Being Stephen Harper Must Be Frustrating At Times

Were I a more compassionate and empathetic man, I suppose I could at times muster a modicum of sympathy for our dark lord, Stephen Harper. Why, you may ask - doesn't he now enjoy a majority government that allows him to impose his will throughout our once fair land? Doesn't he already exert a wholly unholy influence over our once robust structures of democracy? Doesn't he regularly show contempt for the truth, both inside and outside Parliament?

Of course he does, but consider the almost unbearable frustration he must be experiencing now, one that may lead him to a new assault on democracy, not because his will is being thwarted, but because it is being slowed down by those pesky environmentalists he alleges are in the sway of 'foreign interests.' According to today's Star,

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says environmentalists funded by “foreign money” are trying to hijack public hearings on the controversial Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline — and the government would like to put a stop to such activities.

In high demagogic dudgeon, Mr. Harper warns about dark foreign forces arrayed against us, a threat to both our economy and our way of life, as more than 70 native groups oppose the project and 4,300 people have signed up to give evidence at the hearings on the environmental and economic impact of the proposed $5.5 billion pipeline. Our dear leader decries the use of foreign money to really overload the public consultation phase of regulatory hearings just for the purpose of slowing down the process.

“This is something that is not good for the Canadian economy and the government of Canada will be taking a close look at how we can ensure that our regulatory processes are effective and deliver decisions in a reasonable amount of time,” he said after a government announcement in Edmonton.

Annie Roy, a spokesperson for the Northern Gateway review panel, responded by reminding Harper that the panel “is an independent body, mandated by the Minister of the Environment and the National Energy Board,” to hold public hearings.

But since Harper is a man not the least bit deterred by the once powerful traditions of Parliamentary democracy, expect him to find a way to shorten, even abrogate this environmental process.

Ottawa Police Chief (Do You Remember Tracy Bonds?) Appointed to Senate

Despite the CBC puff piece interview of Ottawa Police Chief Vern White on his appointment by the Harper government to the Senate, many will remember him as the chief presiding over infamous police prisoner abuse cases in Ottawa, especially the one involving Tracy Bonds.

Given Stephen Harper's diversionary crackdown-on-declining-crime-legislation, his choice makes perfect sense.

Pension Fund Shuns Walmart

Years ago, when Maple Leaf Foods was demanding deep concessions from its workers in Burlington, Ontario, many teachers tried to get the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan to divest itself from the company. We were unsuccessful, the response being that the Plan had a fiduciary responsibility to its members to maximize earnings, so ethical considerations could not be an influence in investment decisions.

It is good to know that not all pension funds think this way. The €239bn Dutch civil servants and teachers pension fund ABP has announced that it will no longer invest in U.S. retail giant Walmart, arguing that it persists "in behaviour that runs counter to the UN Global Compact's principles in the areas of human rights, labour, anti-corruption and the environment."

One of the reasons for the divestiture is Walmart's well-known anti-union stance, coupled with tactics that punish, usually by dismissal, those who try to unionize a store, and in extreme cases, by store closures:

ABP has excluded Walmart over of its personnel policy, which "violates international directives, particularly with regard to working conditions and the opportunity for employees to unionise."

It's sad that taking a principled stand against corporations that exploit their workers makes the news because such ethical behaviour is the exception, not the rule, in investment decisions.

From a Star Reader: Welcome to Harper’s Harsh New World

A particularly insightful lead letter is found in today's Toronto Star. Because most letters seem to be available online for but a short time, I am reproducing writer Stephen Douglas' thoughts on the folly of our pseudo-economist Prime Minister's tax giveaways to the corporate sector, which continues its relentless mission of eradicating good-paying jobs from Canada:


On Jan. 1, 2012 the last of five annual corporate tax cuts took effect, reducing the federal rate by another 1.5 points to 15 per cent, now among the lowest rates in the industrialized world. This amounts to a total $2.85 billion in tax savings for the most profitable of Canadian business.

The notion that this will spur new jobs is a fallacy; tax breaks don’t benefit those businesses starting up who are not yet in a profitable position. Nor will it lead to increased capital expenditure by those business who do receive it; Stephen Harper himself was recently complaining about all the private business money “sitting on the sidelines” in Canada during these recent difficult times. His solution? Give them more.

At the same time, Harper’s government is proceeding with increases in employment insurance premiums. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, representing those small- and medium-sized businesses least likely to benefit from the new lower corporate tax rate, are protesting loudly with a 15,000 signature petition that this will, in fact, deter the hiring of any new employees. It is completely without merit, they add, as they have been overpaying into EI for years. As evidence, Employment Insurance currently has a robust surplus of $57 billion (2009-10), which our own auditor general has described as excessive.

