A Little Something For The Masochists Out There

A Record Of Failure

Stephen lacks the requisite skills and temperament to succeed in any position of responsibility; recommend removal at earliest possible date.



Stephen's oil monomania suggests a pathology deeply harmful both to himself and the entire country.


Stephen's addiction to rabid and exclusionary ideology and his capacity for gross fabrications are also cause for deep concern:

Harper moves directly into attack mode on GTA stop, Aug. 4

As Stephen Harper and the ruling Conservative Party have amply proven over the past decade, in the Alice in Wonderland fantasy world of neoconservative ideology, nothing is what it seems to be and anything is justifiable to achieve your aims.

Lying to cover your mistakes is effective crisis management and denying responsibility for them is the prime directive. Corruption is acceptable – just don’t get caught. Cronyism, patronage and double standards are legitimate political practices unless exposed, while saying one thing and doing another is ethically acceptable.
Welcome to the modernist neocon politics of cynicism and despair. In the face of undeniable and self-apparent realities of a sinking Titanic we are reassuringly told not to panic – everything’s just fine by our captain — the economy and our democracy are strong. This while the Conservatives continue to siphon off increasing economic wealth to enrich the 1 per cent and we teeter on the brink of a yet another cyclic recession in the boom and bust globalized capitalist economy amidst ongoing and persistent social decline.

To expose the truth, we must look behind Stephen Harper’s perpetual fixed smile and examine the verity of his claims and those of his movement. Amongst the most persistent and egregious oft-repeated myths perpetrated by neocons is the one that they are the best stewards of the economy and that cutting taxes is the way to improve the financial health of Canada. The lion’s share of these tax cuts always go to the private sector and the wealthy while the messaging is tax cuts for the middle class.

Over the past decade Canada has had one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world and little has changed so clearly this strategy has not worked. There is also little credible economic research that indicates any beneficial effects to the widely employed practice the neocons mindlessly chant. Similarly, cutting interest rates and depressing the Canadian dollar has had marginal positive effects on the economy while significantly raising costs for everyone in Canada in order to benefit a few industries that export goods.

A second mantra of neocons is cutting the wasteful cost of government. This is how tax cuts are paid for and is code for their dedicated bias towards the dismantling of government, social programs and social opposition to Conservative policies. It serves the double function of actually deconstructing the core structure of democracy that these organizations represent such as the changes to the Elections Act, the cuts to Statistics Canada and the muzzling of Government of Canada scientists.

These steps are more sinister than the changes to the economy but both are deeply concerning. Stephen Harper’s government has cut funding to a host of activist and other credible research groups while using the CRA to harass legitimate non-profit organizations that support causes disliked by the right such as the environment or who directly challenge the government on social policy. All this happens while the government covertly allocates billions of taxpayer’s money to corporate welfare, tax cuts for the wealthy and frivolous expenditures like the memorial to the victims of Russian aggression. Our democracy is looking more like an oligarchy every day that Stephen Harper is in office.

Contemporary neoconservative dogma as practiced by the extreme right of Stephen Harper’s Alliance/Conservative Party is a direct threat to real democracy, freedom and human rights that all Canadians should be concerned about that comes in the form of thousands of small and large negative changes to our social and governmental systems intended to weaken the structure of government itself and its democratic protections for citizens while strengthening the powers of the corporate sector and powerful right-wing elites.

When we vote on Oct. 19 we need to understand that the enemy of democracy is not the external threat of ISIS as Stephen Harper would claim but Harper himself and the ideology he stands for. Before we invite the Trojan horse into our Canadian village we need to think carefully about what we are actually getting.

Robert Bahlieda, Newmarket

Some Days I Don't Have To Write Anything

... thanks to groups like this:

I Wouln't Have Thought The Smell Of Sulphur Would Bother Him

H/t Graeme MacKay

Maybe There Is Some Reason To Hope

H/t Gus Andrikopoulos

John Baird to Resign?

If true, this is quite unexpected.

Have Your Say

I see that the Globe and Mail is conducting an online poll, the full results of which will be published February 7, as we approach the ninth anniversary of Harperland. While it asks several questions, its theme is this: How do you feel about the Canada Stephen Harper has shaped?

Those wishing to express their views can do so by clicking here.

A Friday Evening Reflection

Hmmm. I can think of some who might resist this perspective:

“God reveals himself not as one who stands above and who dominates the universe, but as He who lowers himself. It means that to be like Him, we do not have to place ourselves above the others, but come down, come down and serve them, become small among the small, and poor among the poor.”

- Pope Francis, December 2013

Another Non-Event From The Harper Regime

Because yesterday's Throne Speech is being covered abundantly both in the mainstream press and in the blogosphere, I will keep this post brief to make but a few observations.

