The Conservatives’ predecessor – the Reform party – once made the mistake of announcing their desire to privatize healthcare, the social program most valued by Canadians. Though his aim is the same, Harper has been wiser. No announcements, but cuts to healthcare have still been set in motion: a crippling $36 billion dollars over the next decade. The effect is obvious: as public medicare crumbles and complaints grow, profit-gouging companies will be waiting in the wings.
The strangling of the state has had many victims, but none more than women. In Harper’s Canada, half of the population is now treated like a special-interest group. He has shuttered women’s centres that aimed to advance economic equality and eliminate gender violence. Deployed parliamentarians to try to reintroduce a debate over the right to abortion. And used tax policies to encourage one-income families – all the better to keep women tethered to the home. Adding a final insult to injury, Harper has sought to win re-election by stoking fears about Muslim women who choose to wear head-scarves at citizenship ceremonies, supposedly out of concern for their liberation. Racist pandering has scarcely been more shameless.
The threat of barbarism is grave, insidious and far-reaching. Those responsible are a small group nurturing a foreign-inspired ideology on Canadian soil. They pore over rigid doctrines in cloistered rooms. They scheme to impose their values, attractive only to a minority, on the majority of Canadian people. They have carefully veiled their true selves but their agenda is unmistakable: to erase the country’s achievements in security and fairness.
This threat comes not from a handful of niqab-wearing Muslim women. It has always come from Canada’s Conservative party. Their imported neoconservative ideology, baked into homegrown resentment toward the federal state, has never been palatable to a country with progressive ambitions. They have risen to power through other means: money and economic clout; a deep network of right-wing media and think tanks that have shaped policy options; and an unreformed electoral system that has allowed a party with only a quarter of the electorate’s support to rule unhindered.
Get your facts straight Ralphie.... The Fords showed up to support Harper, it doesn't mean he's 'campaigning' with them. I realize most people hate the guy, but Trudeau's an idiot and Mulcair would run the country into the ground.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is attending a much-discussed rally promoted by Toronto's Ford brothers.
Both Rob Ford, the former Toronto mayor who admitted to using crack cocaine while in office, and his brother Doug have been campaigning in support of Harper and have been heavily publicizing Saturday's event at the Toronto Congress Centre in the suburb of Etobicoke.
Those Ford brothers aren't very smart..... They've already got terrible reputations, and now they're being seen associating with Stephen Harper. Don't they already have enogh wreckage in their lives, without adding even more?
The Conservative Party of Canada is facing a criminal investigation over allegations that one of its candidates ordered senior members of his campaign team to tear down opponents’ election signs while putting up his own, making it the fourth time in as many elections that the ruling party has come under a criminal probe over election law violations.
The Peel Regional Police has launched an investigation over the incident that was caught on camera by a Liberal volunteer on Tuesday night, Detective Paul McNairn confirmed last evening.
“I don’t care,” one of the vandals is heard saying in the footage justifying his actions. “I’m doing my job.”
Under section 325(1) of the Canada Elections Act, “No person shall prevent or otherwise impair the transmission to the public of an election advertising message,” including election signs as outlined in section 495(1) of the Canada Elections Act, and the offence carries a maximum fine of $5,000 and up to six months in jail.
The Liberal team identified the men shown on the video as Balkar Jhutti, a major donor to Brampton Centre Tory incumbent Bal Gosal, and Harvinder Rai, but the police have yet to confirm the identities of the vandals.
Photos have emerged of Prime Minister Stephen Harper meeting Jhutti and Rai at the premises of a business owned by Jhutti.
Open Letter to Stephen Harper: ......an open letter to Harper......
Dear Mr. Harper,
I live in BC with my husband and two little girls. I grew up in Calgary and have many friends and family members there. I’m white and in my early 40s. One of us is a stay at home parent, so we benefit 100% from the direct deposits in lieu of a National Childcare Program. We also benefit 100% from income splitting. And we can afford to take advantage of the increased allowance in our TFSAs.
In other words, we’re the picture of the family who benefits the most from your economic policies.
But we’re not voting Conservative on October 19th.
You see, you’ve misjudged us. We enjoy our standard of living, we work hard for it but it’s not the only thing that matters to us.
You assume we don’t care about our First Nations neighbours, or Canadians trying to bring their family members here from war torn countries. That we don’t care about less fortunate Canadians, our veterans, or scientists. You think we don’t mind that to save a few bucks and balance the books we axed the census, dumped decades of research from our libraries, cut funding to CBC, under-spent our budgets in important departments and closed coast guard stations. You figure we no longer want our lakes and rivers protected and that we don’t understand that climate change is a far greater risk to our way of life than Barbaric Cultural Practices.
You’ve underestimated us.
On October 19, we’re not voting for our bank balance. We’re voting for change because we want the caring Canada of our youth back. The Canada that supported our single mothers that gave us the opportunity to succeed in the first place.
Isn't that like Mulcair campaigning with Gordo ??
ReplyDeleteThe Conservatives’ predecessor – the Reform party – once made the mistake of announcing their desire to privatize healthcare, the social program most valued by Canadians. Though his aim is the same, Harper has been wiser. No announcements, but cuts to healthcare have still been set in motion: a crippling $36 billion dollars over the next decade. The effect is obvious: as public medicare crumbles and complaints grow, profit-gouging companies will be waiting in the wings.
