HARPER AND THE ABUSE OF POWER

The fact that the Conservative party's adminstration (officially the Harper Government) was found in contempt of Parliament is actually a big deal. They are the first government in Canadian and in Commonwealth history to be legally found in contempt. And they were actually two verdicts of this.

This is a really good article about why and how exactly they were found in contempt. They refer to the incidents that led to the rulings as examples of the Tories' "games". Last week, I made a post outlining a number of those conservative party games. Ultimately, the Harper government has shown absolute disdain for the real issues, for accountability, transparency, for the voices of real Canadian people, and for the actual values and meaning of democracy. There's plenty of evidence to support this.

Not only are they completely scornful towards the democratic process and democratic values, they are highly contemptuous towards the environment. The Harper government's greenwashing campaigns have been extensive, yet not even good enough. Canada is not only one of the environmentally worst industrialized countries in the world (thanks in large part to Stephen Harper deciding to chuck out the Kyoto Protocol), Canada has in fact been blocking climate-change deals and pressuring other countries to follow suit!

According to one article:

"Canada’s position is widely believed to be driven by its powerful industry lobby, which is keen to exploit oil reserves in the country’s tar sands. “These people are very outspoken, aggressive lobbyists,” said Dr Robert Falkner, a specialist in international relations at the London School of Economics. “They are gung-ho about rising oil prices and want to exploit that.”"

Which comes as no surprise.

The Tories' games know no bounds. That's why now more than ever Canadians should be incensed and enraged at the duplicitous nature of their supposedly democratically elected government, which does not truly

act in their interest, but in the interest of rich, greedy, authoritarian elites. As the first article I referred to above said, "This ought to be a serious call on Canadians to remove this government from the power it has perpetually mishandled."

However, that last word shouldn't be "mishandled". It should be "abused", or "miscarried".

The article closes with "With the Conservatives’ unapologetic disrespect for our institutions, it’s time that voters restore respect to our democracy and move Harper’s Conservative party out of power." Let's hope so. For I for one believe that the Conservative government has truly lost it's legitimacy, and that Canadians should have risen up in a social revolution against it long ago. Alas for Canadians.

On May 2nd, if we don't vote the Conservatives out, they will continue to erode our rights, freedoms, interests, reputation, and our participation in the improvement of the world. They will support corporations and extractive, destructive industries, both at home and abroad. For example, mining; the Toronto Stock Exchange is where 80% of the world's mining investment is. This translates into Canada's destructive tendencies in South/Central America and Africa (Bill C-300 unfortunately didn't make it, thanks to the lobbyists.) They will continue to emit greenhouse gases and avoid pursuing sustainability, and continue to abuse power, erode our democracy, our institutions (such as they are), and pursue their neoconservative agenda.

For some reason, the image I had up on this blog for over a year is no longer working. It showed Stephen Harper's face and said: "On the Environment: Canadians Care, Harper Doesn't". Now, I have always been opposed to the Conservatives and their policies, and this blog certainly makes no secret of that. So what gives? It's HTML, yet it's no longer working. Surely Harper's government hasn't gone so ludicrously far as to actually start eliminating all the anti-Harper tags out there on the internet?
Probably not. But it could be. If I go to one of his rallies, will I be intercepted and kicked out? (Almost definitely).

I personally am glad to see the NDP getting more support. They represent the opposite of the Conservative agenda, and actually would like to serve the people. But how will it all play out on May 2nd? We shall see. (DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!! AGAINST HARPER!!)