Life Under Harper: A Recent History

I thought it might be amusing to recap some of the recent events surrounding Stephen Harper and the Tories and the new Canada that this minority government is trying to sneak down our throats with nary a mandate (note the words "minority government") nor a moral position to substantiate it.

We heard this week the whopper of a statement that the combined G8 and G20 security costs for Canada are going to top $1 billion. In the same week we heard from BP that the cost of cleaning up the largest oil spill and the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history will cost only $930 million.

Besides the fact that getting security for two events rather than one should engage economies of scale of one sort or another, how on earth can the Tories substantiate this $1 billion simply to provide protection to maybe 100 high priority individuals if we generously allow for five from each country? That's $10 million per person for a 3 day combined event.

Is no one else out there even remotely baffled by this figure—especially when the BP cleanup estimate can be used as a comparison? Maybe they'll be flying these politicians to Mars for some of the meetings they'll be having, but otherwise this is simply a ludicrous amount of money and indication that Harper and his crew are too tightly aligned with all things security and enforcement related. It will be very interesting to follow this money and see just how it gets spent.

The next Tory spectacle was that of our PM and Finance Minister jetting around the globe on the public till in order to act as PR men for Canada's banks. The Tory work against the European- and U.S.backed G20 bank tax proposal is a shameless and baldfaced display of just how much our politicians are in the pockets of our banks. It corresponds to every other move this government has made in this regard, most notably doing an end-run around public accountability and transparency by injecting $115 billion post-crisis into our banks via non-disclosed asset relief schemes, and then publicly standing up and repeating ad nauseum that our banks never needed a bailout.

The Harper Tories are the worst example yet of the bank-run oligarchy we once called Canada. That they take the 'big lie' approach to this and avoid media accountability only serves to further demonstrate how pathetic our supposed democracy has now become.

Lastly we have the spectacle of the Tory response to the news that the NDP and Liberals may finally be taking the appropriate democratic step of joining into a coalition so that the majority of Canadians can once again have a government that reflects their values and concerns.

Despite the fact that Harper himself signed a letter confirming his own party's willingness to participate in a similar exercise only a few short years ago, one that overtly included the participation of the BQ, their cynical reliance on short-term 21st century collective memories once again trumps anything approaching an ethical position.

Even in light of Harper's own clearly anti-Canadian statements in the past (see my post from 2009), they additionally have the gall to make Iggy's loyalty to this country and its values part of this same strategy.

Pls Libs and NDP, please please please get it together and stop splitting reasonable Canadians politically and providing room for this sort of spurious dismissal of our democratic rights and values. Our country has been sent over a precipice at the hands of the unwashed minority and a rogue's gallery of ethic-less political calculators.

Bring back principle and reason to our political discourse and put away your tired and petty differentiations. They are meaningless in face of what this government is trying to slip under the rug with its stacked budget bills and other tools for circumventing true democratic rights and process.

We are watching Canada be taken before our eyes and we need you to make the changes that will return the meaning to our votes and to our judgments.