The net effect of Harper’s New Year 2012 package is yet another transfer of several billion dollars in annual income from Canadian workers and small business to the largest of corporations, which are already reaping the highest profits. To add salt to the wound, these big players that Harper is generously rewarding are also significantly held by foreign-ownership (some estimates are that foreign ownership holds more than 50 per cent of the petroleum and gas industry shares and more than 50 per cent of all manufacturing in Canada).

Without any justification, for there is no economic analysis pointing toward any type of capital exodus out of Canada (to the contrary, we are traditionally considered a safe haven in turbulent periods), this New Year’s Day package pinches hard-earned dollars out of the pockets of low- and middle-class workers and pads the war chest of corporations and the wallets of their shareholders, among whom disproportionately are the wealthy, the elite and the foreign financiers.

For the last 25 years in the U.S. and Canada — under both Conservative and Liberal administrations — economic policy has been dominated by the economic philosophy of neoliberalism, emphasizing the primacy of market competition while vilifying government intervention and regulation of markets. Neoliberals insist that price adjustments ensure full employment.

In contrast, to quote Thomas Palley, what we have witnessed has seen “a slip between the cup and the lip” as the wealthiest have concentrated their power; a fall in real wages, the undermining of unions and the erosion of workers’ rights, and growing problems of poverty alongside an increase in wealth amassed by a very small minority. What neoliberalism has failed to account for is the abuse of power that accompanies the control of media and the funding of politicians.

Money does not have a conscience, and those who act to increase their personal wealth at the expense of their neighbour will find their rationalization within neoliberalism.

Harper and his cadre of conservative ideologues share this collective denial. In these hard economic times where concern is growing about the disparity of wealth, when one in nine Canadian children live below the poverty line while fewer than 4 per cent of the households hold 67 per cent of our total financial wealth (estimated total holdings of $1.8 trillion), he is thrusting us back toward a harsh Dickensian world and hopes we will be grateful for the crumbs we receive.

Stephen Douglas, Toronto

Caterpillar, Inc. - A Reprehensible Corporate 'Citizen'

When I think of caterpillars (which, until recently, I have to admit, has been rarely), I think of a slow-moving yet determined creature on its way to metamorphosis, often into something quite beautiful. Unfortunately, that gentle imagery must be cast aside when considering Caterpillar Inc., an ugly corporate entity intent on wreaking havoc to those in its employ.

As previously noted, Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of the company, has made untenable demands of its workers, resulting in a lockout at its London plant. In The Star today, David Olive writes on how the gutting of contracts is a practice well-documented in Caterpillar''s American operations, employing a tactic best described as a war of attrition against its employees:

The firm has a practiced skill at “taking a strike” for as long as required until workers straggle back to work across their own picket lines.

Indeed, the usual excuse of seeking increased productivity during difficult times doesn't even apply to its ruthless tactics:

Well ahead of the Great Recession, during a banner year for the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, Cat insisted that its managers gird for a worst-case scenario of an 80 per cent plunge in sales over two years.

And on a single day in 2009, Caterpillar blithely laid off 11,000 employees, or 9 per cent of its global workforce. Like most U.S. employers, Cat has a hair-trigger for layoffs at the first sign of tough times.

Despite this well-documented practice, it was given permission by Industry Canada in 2010 to purchase Electro-Motive Canada in London, for generations the North American locomotive arm of General Motors Corp.

And yet silence over this outrageous corporate behaviour, which would assumes violates the terms of the foreign takeover, ensues from both the Harper government in general, and Industry Canada is particular.

Where is the outrage?

What were the terms, if any, that Industry Canada stipulated for Electro-Motive's purchase?

Where are the leaders of the opposition parties, who have thus far observed the same stony silence as the government?

Who will speak up in defense of good-paying Canadian jobs?

One shudders to consider the answers.

More Good News For the Corporate Sector

While corporations continue the arduous task of union-busting and contract-gutting, their efforts are being amply rewarded. Not only has a beneficent and ideologically-driven Harper government cossetted them with a record-low tax rate, but the captains of industry who lead these voracious job-destroying entities are also prospering quite nicely thanks to compliant and obsequious boards. To put their good fortune into perspective, according to a report published Tuesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, by lunchtime today, Jan. 3, the highest-paid chief executives officers in Canada will have earned as much as the average Canadian makes in an entire year.

As announced in The Star today, while the majority of Canadian workers are struggling with either stagnant, eroding or minimum wages, in 2010 those toiling as corporate CEO's, regardless of company performance, garnered an average 27% increase in remuneration over the previous year, while by comparison, the average Canadian earned $44,366 that year, or 1.1 per cent more than in 2009.

I ardently await the renewal of the Occupy Movement.

American 'Rocket Scientist' Pronounces on The Electric Car

[Sigh,] and some say this is the best the Republicans have to offer in the next election.