Unbelievably lacking in anything that could be called vision, the speech, it seems to me, is predicated on the totally false notion that all is well in our country, and a little bit of tinkering around the edges, via more 'get tough on crime' promises and the liberation of consumers from enslavement to bundled television packages, are all that is needed to carry the Harper cabal to election victory in 2015.

Singularly uninspiring, it has the soul of the penny-pinching accountant at its core, and an attempt at the magician's capacity for misdirection from the many challenges we face as a country.

Not a word about measures to ameliorate the environmental catastrophe towards which the world is lurching ever closer daily.

Nothing about the persistently high unemployment rate faced by Canadians.

No measure to increase retirement security for the majority who have no workplace pensions.

Nothing for what is becoming our lost generation of young people.

No word on measures to curb the government's abuse of the democratic process and the rampant corruption which the Harper regime has excelled at and reveled in.

I could go on, but I trust I have made my point.

Perhaps there is method to Harper's madness here. Does he believe that after seven years in power, he has convinced Canadians to expect little from government, and that the true arbiters of their fates are market forces beyond government control? Has he, like his evil provincial predecessor, Ontario's former premier Mike Harris, tacitly arranged things so that his government is in the business of eliminating most government?

The throne speech had been billed as a 'reset' for the regime. Seems to me it is simply more of the same blatant contempt for the country the Conservatives have shown since they were elected in 2006.

Political Spin: This Story Isn't True, But It Is Gratifying

My friend Gary sent me this yesterday, an apocryphal story that nonetheless offers certain pleasures. Enjoy!

Remus Rudd

Stephen Harper's great-great uncle.



Remus Rudd

No matter what side of the political fence you're on, THIS is FUNNY and
VERY telling! It just all depends on how you look at the same things.

Judy Harper an amateur genealogy researcher in Northern Ontario, was
doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's great-great uncle, Remus Rudd, was
hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Winnipeg in 1889. Both
Judy and Stephen Harper share this common ancestor.

The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows at
The Manitoba Provincial Jail.

On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is thisharper
inscription:

'Remus Rudd horse thief, sent to Stony Mountain Jail 1885, escaped
1887, robbed the CP AND CN trains six times.

Caught by Mounted Police Force, convicted and hanged in 1889.'

So Judy recently e-mailed Prime Minister Harper for information about
their great-great uncle, Remus Rudd.

Believe it or not, Harper's staff sent back the following biographical
sketch for her genealogy research:

"Remus Rudd was famous in Ontario during the mid to late 1800s. His
business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian
assets and intimate dealings with the CP and CN Railways..

Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government
service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroads.

In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the Mounted
Police Force. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic
function held in his honour when the platform upon which he was standing
collapsed."

NOW That's how it's done, Folks!

Now that's a real POLITICAL SPIN!

My, My, My

The web blurb for Hello Canada! magazine states the following: HELLO! Canada brings you the latest celebrity & royal news from around the world.

This is what graces its current cover:

Impoverished indeed are we as a nation* if a minister as consistently and profoundly incompetent as Peter MacKay and his family are deemed worthy of celebrity status.

* Special thanks to Yoda for permission to use his always arresting syntax.

On Canada Day

On this Canada Day, I could write about all of the reasons I am very thankful for having been born and raised in this country. Instead, I will ask whoever reads this to check out The Star's Tim Hapur, who has a very sound suggestion on how we can best honour and work to restore our great legacy.

Perhaps if enough of us act on his words, we can once more become the country of great promise we used to be.

After Cutting Through The Sanctimonious Rhetoric

...it is apparent that, like most governments, the Harper regime has been quite content to recruit, exploit and ultimately abandon those who, in good faith, joined the armed forces to support a 'muscular adventurism' that has both tarnished and diminished Canada's standing in the real (i.e., excluding the U.S.) international community.

Ample evidence of this abandonment is to be found in the words of those veterans and military widows who gathered on Parliament Hill just prior to Remembrance Day, words that paint a stark picture of bureaucratic indifference and red tape that flies in the face of reassurances from the government, which says the care of military families is a top priority.

Retired master corporal Dave Desjardins, who was "proud to serve his country" and is paralyzed from the waist down, had the following to offer:

“What I’m not proud of, however, is how our government officials and senior military leadership can look directly into the camera (and) speak to the Canadian public about honouring our veterans at this time of year with implied conviction when they’ve clearly turned their back on us and continue to demonstrate (that) on a daily basis,” said Desjardins.

He challenged Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney to look him in the eye “and tell me you really care.”

You can read the complete sad story, posted in today's Star, here.