Fall of the Harper Conservatives

Hydro, Climate, and The War

Stephen Harper vs. Canada

Harper's Throne Speech

Canada vs. Stephen Harper

Woe, Canada

Prorogue Harper

Harper Must Go

The grassroots movements protesting Emperor Harper's attacks on Canadian democracy, are growing more and more all the time. I'm hoping to be involved in a rally in Hamilton in the next couple of weeks (will keep anyone interested from here posted on that).

Sure enough, there are still some Conservative trolls (and Members of Parliament) insisting that Harper is a great leader, that this is all perfectly normal, etc. I really wish the right-wing would stop pissing on the public and trying to tell us that it's raining -- it's not only unethical but it's just plain insulting to our intelligence.

They claim that suspending Parliament is a normal procedure -- if so, then why does it rarely happen, and is widely considered a bad thing whenever it does? Furthermore, why does Harper conspicuously only do this, when his ass has been put in a sling?

They claim Harper hasn't been accused of war crimes. Excuse me? His administration has been caught -- in writing -- knowing about the torture of war prisoners in Afghanistan (not all of them Taliban, I might add), and not only has have the Harperites done nothing to stop it, but they have consistently muzzled and vilified anyone who brings it up in public. They have also done everything in their power to obstruct an investigation into the matter (which, in any other world, would be a crime by itself).

Incidentally, one of the many things shut down, by proroguing Parliament, has been the investigation. For a party that claims to be innocent of wrong doing, they do a really bad job of not looking like they have something to hide.

They finally claim that there is no evidence of torture, and that anyone who says otherwise is against the Canadian troops (yet another example of modern McCarthyism and slander). Well, anyone who's paid any attention to this story at all, knows that there have MANY allegations, from sources including our on-the-frontlines diplomats, the Red Cross (who personally met with the Harper cabinet), and various soldiers (even if some top soldiers were apparently kept in the dark). I would therefore argue that anyone trying to get this issue resolved properly, is the real sort of patriot needed right now.

I can go on -- and intend to, later -- but suffice it to say that the Harper government and his lackies will stop at nothing to control Canada with an iron fist, and they clearly have no qualms about using Thought Police-style tactics to do it.

To anyone reading this, please do something about it. If you are Canadian, protest at your MP's offices, city halls, anywhere that can get attention (if you're on Facebook, look for the group "Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament").

If you're not Canadian, please re-post this anywhere you can. We must get the word out to as many people as possible -- at the very least, show the world that we aren't all like Harper.

Patriotically Ignorant

Later this week, the Canadian Parliament will be re-opening, following a truly stupid move by Emperor Harper that nearly tore this country apart. Instead of doing something constructive about the economy, like he said he would, Harper and the Conservatives decided to gut funding to progressive interests, as well as the opposition parties. This would effectively bankrupt them, and Harper knew it. So, not surprisingly, the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc were outraged, and joined forces to all but boot Harper out of power. Knowing that he was in trouble, that little chicken shit talked the Governor General into suspending Parliament for a couple of months, and here we are. While some of the initial dust has settled, it's still amazing that a lot of Canadians actually supported Harper over this.

When Canadians were fighting each other over this thing, in December, a poll was taken, which revealed that over half of the people in this country literally had no idea how our system of government works. This would certainly explain some of the comments I heard, which I'll get to in a minute. The thing that's really astonishing, though, is some of what they got wrong; for instance, most Canadians seemed to think that we actually vote for the Prime Minister directly, but anyone who's voted in an election knows that this isn't true. This leads me to wonder, how many of the people who are calling the coalition undemocratic, or illegal, have ever actually voted in their lives?

You see, Canada's government is what's called a Parliamentary Democracy. In plain language, this means that when elections are held, people don't vote for the government, they vote for a particular person who will speak for them in Ottawa. The government is made up of the party with the most seats, not necessarily the party with the most overall support, which is why the Tories are now in power with less than half of the popular vote. Therefore, the government is only in power, as long as most of Parliament votes for whatever they try to do. Once the government loses a major vote, such as the budget, that's called a non-confidence vote -- in other words, the government is fired on our behalf. When that happens, the result is either an election, or a coalition government made up of two or more opposition parties -- look up the Canadian Constitution, if you don't believe me. The point is, the alliance formed by the Liberals and NDP is not only completely legal, but it is actually a more accurate reflection of how the public really voted.

But, you'd never see a bunch of control freaks like the Harper government admit to that, so they been spending the last two months lying to the public about it. In addition to the bullshit about it being illegal, they claim the coalition is un-Canadian, given that it involves the separatist Bloc Quebecois. Now, leaving aside for a minute that our current government was formed partly by a Western separatist party, I should point out that every government since the Bloc's creation -- including Harper's -- has consulted the Bloc on several matters. Harper's hypocrisy about the coalition is even more interesting, when you consider that on September 9, 2004, he actually formed one himself, when he was in opposition. By the way, guess who one of his partners was? The Bloc Quebecois!

So Canada, when the government tries again to force its lies down your throat, keep in mind that they are, as usual, saying one thing and then doing another. For instance, one of their ministers, John Baird, recently stated that he thinks the Conservatives can just ignore the rule of Parliament -- so who's really undemocratic here? He also stated that the Conservatives can go over the head of our real head of state, Governor General Michaelle Jean -- who's really being criminal and un-Canadian, especially since that's very close to High Treason? Finally, who really isn't up to the job, when our so-called Prime Minister literally has to be threatened into helping his countrymen? People, we must stand on guard for this country, and each other, otherwise all of the freedom that we supposedly stand for, means nothing; Canada would be anything but glorious and free. Enough said.