I wrote to PM Harper today

Vancouver, BC
6 Oct 2012

Prime Minister Harper
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON

Dear Prime Minister:

You must be aware that that we have serious problems politically in this country. People are not voting because there is no point; it's not efficacious. The worst of it is young people are not voting and it has proven to be in your favour. How can it be a good thing when only a third of the country is participating in the government, a great many of whom, 1.3 million, can't get a job? Although the only source of revenue, Canadians in general feel as if they have been dissed in the modern vernacular, as if we don't exist.

If you are not providing services for the very people for whom you govern, if a government of a country is concentrated on trade, deregulation and privatization, it is not providing for the greater good. It is entirely for the support of big business. All its tenets are geared to cater to commerce which will in turn keep the party in power. All of that has nothing to do with us.

Now, social services, the infrastructure, housing are all crumbling under financial straits because the federal government has (for 20 years) increasingly reneged on its responsibility to the provinces to provide a fair share of our taxes for them. Hospitals and schools can't cope with the weight of demand all over the country, the rapidly escalated cost of tuition is prohibiting promising young people from entering university, bridges are rotting, housing is a sad mess, and too many people, especially young people, are living on the street. All in a country like Canada.

I might add that we also need reform, and we need it now, because our situation is clearly rapidly deteriorating. We need tax reform: removed from government and made fair to everyone so that no manipulation can take place; and we need election reform so that votes are fairly counted. And then there's the Senate. Those things would help immensely to bring voters back to the polls.

All of this is factual, we know the country is being run down in favour of business and probably the military too, that when you leave power someone will have to repair the damage and start again. As well, our position in the world will have to be restored; we will need a genuine statesman at the helm for that. All the political rhetoric in the world will not change any of this.

It is so unfair to play power games with Canadians, to take our needs and crush them in favour of an obscenely profitable company, the subsidy for which would take care of most of the above short-changed services.

The history of your leadership leaves little hope for change and it's very depressing.


Respectfully,