Monday, July 18, 2011

Let's Never Forget Who Stephen Harper Is


Let us never forget fellow Canadians, that "Little Stevie Harper" (pictured above) was a powerful influence upon the radical, western-centric, ideological lobby-group-come-political party along with the hyper-evangelical, free-market, anti government flake, Preston Manning. It was little Stevie "The Wonder-kin" Harper who coined the rather catchy 1988 Reform Campaign Slogan of: "The West Want's In". Into what was never adequately explained, but now it appears that "The West "Owns It".



Harper left the Reform Party in 1992 due to a disagreement with Manning, who was not radical enough for Harper's liking. So Stevie became head of the National Citizens Coalition, a Corporate Canada Lobby group who's name is misleading to say the least, and used their $50,000 in third-party print and media advertisement   to spring-board him back into the Reform Party and into Parliament.


Harper left Parliament in 1997 and in that year, made a speech to the Uber-conservative American Think-tank "Council For National Policy" in which he made the following statements:

-"Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it"

-"if you're like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians", and

-"the NDP [New Democratic Party] is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men."

Gee! Sounds like  Harper has a distinct lack of respect for Canadians and those principles and values that Canadians have come to embrace as defining our unique culture. 


In 2000, Stevie Harper encouraged Alberta to build a "firewall" around itself to protect it from a Canadian Government which he claimed :
"appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country". In 2002, Harper became the leader of the re-branded Reform Party who now referred to them selves as the "Canadian Alliance". They hoped the new euphemistic name would  gather more centre-right votes and credibility east of Alberta. They were wrong.

In 2003, Peter MacKay was elected the last leader of the floundering Progressive  Conservative Party.  He won leadership on the condition that he not negotiate an amalgamation with the Harper Reform/Alliance party. MacKay made this promise then promptly broke it after assuming the P.C. leadership. This Enabled Steve the Reformist to take control Of the Progressive Conservatives. He promptly dropped the "Progressive" moniker and by usurping the Conservative name, The Reform Party was finally able to gain the attention of voters outside of Alberta, not realizing that Harper was a Reformist in Conservative clothing. 


So never EVER forget fellow Canadians, Stevie Harper was, is and will always be a Reform Partyist. The Conservative Party of today, is simply the old Reform Party, re-branded once again.

And in case you've forgotten, Stephen The Reformist Harper believes in:

-Privatizing our health-care system which would result in a multi-tiered health-care system that would see those with the most money able to buy their way to the front of the line of the best health services while the rest of us would have to make do with understaffed, underfunded, feces infested health clinics.

-Privatizing our education system which, like the health system, would create a multi-tiered system with the rich able to purchase the best education and the rest of us making do with substandard materiel and curriculum. We would all be "just" educated enough to run the machines for Corporate Canada. Consider just how
inequitable our current private University system is.

- Union Busting Meaning that all the services listed above would be non unionized with no protection for employees or clients working for substandard wages while delivering the maximum profits to the private companies running them. This would be the same throughout industry. No unions means no employee protection, no minimum wages and few if any employee rights.

- Removal of all government regulations pertaining to Big Banks and Big Business Again, this would give Corporate Canada carte-blanch to do business as it sees fit at the expense of it's employees and each and every natural resource and asset Canada currently protects.

- Removal of all trade barriers which would give huge multi-national corporations free access to all of our assets and resources. It would be an open invitation to big business to come and rape our country and exploit our children.

- Harper Condemned our lack of support for the invasion of Iraq which in his mind, meant that Canada missed out in the wild and wooly privatization of Iraq, it's oil fields, it's  education, it's health care and it's security. So Stevie would have us perpetually at war. We are leaving Afghanistan in time for Libya. This allows Steve to drape himself in the Flag of Canadian Nationalism while being in on the ground floor of the whole-sale privatization of war ravaged countries.  THIS is why Harper wants to buy F-35 jets and increase spending on the military: Not for the defense of the arctic but for U.S./NATO led war profiteering. 


Yes fellow Canadians, this is our friend Stephen the Reformist. We elected him. His intentions are clear. We can either stop him, or allow him to turn us all into a herd of cattle who are being led blindly and passively to the slaughter, all for the consumption of Corporate Canada.


Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Thoughts on Stephen Harper and the Israeli Apartheid

It's interesting to note that in the last half century, there have been only five Conservative Prime Ministers. Four of them have been of the Progressive variety. The fifth and current one, well...is Conservative in name only. The current Neo-Con party being nothing more than just another twisted  incarnation of the old Reform/Alliance Party who have used and bastardized the name "Conservative".

But two of those Progressive Prime Ministers, John Diefenbaker and Brian Mulroney were strong ant-apartheid advocates. In fact, it was Mr. Diefenbaker who was instrumental in having South Africa removed from the Commonwealth of Nations for it's refusal to abandon apartheid. These men took a strong stance against a sister nation and co-member of the Commonwealth because they believed it was doing something that was inherently wrong.

I don't believe that either of these Canadian Prime Ministers considered them selves to be the enemy of South Africa. Probably far from it.  Both Canada and South Africa share a democratic and legal tradition that stems from our former mother country of England. We are basically, siblings in the global community. Our societies may be quite distinct, but our values remain very similar. But this didn't stop either Mr. Diefenbaker or Mr. Mulroney, both of whom wore the Progressive label with pride,  from doing what they thought was the right thing.

Today, there is another kind of apartheid going on. This time in Israel. Long simmering hostilities have left the dominant Jewish people of that nation in control and they have gradually, over time, reduced their Palestinian brethren to second class status. They have been sequestered on small parcels of land in an already tiny country. And even these parcels of land are being infringed upon by the Israeli state to the point where Palestinians are now essentially imprisoned and impoverished in their own land.  

This is not a state of affairs that anyone deliberately set out to accomplish. This is a region that has a history of hostility dating back thousands of years. In modern times, the Israeli's- our friends and allies- have fought war after war in an effort to maintain their nation status. As a result, fear, paranoia and hatred have become realities of Israeli existence and it has eventually lead to the current situation with respect to the Palestinians. 

Yes, Israel since it's inception, has been considered a friend and an ally. We here in North America remain strongly connected to the "Holy Land" because of our religious traditions. That and the fact that Israel is a fellow democratic nation that has drawn it's citizenry from all over the world, including Canada. But our friends have crossed a line and have taken the notion of their right to exist to such an extreme as to have inflicted this horrible apartheid on their Palestinian citizens. Yet instead of chastising our friend and Global neighbor for their current state of affairs, our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who in reality exists too far out into right field as to be considered a Conservative, has taken the stance that the State of Israel can do no wrong. His attitude seeming to be that: "you stick by your friends no matter what" - and more disturbingly,he  has conveyed the message that anyone who criticizes Israel is probably Anti-Semitic.  

This seems to be an "all-or-nothing" kind of behaviour from our Prime Minister. When it first came to light that Afghan detainees handed over to the local authorities by Canadian troops were being tortured, Mr. Harper blustered on in Parliament that any member of the opposition or the press who was concerned about this issue was more concerned about the well being of the enemy then of our men and women in uniform. These critics most certainly, were absolutely un-Canadian! All or nothing with Mr. Harper. Blind, unconditional support, no matter the cost.

The Prime Minister has stated proudly and categorically that his Government will take several unpopular stances regarding it's foreign policy and will not bow to every "petty dictator who has a vote at the U.N.". A disturbing thought this, that our state leader considers the U.N. to be riddled with petty dictators. This might be a case of sour grapes resulting from Harper's shame-faced inability to gain a seat at the Security Counsel last fall, a seat that was ours to lose. Or it could be a case of twisted convictions/ a psychiatric disorder that renders him incapable of perceiving right from wrong.

What ever the cause of Mr. Harper's "all-or-nothing" world view, it has led to such heinous situations as our government blocking Asbestos from being listed as a hazardous substance by the U.N. (there's that U.N. connection again) because we make boat-loads of cash from shipping it to developing nations. And it has earned Canada the label of "Rogue Nation" by the E.U. So I guess it makes sense then that our Rogue Government would unconditionally support another Rogue Government, Israel.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Oh What a Canada Day!!!

An Iconic Canadian song from some good ol Boys from my Home town of Hamilton Ontario.