ReplyDeleteThe strangling of the state has had many victims, but none more than women. In Harper’s Canada, half of the population is now treated like a special-interest group. He has shuttered women’s centres that aimed to advance economic equality and eliminate gender violence. Deployed parliamentarians to try to reintroduce a debate over the right to abortion. And used tax policies to encourage one-income families – all the better to keep women tethered to the home. Adding a final insult to injury, Harper has sought to win re-election by stoking fears about Muslim women who choose to wear head-scarves at citizenship ceremonies, supposedly out of concern for their liberation. Racist pandering has scarcely been more shameless.
The threat of barbarism is grave, insidious and far-reaching. Those responsible are a small group nurturing a foreign-inspired ideology on Canadian soil. They pore over rigid doctrines in cloistered rooms. They scheme to impose their values, attractive only to a minority, on the majority of Canadian people. They have carefully veiled their true selves but their agenda is unmistakable: to erase the country’s achievements in security and fairness.
ReplyDeleteThis threat comes not from a handful of niqab-wearing Muslim women. It has always come from Canada’s Conservative party. Their imported neoconservative ideology, baked into homegrown resentment toward the federal state, has never been palatable to a country with progressive ambitions. They have risen to power through other means: money and economic clout; a deep network of right-wing media and think tanks that have shaped policy options; and an unreformed electoral system that has allowed a party with only a quarter of the electorate’s support to rule unhindered.
Get your facts straight Ralphie.... The Fords showed up to support Harper, it doesn't mean he's 'campaigning' with them. I realize most people hate the guy, but Trudeau's an idiot and Mulcair would run the country into the ground.
ReplyDeleteBetter the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Here’s a reminder of some of the worst parts of the past decade:
ReplyDeleteHarper pulled Canada out of Kyoto, reneging on our commitments on climate
He gave millions in subsidies to big oil and pushed pipelines from the tar sands
He removed the privacy of millions of Canadians
He created a second class of Canadian citizenship
He ignored Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
He closed veterans affairs offices
He stripped funding from the CBC
He cut the child care tax credit, leaving parents with only $13 per month to raise kids
Harper made it harder for you to vote with the "Fair" Elections Act
And he is the only Prime Minister in history to be found in contempt of parliament
Just imagine what Harper would do with another four years.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is attending a much-discussed rally promoted by Toronto's Ford brothers.
ReplyDeleteBoth Rob Ford, the former Toronto mayor who admitted to using crack cocaine while in office, and his brother Doug have been campaigning in support of Harper and have been heavily publicizing Saturday's event at the Toronto Congress Centre in the suburb of Etobicoke.
Those Ford brothers aren't very smart..... They've already got terrible reputations, and now they're being seen associating with Stephen Harper. Don't they already have enogh wreckage in their lives, without adding even more?
ReplyDeleteThe Conservative Party of Canada is facing a criminal investigation over allegations that one of its candidates ordered senior members of his campaign team to tear down opponents’ election signs while putting up his own, making it the fourth time in as many elections that the ruling party has come under a criminal probe over election law violations.
ReplyDeleteThe Peel Regional Police has launched an investigation over the incident that was caught on camera by a Liberal volunteer on Tuesday night, Detective Paul McNairn confirmed last evening.
“I don’t care,” one of the vandals is heard saying in the footage justifying his actions. “I’m doing my job.”
Under section 325(1) of the Canada Elections Act, “No person shall prevent or otherwise impair the transmission to the public of an election advertising message,” including election signs as outlined in section 495(1) of the Canada Elections Act, and the offence carries a maximum fine of $5,000 and up to six months in jail.
The Liberal team identified the men shown on the video as Balkar Jhutti, a major donor to Brampton Centre Tory incumbent Bal Gosal, and Harvinder Rai, but the police have yet to confirm the identities of the vandals.
Photos have emerged of Prime Minister Stephen Harper meeting Jhutti and Rai at the premises of a business owned by Jhutti.
ReplyDeleteOpen Letter to Stephen Harper:
......an open letter to Harper......
Dear Mr. Harper,
I live in BC with my husband and two little girls. I grew up in Calgary and have many friends and family members there. I’m white and in my early 40s. One of us is a stay at home parent, so we benefit 100% from the direct deposits in lieu of a National Childcare Program. We also benefit 100% from income splitting. And we can afford to take advantage of the increased allowance in our TFSAs.
In other words, we’re the picture of the family who benefits the most from your economic policies.
But we’re not voting Conservative on October 19th.
You see, you’ve misjudged us. We enjoy our standard of living, we work hard for it but it’s not the only thing that matters to us.
You assume we don’t care about our First Nations neighbours, or Canadians trying to bring their family members here from war torn countries. That we don’t care about less fortunate Canadians, our veterans, or scientists. You think we don’t mind that to save a few bucks and balance the books we axed the census, dumped decades of research from our libraries, cut funding to CBC, under-spent our budgets in important departments and closed coast guard stations. You figure we no longer want our lakes and rivers protected and that we don’t understand that climate change is a far greater risk to our way of life than Barbaric Cultural Practices.
You’ve underestimated us.
On October 19, we’re not voting for our bank balance. We’re voting for change because we want the caring Canada of our youth back. The Canada that supported our single mothers that gave us the opportunity to succeed in the first place.
Mary Cleaver
http://dont-be-a-fucking-idiot.ca/ ..... I wish you could post this. LOL
ReplyDelete