Vote for Harper? Inconceivable!
Ninth and final in a series of mini-blogs on Canada's federal election to be held 19 Oct. 2015.
DaBa, pen name of a Guest Blogger, wrote the blogs.
My comments follow the blog.
DaBa, pen name of a Guest Blogger, wrote the blogs.
My comments follow the blog.
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Rather than include all of the main points of the eight prior blogs in this series, three Harper failings are highlighted: democracy, the environment and economy.
1. The Harper government runs one of the most undemocratic regimes in Canadian history — and has undermined and abused democratic institutions and procedures at every turn.
2. Harper is the only Canadian Prime Minister to be found in contempt of Parliament, which occurred in 2011 after his government refused to release certain program costs to Opposition MPs.
3. "We have a crisis in Canada where public information is disappearing and being restricted." (Executive Director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression)
4. The Harper government shows no intention of moving forward with climate policy and remains the worst performer of all industrialized countries.
5. Harper may blame the current recession on any number of historic or international events, but there can be little doubt that his polices have exacerbated the situation.
6. Harper's strong card was his promise of a balanced budget, however, it appears the government will run a $1-billion deficit in the current fiscal year even if it uses all of its contingency fund, says a report recently released by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
7. The Bank of Canada's Monetary Policy Report released last week downgraded economic growth for 2015 and projected that Canada had slipped into a technical recession in the first half of the year.
8. Moreover, the Canadian dollar dipped to its lowest point in more than a decade.
Vote for a Harper government? — Inconceivable!
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CommentsAn amazing op-ed article appeared in the New York Times, 14 Aug. 2015:
Subtitle: Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, is creating a legacy of secrecy and ignorance.
A few selected quotes [précised] about our PM:
He has consistently limited the capacity of the public to understand what its government is doing, cloaking himself and his Party in an entitled secrecy, and the country in ignorance.
Mr. Harper’s war against science has been even more damaging to the capacity of Canadians to know what their government is doing.
In 2012, he tried to defund government research centers in the High Arctic, and placed Canadian environmental scientists under gag orders.
He ended the mandatory long-form census, a decision protested by nearly 500 organizations in Canada, including the Canadian Medical Association and Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
[He] passed the [Un]Fair Elections Act, a law which not only needlessly tightens the requirements for voting but also restricts Elections Canada from promoting voting.
He is “tough on crime” and builds more prisons at great expense when even American conservatives realize that over-incarceration causes more problems than it solves.
Conclusion: Whether or not he loses, he will leave Canada more ignorant than he found it.
Harper will leave Canada more ignorant. How sad. Yet it correctly sums up our PM, mocked for what he is in the New York Times, who's print version has the largest circulation of any metropolitan newspaper in the USA, and is long regarded as a national "newspaper of record", respected around the globe.
Vote for Harper? Who could? He does not deserve our vote.
Vote for Harper? Who could? He does not deserve our vote.
As always, comments are most welcome.
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