Vancouver, BC
24 March 2015
2015 Election #3
We are hearing now about ‘Our Values,’ as
dictated by Mr Harper, the relationship of his version a distant place from any
we are familiar with in the context of ‘Our’ or ‘Canadian.’
The prime minister is expounding in heroic terms
about his care for our safety and the imminent need for his Bill C-51 which is
now under fire across the country by the legal and academic communities as it
clearly threatens our rights and freedoms. We are wary of a police state and
suspicious of Harper's interpretation of ‘Our Values’ who governs with
non-transparency and non-accountability by policy. The Security Certificate is
one clear indication of this as 5 men are now incarcerated without charges,
something completely alien to this country.
The direct effect of this is a spillover; we
have lost confidence in all politicians and their ability to govern.
Canadian values are typically based on equality
across the board, a system that provides the needs and one that governs for the
good of all. This is the antithesis of Harper policies and the result is that
two-thirds of the country feel there is no efficacy in voting and a good many
of those who do vote use it to manipulate the election by nominating those most
likely to win over Harper rather than perhaps voting for the party they would
like to support.
So, we desperately need election reform from
first-past-the-post to proportional representation so that all Canadians can be
assured that their vote really went where it was meant to go.
Inequality is exacerbated as the general public
is marginalized and a small group gets the lion’s share of our resources while
the rest contribute mightily to their wealth and struggle to get by themselves.
It harkens back to the middle ages and the English class system where the
average worker was never be able to own a piece of land, never mind their own
home. As real estate has soared out of sight in Canada, and is still
unregulated, that is certainly the state of affairs here and now. Harper withholds
massive funds from social services and opens the door to private enterprise to
take over health, education, housing, the infrastructure all of which we will
be paying for directly. Meanwhile, our taxes are going to big business in the
billions, in the form of subsidies. So, what are we paying taxes for?
Canadian values have not changed despite the
coercion of the prime minister and the wealthy. The country has never been so
divided. The vast majority of us are democrats and do not support Harper’s
fundamental modification of our relationship between state and society. Poverty
and the deprivation to youth of a place in the country is giving them reason to
go elsewhere to put down roots. And his defiance of science like a know-better
teenager is just obnoxiously irritating. Our history of fairness, integrity,
peace, wisdom and vision are nowhere to be found now and the rest of the world
is well aware of the change keeping us out of the UN and indeed, marginalizing
Harper on the world stage where he strives to be recognized.
Today, we are informed by Harper of his utterly
absurd plan to expand his ISIS ‘mission’ for another year into Syria, and to
expect Canadians to accept this bid to buy votes in 6 or 7 months. There is no
evidence that ISIS is on our borders threatening to invade Canada and he has no
license to enter Syria. A religious war in the Middle East in a culture so far
removed from Harper's personal crusade of the religious-right that he has no
understanding of it. Thrusting our soldiers into this quicksand at great
expense to us and them is a ridiculous act of madness but, his desperation to
win this election is driving him to use his massive power way over the top and
it's clear the man has lost his grip on reality if, indeed, he ever had
any.
The prime minister will sometime leave politics
having made sufficient changes to the point where we will not recognize the
country, as he promised, and collect his rewards for his service to big
business to handsomely support him and his estate. Entirely unrelated to our
values, this is an old economic exercise traditionally practiced by pimps.
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