Oct 2008 – Dec 2009, With conservatives reelected with an increased minority we begin to see their true colours with increased self promotion on taxpayers money using 10%ers, the start of those iniquitous Economic Action Plan TV ads and clear disdain for parliamentary procedure. It becomes increasing difficult to obtain
Continue readingTag: Harpers Legacy
Democracy Under Fire: Legal Experts urge killing Police State Bill
Last week more than 100 Legal Experts wrote a letter Urging Parliament to Amend or Kill Anti-Terrorism Bill C-51 The legal experts from across Canada are urging all parliamentarians to “ensure that C-51 not be enacted in anything resembling its present form.” They argue, in an open letter published on
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Harper History, Part 3 – First Con Minority
Jan 2006 – Sept 2008 In part three of our series examining the things that Mr Harper and his supporters have done that impacted our democracy we cover the period of “Canada’s New Government” tm which lasted 2 1/2 years before Harper declared it “dysfunctional” and called a new election
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Harper’s Police State Law
Much has been written of lateabout the proposed C-51 ‘anti terror’ bill and I will not attempt to dissect it here given that we already know that it will be forced through the legislative process unchanged by the Harper Regime it is somewhat a futile exercise. It is important however
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: In Government We Trust?
As I review the actions of the Harper Regime since coming to power for my Harper History Series, an undertaking that one must take in very small bites if one is to retain one composure and sanity, I have been thinking a great deal about the choices before us and
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Harper History, Part 2 – In Opposition
June 2004 – Jan 2006 This is the second of a series of monthly articles examining the actions of Stephen Harper and his Party colleagues both before and after his rise to power with particular emphasis upon words and actions that effect our democracy. This period is most notable for
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: The Incremental Dictatorship
A guest post by Pamela Mac Neil In order for a government to be all powerful, it must dominate all of the major democratic institutions in a society and it must be very adept, when seeking to change the democratic nature of these institutions, at hiding its inner workings while
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: 2015 Budget Prorogued.
We all know that when backed into a corner Harper will do almost anything to avoid any negative information about his regime from emerging from his$65 million plus a year PMO spin machine and that this is particularly true of bad economic news. We know in the past he prorogued
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Harper History, Part 1 – The Early Years
This is the first of a series of monthly articles examining the actions of Stephen Harper and his Party colleagues both before and after his rise to power with particular emphasis upon words and actions that effect our democracy. The 2015 Federal Election will undoubtedly be critical to to whether
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: The Singing Dictator
A guest post by Pamela Mac Neil “Music is always a commentary on society” Frank Zappa Whenever I hear that Harpers base is made up of primarily seniors I am a bit perplexed. Not that I don’t think it’s true, because it is. Boomers of which I am one are
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Truth in Advertising.
As Susan Delacourt of the Star said this week if you are sick of political advertising now wait until next year and she goes on to highlight a recent blog post by former Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber wherein he says “It is shameful how a supposedly conservative government wastes tax
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Your Information is in the Mail
I see a Con MP is proposing to increase the $5 fee for an Access to Information Request which given what Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault saysmay at first seem like a reasonable idea. “We need more investigators, and it is not my office that is in a crisis, it is the fact that
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Vitriolic nastiness does not breed respect.
Stephen Lewis , the former Ontario NDP leader, United Nations ambassador and lifelong human rights advocate recently took aim at the “pre-paleolithic Neanderthals” in office and their role in the decline of Parliament, the suppression of dissent, the plight of First Nations, their blinkered climate-change policy and our plummeting world
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Electioneering on our Dime?
We all know that we are inundated with TV advertisements promoting the Harper “government” in thev egis of telling citizens about their “plan” or some other “program” non of which actualy tell the watcher anything that will help them actually access said programs. Does anyone actually go to that web
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Blind Obedience, the Tool of Tyrants
A guest post by Pamela Mac Neil “Here is how you’re going to vote and here are your talking points” On capital hill the above line is the kind of conversation, probably repeated many times, initiated by junior in the PMO’s office, to Harpers backbenchers and various cabinet MP’s. He/she
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: A Stark Contrast.
I dont often comment upon the daily actions of politicians on this blog preferring to look at the broader picture of how their actions affect out democracy but one recent report realy got my attention in its stark contrast between a potential leader and the current one. The way in
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Democracy and Freedom in Harperland
A guest post by Pamela Mac Neil There have been Canadian Prime Ministers I have disliked and Prime Ministers whose ideas I have disagreed with. I have never however, with any of these Prime Ministers, worried about losing our democracy and consequently our freedom. That is until Stephen Harper as
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Lest We Forget
Indeed we must not forget, not just the terrible toll that war takes upon those who engage in it both directly and indirectly but we must also not forget what the second world war was about and how it all started. I must give a brief history lesson here of
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Naturalists Targeted by Canada Revenue Agency
First they came for the environmentalists and the activists. Then they came for the scientists. Then they came for those who fight poverty, and help the poor. Now they’ve come for the birdwatchers. The Kitchener-Waterloo Field Naturalists, a registered charity, is apparently at risk of breaking tax agency rules that limit so-called
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: And so it starts……
The first volleys in the election war to come that is, we have our ‘fearless leader’ “protecting Canadians” by sending a few planes and a handful of personnel over to Iran to drop a few bombs on the terrorist hordes. We have the first of many more to come promises
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