Monday, August 3, 2015

Some Thoughts From ThinkingManNeil



In response to my morning post, ThinkingManNeil offered some passionate and very interesting comments. With his permission, I am featuring them as a separate post:

I was never really interested in politics until the mid-1990's. Up to then I felt like many that it was something that politicians, poli-sci majors, and pundits busied themselves with, and through glacially slow processes it worked its way into our everyday lives with little notice. I voted regularly - usually Liberal, though I did once vote for the PC's because Joe Clarke struck me as a decent man - but my votes were never party- or issue-driven.

Then, in mid-1996 after having had to stop working due to health issues, I decided to take a new tack in my life and I enrolled in college to study commercial photography with the idea of making a new career where I could work at my own pace while doing something I enjoyed immensely, thinking that both would contribute to my overall well being. It was during this time, after just having moved into new digs in the town where the college was that I heard then Ontario Minister for Social Services, David Tsubouchi, say in an interview that people on welfare who couldn't make ends meet should dicker with their local grocery store managers over the price of low-end tuna. When I heard that - something I'd never heard before in Ontario politics - I knew things had changed.

Of course, this was followed by other Mike Harris neo-con travesties and tragedies such as the Walkerton tainted water scandal, the fire sale of provincial assets such as the 407 highway, cancellation of rent controls. defunding of hospitals and the commensurate loss of doctors and nurses, cuts to education while corporations enjoyed grants and tax cuts, the OPP assault on OCAP protesters on the grounds of Queen's Park, and the murders of Dudley George and Kimberly Rogers.

It was during this period of the Harris regime that I finally realized that politics can, and does, have a very real - and sometimes devastating - impact on people's lives. I also realized I could not go on without paying closer attention.

Since then we've seen the horrors of the Bush-Cheney years, and that we now find ourselves in the midst of our own fascist nightmare with Stephen Ratfucking Harper, whose crimes against Canada, Canadians, and, by extension, the world are legion and so familiar to all of us here that they do not bear repeating.

I still fear, however, that the fix is already in for this "election". With a needlessly early call that will stretch it out weeks beyond normal, it's clear that Harper's dirty tricks are already at work, aiming to exhaust the opposition's funding and wear down the public. That and his Karl-Rove-ian gerrymandering of electoral ridings in predominantly Conservative districts shows that Shit Head's "take no prisoners" attitude is still very much alive and well. This bastard isn't going to let the inconvenience of such notions as elections and democracy undo all that he's worked to create (and destroy) in Canada since he came on the scene. The Canada Health Act, tattered as it is, has yet to have the life choked out it by a death of a thousand funding cuts, and the doors opened to a privatized, for-profit healthcare system. And there are still privatized super prisons for protesters, pot heads, and the indigent to be built and sabres to be rattled at ISIL and Putin.

I genuinely fear what what will be left of Canada if Harper takes the next election...or the next...or the next.

He did promise we wouldn't recognize our lovely home after he was finished with it, didn't he? We're already more than half way there...

N.

4 comments:

  1. A good summation by Neil of the major destructiveness of the Harper Party and their importation of American Republican strategies into Canada.

    However, I disagree on one point. I don't think 'the fix is in' for the Harper party. In fact, I think they have made a serious strategic blunder by creating an elongated election period. By the time October 19th rolls around, I think most Canadians will be fed up with the Harperites and choose to vote for any party *but* the Harper party.

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    1. Perhaps Neil will respond to your point, Anon.

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  2. I've followed politics for many years, but since 2011 I think about it daily. Ever since I realized that Harpers objective is the destruction of our democracy and replacing it with a Neoliberal government, by which he will rule Canada and he is doing everything , Lying, controlling, hiding, smearing to stay in power. Right before Canadians eyes his campaign stops can be attended only by being vetted and by having an invitation. The Canadian public not allowed in. How bloody arrogant is that? The MSM has really said nothing about this and pretty well every other corruption by Harper. So it's up to us to make sure that people get out and vote and to make sure Harper is thrown out.So far at his first campaign stops there has been protesters, which is good and hopefully there will be protester at all of his campaign stops.

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    1. I join you in the hope that the spirit of protest and resistance is strong during this campaign, Pamela.

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