I received a powerful piece of writing in my email inbox this morning; someone called Charles Young sent a succinct, even-handed précis of exactly why Stephen Harper needs to be ousted. Mr. Young is so fair that he insists his screed is not anti-Conservative, just anti-Harper. I wrote back to congratulate and thank him, assuming he’d had my email address from some left-wing website, and he wrote back to tell me he was my writing student years ago.
Reaping what you sow! I’m proud to have had a hand in helping shape this superb piece of rhetoric. I don’t know how to condense it so am including it all here. I urge you, if you agree, to copy and send to anyone who might be considering a Conservative vote. This is crisis time, folks. As I said to my U of T class this afternoon, I hope next time we meet, next Tuesday, we’ll be living in another country.
Before that, in case Charles’s article is too long for you, here’s one from the Guardian that makes the same point: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/12/stephen-harper-last-remnant-george-w-bush-north-america
Dear Friend / Colleague. With less than a week to go before we choose our national leader, I thought it was crucially important to put forward a counter-argument (below and attached) to the misrepresentations of Stephen Harper. If you agree, please share with others. If you disagree, go ahead and share your views with others too. When so much is at stake it is better that we be knowingly committed than blindly following.
Charles Young
416 436-5851
VOTE FOR CANADA
Stephen Harper claims to be the best choice for Canada
In large measure this is a non-partisan argument. I lay out the facts as I see them and the blame squarely on Stephen Harper. I have not targeted the Conservative party or conservative principles. I do mention in the context of the 2013 Fair Elections Act that the party pleaded guilty to violations in the 2006 election and paid a fine. The focus is on Stephen Harper. By all means vote Conservative in 2019 when he is gone.
Harper’s economic claims are bogus
· Harper’s balanced budget boast is for votes, not the economy. The two best-performing economies in the world, USA and Germany Canada ’s ratio of 87% in range, as is the UK Canada
· Harper has neither plan nor direction. In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Dr. Mariana Mazzucato, author of The Entrepreneurial State, describes the institutions“…that have allowed Germany, China, and the United States to build globally competitive companies,” and notes that Canada “… despite having earned a fortune in petroleum revenues in the past 15 years that could have created a similar major institution, has nothing substantial of the sort, nor any proposal to create one.” “… if they [Germany , USA , China
· Harper’s luck is running out. China and the commodity super-cycle have been keeping Canada China
· Harper’s narrow-minded support for the oil sands could be a deadend. New research outlined in The Guardian (UK) is “the first to identify which reserves must not be burned to keep global temperature rise under 2°C”, the safety limit agreed by the world’s nations. These reserves include “almost all Canadian tar sands”. Currently, the world is heading for a catastrophic 5C of warming. “The study’s conclusion on the exploitation of Canada
Harper is using a racist strategy to court votes
We may prefer that women not wear a niqab, the tradition of a tiny number of Muslim women in Canada Trump University
Harper’s views and actions (or inaction) mirror the right-wing of the Republican Party
· He sees climate change as a low priority. He withdrew Canada Canada Paris
· He pursues a law-and-order agenda that is costly and counter-productive. Harper has spent $ millions to build super prisons, despite the long-term decline in crime rates and the failure of the American experience. Judges are refusing to impose mandatory sentencing in specific cases, citing cruel and unusual punishment contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down or softened several of Harper’s crime laws. In the USA
· He has radically expanded the government’s policing powers under the guise of security against terrorism. All the while that the United States has been providing such security it is Americans, not “terrorists”, who are regularly shooting children, students, movie-goers, and other Americans. You are far, far more likely to be injured in a car accident, bitten by a shark, struck by lightening, or felled by chronic disease than from an act of terror. Harper’s Anti-Terrorism Act 2015 Bill C-51 gives more power and wider discretion for surveillance and arrest to government agencies over the utterances, material, and activities of citizens and organizations. The Act does not define terrorism. In other words, if you oppose the government too vigorously, you may be at risk. Harper’s attempt to pressure York University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to cancel programs exploring Arab-Israeli peace caused the 65,000 member Canadian Association of University Teachers to comment, that Ottawa ’s political interference was something rivalling the infamous McCarthy communist witchhunt in the US
· Harper is drawn to war. He was eager for Canada to join the war in Iraq United States Canada Cambodia
· Harper aspires to military power. Shunning Canada Washington , who worked for both Republican and Democratic senators and the US US Canada Canada , for the first time since WWII, lost the vote for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, awarded to Portugal
· Harper uses lower taxes to win votes. Taxes underpin the Canadian single-payer medical system that distinguishes us and every other developed country from theUnited States Canada Canada
Harper is unworthy to be Canada
· Harper is a ruler, not a leader. In his biography Stephen Harper, released in August, author John Ibbitson describes Harper’s desire to control information:“Bureaucrats are prohibited from speaking to reporters. Scientists are prohibited from releasing the results of their research. Access to information requests are routinely held up for so long that by the time the information is released, it’s no longer of any use, and the pages are mostly blacked out in any case.” Ibbitson goes on to say: “The Conservatives’ autocracy, secretiveness, and cruelty, critics accuse, debase politics to a level that threatens the very foundation of Canadian democracy.Columnist Ralph Surette of the Halifax Chronicle Herald: “Hardly anything in his world hints of Putinism more than Harperism.”
