In 2011, I and my fellow Canadians were called to the voting booths midway into Harper's second reign of terror in the hope of bringing new players into the fold. I voted for the NDP (New Democratic Party) personally, while the Liberal party received just shy of the NDP vote in the end. However, despite the overall damage Harper's government has been and continues to wreak upon our country, they got the majority vote and was given the green light to perpetuate their assault on environmental (pollution is steadily worsening our resources, which we depend on for sovereignty), fiscal, and social integrity for Canada. All of the selling of Canada's assets goes to the Red Menace, China, the pitifully dependent United States of America, or to multinational corporations who have no allegiance to any land they occupy & plunder.
Money is certainly made by these trade agreements, so it's not entirely bad. Yet when you look into what comes of these agreements, you see that there are a lot of stark details that you would rather forget about. The recent "free-trade" agreement made for billions of dollars will not be able to be debated (and possibly ruled out in Parliament) for fifty whole years. That's a new and upsetting precedent that will only stifle any hope of mitigating the damage that will be done to the nation. And what will really come from that money? Will we see the revitalization of our economy so that it stands out amongst the global stalwarts? Will we see the strengthening of the people so that they can be productive members of society? Or will we see a forward momentum in the economy producing a surplus federal budget? Given current trends, it's safe to say that none of the scenarios described will happen at all.
I remember during the mid-term election in '11 the news that the Harper government was seeking to purchase $15 billion for, get this, up-to-date fighter jets. That's a huge number to spend on planes, and a huge amount of extra money going to weapons developers around the world, who push war on just about everyone else so they can make more cash. One could wonder if the thought of strengthening the ground troops with that money crossed any of the idiot's' minds at all. You know, better training, more reliable and, bonus, more powerful weaponry, more supplies, pension & other veterans' support programs, etc. I guess they're expendable, even though anyone with any knowledge worth a damn would know that ground troops are the most flexible and thus, most potentially powerful assets in a military, so why not spend on that at least?
Stephen Harper's cabinet does not like inner-party dissent, and anyone who allegedly questions the veracity and even the morality of the actions of their party gets shafted in one way or another. He's also personally a huge bully in Canada's political system, trying to enact laws that would sic the RCMP and other law-enforcement organizations upon his political opponents. This
article shows how Harper wants to pick & choose those of the press who get to report on the messages & policies of his cabinet. If you're naive you'll take the sugar-coating to heart and think "it's no big deal", but don't be fooled; it is definitely a sly method of censorship and Harper stifling Canada's form of democracy as we know it. The media, as corrupt as it often is, is a necessary element of any democracy, and he wants information about his party filtered for preferential groups. He also tried, four times (I laugh in joy at this) to force ISPs to divulge your information and how you use your internet service, but it still hasn't worked. Thank god. Oh and, speaking of Internet Service Providers, he and his party boisterously supported the CRTC's efforts to, through their corruption at the hands of private interests, give the shaft to paying customers and how they use the internet. They're mostly to blame for letting ISPs implement various limits and unnecessary penalties on their customers, and Harper's government was all for it.
Paul Martin, the former premiere of Canada, along with his party helped to generate a sixteen-billion dollar surplus. As a country we've had a steady reduction of debt and a gaining economy. That was all true, until under Harper, we have reached a deficit in the range of over $60 billion. He's also lowered the corporate tax rate to 16%, with another slight decrease on the horizon. He is cozy with Big Oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon-Mobil, and this rings true with regard to Alberta and the economic developments in Newfoundland & Labrador, and Saskatchewan, and soon, the vast & beautiful British Columbia. Further, he's trying to push for a pipeline development project through Northern British Columbia that will no doubt result in enormous environmental disasters, shamelessly promoting more monetary growth for Enbridge while a huge oil spill will inarguably follow after the pipeline's inception. His government aims to phase out the production of the penny (for example, a product priced at $19.99 may be rounded up to $20), with loopholes so omnipresent that any company could exploit it and raise prices above and beyond what they were before, seeing significant increases in revenues in spite of the minor change in appearance, while the products remain the same.
