April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Harper

Remember, Canada is not the United States

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He who seeks to be Canada’s first President, tries to remind Canadians the Canada is not the United States.

Harper, at his campaign stop in Val d’Or last evening, sought to comfort skittish investors and to distance the campaign debate from the turbulence south of the border. “Today we see more volatility in financial markets due to the crisis in the United States,” said the prime minister. “Remember, Canada is not the United States.

Sadly though Harper then chooses almost the exact same words as the Republican Presidential candidate with which to assure us all is well.

The fundamentals of the Canadian economy are sound.

Source

On the campaign trail in Jacksonville, Florida, the Senator declared this morning that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,” despite what he described as “tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street.”

Source

Let them eat cake!
Let them eat cake!
Layton tried to convene an all party conference on the apparent economic collapse going on, however was rebuffed by the others who are more concerned with partisan sniping than in recognizing that economic depression in the US is certainly going to affect our economy as well. Harper, in fact, rejected any co-operative effort outright saying that such matters are for debates. Well it is hardly surprising that the same mindset that sees human rights, reproductive rights etc. as fodder for debate would also see the economic security of Canadians as simple debate material.

One can imagine the Harper Government™ having the opinion as Bush spokesman Tony Fratto; “It’s unfortunate that those people will lose their homes, and there are other options,” Fratto said. “You know, they can rent.”

Has Marie Antoinette taught them nothing?

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Harper is…The Bubble Boy

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Hiding behind sweater vests and the RCMP, Harper has made it clear he suffers from cantrelatetoaveragecanadian syndrome. This has been shown time and again by his aversion to questions from media, accountability for his actions and an inability to see the 2×4 in his own eye whilst decrying the sliver in a political opponents among other symptoms.

Rallies are off-limits for any member of the public who just shows up. Nobody gets in unless they have been pre-registered by the local riding association. Even local media are asked to sign up in advance.

Anyone wanting to attend an event featuring Harper has to have his or her name vetted by the RCMP, said a source at Conservative campaign headquarters, who would only talk on background yesterday. He said this rule applies even outside the campaign period, so no one – even a staffer not scheduled to be there – can show up unannounced at a Harper speech and expect to be let in.

The Harper campaign keeps a short leash on national and local media, limiting questions and access to local candidates, sometimes calling on RCMP security to block reporters from doing their jobs.

The Star

Sure sounds like open and accountable government to me….or not.

Conservatives Artfully Dodging Reality

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Conservatives and the art of deception
Conservatives and the art of deception
In the Globe and Mail Margret Atwood writes on the Harper Conservatives™ cuts to the arts. She explains how this is not in truth about targeting “elites” but is in reality about targeting Canadians of any socio-economic status or political persuasion.

The Conference Board estimates Canada’s cultural sector generated $46-billion, or 3.8 per cent of Canada’s GDP, in 2007. And, according to the Canada Council, in 2003-2004, the sector accounted for an “estimated 600,000 jobs (roughly the same as agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, oil & gas and utilities combined).”

Perhaps Mr. Harper feels there are far too many Canadians employed in Canada and therefore jobs are expendable.

This sums up my thoughts about Harper and his neo-con co-oped Conservative party perfectly;

What’s the idea here? That arts jobs should not exist because artists are naughty and might not vote for Mr. Harper? That Canadians ought not to make money from the wicked arts, but only from virtuous oil? That artists don’t all live in one constituency, so who cares? Or is it that the majority of those arts jobs are located in Ontario and Quebec, and Mr. Harper is peeved at those provinces, and wants to increase his ongoing gutting of Ontario – $20-billion a year of Ontario taxpayers’ money going out, a dribble grudgingly allowed back in – and spank Quebec for being so disobedient as not to appreciate his magnificence? He likes punishing, so maybe the arts-squashing is part of that: Whack the Heartland.

Or is it even worse? Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they’re a mouthy lot and they don’t line up and salute very easily. Of course, you can always get some tame artists to design the uniforms and flags and the documentary about you, and so forth – the only kind of art you might need – but individual voices must be silenced, because there shall be only One Voice: Our Master’s Voice. Maybe that’s why Mr. Harper began by shutting down funding for our artists abroad. He didn’t like the competition for media space.

Read the full article here

h/t skdadl @breadnroses

Harper misleads on Economy

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A new Depression?
A new Depression?
An article in the Sept. 15th edition of The Hamilton Spectator, quotes Harper as saying; “My own belief is if we were going to have some kind of crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now a year into the (financial) crisis”

Just as we don’t want to be governed by the religious beliefs of the New Conservative Party, we should be suspect of their leader’s economic beliefs. The fallout from the bank crisis in the states may only just be beginning. By giving the money industries a free hand we have created economies that are doomed to crash like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And just as he lost his home, far too many American’s and Canadians in danger of losing, or have lost, theirs.

On Sunday CBC ran The Great Wall Street Swindle, based on fact and not ‘belief’, the background and presumed effects of this debacle are frightening.

You can watch the 30 minute program here.

That there is more and potentially worse economic fallout to come, may in part explain why Harper disregarded his own rule about set election times and called an election before the full effects of neocon policies can be seen.