charitable organizations with tax audits, the totalitarian instruction to federal librarians to "demonstrate loyalty" to the regime even when off duty, the dismissal of evidence in favour of ideology in policy and legislation, and on and on, you might note this: cuts in staff at the Department of Justice are such that legislation riddled with errors has been passed, usually hidden in democracy-mocking omnibus bills. Some have been, and others probably will be, knocked down by the Supreme Court.

The Harperist mentality is not to fix this, but rather to try harder to rig the courts (so far even Harper's appointed judges have gagged at his legal predations), as concerns rise in legal circles about some of his appointments, including his latest to the Supreme Court, an Alberta judge who was only a few years ago, as a law professor, blogging the Harperist line.

Geoff Stevens writes that many Conservatives are appalled by Harper's behaviour. But they like his tax cuts. The fundamental question they face is: Can their votes be bought? Mr. Harper is betting that they can be.

Fifty-five years ago, John F. Kennedy famously said, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." If Canadians answer that question honestly, they will conclude that the best thing they can do for their country is to turf Mr. Harper.


6 comments:

Rural said...

That first paragraph says it all, Owen. Those who cannot .... or will not, see that may doom us all to a future ruled by a megalomaniac who truly believes that the end (his preferred end) justifys the means (any means, legal or illegal)....

Owen Gray said...

Principles mean nothing to Harper, Rural. Power is everything. And he will do anything to get it and keep it.

Scotian said...

It's nice to see some of these people finally catching up to where I was over a decade ago!!! (and yes that is both sarcastic and serious blended together) I know you recognize this about me, but I have to say it is both nice to finally see these kinds of statements from those with media clout and infuriating that it wasn't understood when it would have made a massive difference given that Harper's true "hidden agenda" was always well understood to be in the destruction on the process side for anyone that actually was paying attention to the man before!

I mean really, being pissed at the Liberals and/or being a Dipper partisan doesn't in my books excuse anyone in the professional media and political worlds from understanding that sometimes the devil you have is far less dangerous than the devil you allow to take over, and that was my point back in the waning days of Martin, and even my argument in the last election with Ignatief, whom I despised as the worst Lib leader in my lifetime and possibly the nation's. As to Harper's at all costs power mania, the way the entire Grewal recordings fraud happened was a microcosm of what was to come even before the Cadman affair happened later in the year, which was why I kept raising that stink about it then. Not to mention the way with traitor MacKay he murdered the PCPC to create his conceived in treachery and birthed in corruption CPC.

I hope this time out people finally understand what we are dealing with and the stakes that are involved, and having Harper make his audiences swear loyalty oaths with those non-disclosure forms on top of all the other precautions the GWB campaign used in 2004 finally drives home how fundamentally anti-democratic, and therefore anti-CANADIAN Harper truly is! We shall see.

Owen Gray said...

Indeed, we shall see, Scotian. You bring up the Cadman episode. What smelled bad then has merely been repeated several times over.

Mogs Moglio said...

Surette fails to mention an even graver danger and large reason to heave Steve: The security noose he has put on us all he wants us all on a very short lead. Stephen has put us on the razor's edge of a full blown dictatorship. If we don't kick back at the polls now it may be to late until he disappears...

Owen Gray said...

He's putting a lot of energy into trying to scare us, Mogs. But recent polls suggest we're not scared.