· Harper rules with his inner circle. Conservative MPs have no voice to represent their constituencies. Cabinet Ministers are tightly scripted by the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office). For 2015 more than a quarter of sitting Conservative MPs, 46 by last count, have chosen not to run Oct 19, including 4 cabinet ministers. Harper is the first Prime Minister since Louis St. Laurent (1948-1957) to have a dropout rate > 25% and still lead the party into an election. If Conservative MPs want to serve a ruler, what does that say about them, and why are they running for office?
· Harper believes we do NOT have the right to know. Conservative candidates have been instructed to boycott community debates, just as he has boycotted the nationally-televised debates of previous elections. The strategy is simple: constantly run personal attack ads (starting well before the elections), answer the fewest questions, repeat sound bites on the major issues, rely on falsehoods and fear-mongering to bring in the votes.
· Harper is the only Prime Minister to be critical of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Like right-wing Republicans, he is also critical of the Supreme Court. As leader of the opposition in 2003 he argued in Parliament that the Equality clause in the Charter was not meant to protect gay people. When criticized in 2007 for manipulating the process of appointing judges, Harper as Prime Minister declared his preference for judges who saw things his way. He would rather they defer to the government than rely on the Charter or their own consciences. Such political intrusion into the judiciary that protects the rights and freedoms of citizens in a democracy would be unacceptable in most developed countries.
· Harper designed the 2013 Fair Elections Act to his advantage. After the Conservative Party pleaded guilty to violations in the 2006 elections and paying a $230,000 fine, Harper’s response was the 2013 Fair Elections Act. Among other things it limits the power of Elections Canada to investigate election fraud and to encourage voter turnout. Assembly of First Nations National Chief, Perry Bellegarde, points out that the new requirement for 2 personal IDs will mean many in First Nations communities will be unable to vote. Ditto for students and seniors since the Voter Registration card mailed to you by Elections Canada can no longer be used to verify your address. How prevalent was individual voter fraud to have required a “fair elections” act? Among the 28 million votes cast in the last 2 elections: 18 incidents reported to Elections Canada.
Not this time
Please note that I have said nothing negative about the Conservative party or Conservative principles. This is about Stephen Harper. By all means vote Conservative in the next election when Harper is gone. The Canada Canada
Our children and grandchildren will be greatly affected by those who govern. Short term gains can cost us greatly in the longer term. ideology must give way to consultation and collaboration among all levels of government, industries, civic society, and global partners. In the last election Harper became Prime Minister despite winning only 39% of the votes cast, meaning a substantial majority did not want him.
Our first-past-the-post system meant that many Conservative candidates were elected because the majority of votes were divided among Liberal, NDP, and Green candidates. In this close election one way to prevent a repeat of 2011 is to ensure more votes in favour of the most qualified progressive candidate. Please go towww.votetogether.ca or www.strategicvoting.ca if you wish to participate.
Charles Young
3 Responses to “oust the bum!”
This is excellent, and worth forwarding — as I did to many friends and contacts yesterday, with (mostly) good feedback. Someone sent me a link in return to a profile of the awful Leader in the Calgary Herald. My heart sank. But I keep telling myself that the change is coming. I can hear that wonderful moment when Van Morrison (I hope i'm remembering this correctly!) sings, "change, change….i'm gonna walk down the street until I see my shining light." Oh yeah!
Okay, Theresa, I'm hanging onto the shining light image – though my politico neighbour predicts a Conservative minority, hard as it is to believe, once the rural vote kicks in. WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE?
Well,some of them live in this riding (west vancouver – sea to sky- sunshine coast) which has been Conservative for years but not always. (And it's been redrawn…) J. S. Woodsworth lived in Gibsons for a time — his daughter–in-law Sylvia is still the heart of our local NDP group. I think the Conservatives are everywhere but most of them won't admit to voting that way.