By extension of his cabinet's inability to run financial resources effectively, and also showing just where his loyalty lies in the process, he also spent approximately a billion on security over the G8 and G20 summit held in Ottawa & Toronto, respectively, and most witnesses of how the police handled the world-famous protests for the events would tell you that it resembled a violent and childish police state (just take a look at the "Officer Bubbles" fiasco where the nicknamed officer overreacted to a passerby blowing bubbles in his direction. The guy tried to sue Google because of the clips making fun of the guy. There's a classy man indeed). Harper, personally responsible for his part in that tyrannical treatment of his citizens (including silencing a member of an activist group before he could even participate in the protests and cornering hundreds of non-participatory onlookers while ordering them to leave the area, among others). He certainly is a man of the people, whom should be his bosses.
He shut down the Kelowna accord, which arguably would have helped improve the quality of live for Native Canadians, many of whom are pushed under the bus while dazzled & insulted with tax breaks and other measures which only serve to perpetuate the urge to view themselves as victims. It was a five billion dollar agreement, no small feat of course, but it would have possibly improved a vital social aspect of the citizenry. He, of course, wouldn't have it so it went the wayside. Might it be a stretch to suggest that this is a move to stifle his opposition, given that most native Canadians vote for the Liberal and NDP parties overall?
Many conservatives loud the reduction of the government's power (even though a handful of these same conservatives still seek government office and push laws & bills that effectively contradict their positions), but Harper, typical of his ilk, wants to exceed his reach on our lives. If you're a woman with an unwanted or unhealthy pregnancy and you choose, as hard as it may be, to get an abortion, Harper wants to say, "No, you can't do that." If you want to enjoy the dose of a recreational drug, he wants to say to you, "no, you can't do that." If you are homosexual or bisexual and your life-partner & you want to get married, then Harper doesn't want that either. If you choose to be a prostitute/escort, he will make sure you get a prison sentence and thus, put you in increased danger for fear of reprisal from the law. He is certainly a friend of profit-over-everything-else private interests, but in terms of social freedom, he is akin to a totalitarian despot. Your body is, for now, your domain and you should always be able to do what you wish with it. But if Harper has his way over all of us, he might as well do anything he wants to us.
He wants to spend an extra $5 billion on prisons in spite of the steady decline of crime rates in the country. It's also fair that there is no doubt that prison privatization is in the works as well. If you were to glance at the prison industry in the U.S, this would contribute to an excessive erosion of our rights. People do like when the government cracks down on crime, but all this would serve to accomplish is throwing more non-criminal citizens into prisons, which will not improve the quality of life for Canadians in general. In other words, this is a total misfire and completely misguided. If it's not a sign of his abuse of his position as Prime Minister, then aside from the debacle at the G8 & G20 events, what else is?
And yet he was given another go at bringing our country further into the red financially, and selling us out to various interests who don't give one damn about any of us here. Our water supplies are being stealthily given for minor payment to the U.S and elsewhere, and we don't see any benefit at all from the growing contributions we make to the oil & gas markets except for steady oil & gas supplies to purchase. We have been known as a peace-keeping nation for decades until Harper came in, and he has even outright nullified foreign aid efforts and ended necessary diplomacy efforts (such as Iran, who shouldn't be antagonized more than they already are), throwing our global reputation out the window in the process. At the height of the Kyoto accord discussion, he was one of the most vocal opponents, and he stated that he wanted no part in it. That move further proves how much weight he has in the non-renewable energy industries, and cements how far he'll go to benefit his greedy and amoral friends in the wealthy elite.
Anybody who thinks Canada is a great, and more peaceful alternative to the United States of America, should find out just how untrue that idea is. Stephen Harper is a major contributing factor in just how good our country can be to live in. Yeah, we have an economic plan to bolster businesses and help students and all that jazz, but all of the problems this plan was meant to address haven't changed one bit and given the vagueness of the plan's outline shows just how confident its creators were about it in the first place. Other than that, what do we have to lose if we finally wake up as a nation and show him the proverbial exit door? Well, we have everything to gain, in my humble opinion. Canada needs to make a choice by majority next time, and do our part to bring back some degree of integrity and sovereignty to our nation. Until then, we've no reason to be proud of what is happening to Canada.
I'll supply you with some links to articles showing the dark sides to Harper's abuse of power.
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