Why I Won't Vote for the Harper Conservatives

Tomorrow is election day in Canada. I'm on the road for a training session so I made sure to vote last week in the advanced polls. I most assuredly did NOT vote for the Harper Conservatives.

I've been asked 'what's so bad about Harper and his party?'

It's easy to respond with 'they're evil!' and end the conversation with that.

On the other hand. I'm happy to explain some of the reasons while the Harper Conservatives did not get my vote in the 41st Federal Election. I apologize for a long post but the reasons are great and I feel strongly about this.

First and foremost is the blatant abuse of our democratic institutions. Now I suspect that all parties try and bend the rules a tad to ensure that their agenda gets through Parliament. I doubt that other parties have produced a 200 page "Manual of Dirty Tricks" to deliberately disrupt parliamentary committees and parliament. I know that no other government has been found in contempt of Parliament for refusing to provide information to the other parties and for out and out lying in Parliament.

Harper and his Ministers have lowered the bar so low into the mud that it may never be found again.

I value living in a democracy. It is ironic that we are in an era where citizens living in dictatorships are fighting to have a say in their governments, dying for these principles,  and we Canadians have seen our democratic institutions treated shabbily, our democratic principles rebuked, and we have a government that is the most autocratic in history.

The second is fiscal management. This may surprise some as the Conservatives are considered to have done a relatively fine job of sailing through the worst economic crisis in modern history. But take a step back - remember that while the rest of the world was imploding this government refused to admit that anything was wrong - I remember them accusing the opposition of fear-mongering. Governments around the world were throwing billions of dollars  into stimulus programs and this government introduced a budget that did nothing - they had to be forced by the opposition to even embark upon any stimulus measures. They didn't respond to the crisis appropriately, they were forced to do so, and then took the credit for their 'wonderful management'.

This government didn't reduce the deficit. In fact, the only government in recent history to have put a serious dent in the deficit was the Chretien/Martin Liberal government.

This government didn't put the regulations in place which restricted corporate mergers, megalomaniac banking decisions, and crazy financial schemes which precipitated the financial meltdown in the rest of the world. It was the former Liberal government that placed these critical restrictions upon corporations and forced them to act in a somewhat responsible manner. Harper, as leader of the opposition at the time, railed against any restrictions on a free-market - business knew bestand this would take care of the rest of us. Hmmm - it didn't work out that way  . . . history being a fine filter . . . it turns out that these very restrictions saved us from further trauma and now they are trying to take credit for them. Apparently Harper thinks Canadians don't read nor remember history.

Finally, on this financial front, the Conservatives have lowered the corporate tax rate to one of the lowest in the world. The Finance Minister tells us that tax cuts pay for themselves because the money stays in private hands, not the government's, and the private corporations/citizens spend it thereby stimulating the economy.

History has proven that this is false.  What does happen is that the government has no income with which to pay for the social programs that Canadians value. We're left with a tough choice - cut those important social programs or go into debt. Oh yes, those corporations who got all of the tax cuts end up making all sorts of money in Canada and then close up shop, move to a spot with a dirt-cheap labour pool throwing Canadians out of work.

The third reason why I would not vote for the Harper Conservatives is because they have turned 'us' into international laughing stocks. Canada used to be respected as a country that was willing and able to help the world be a better place. We were peacekeepers. We helped to educate the world. We helped to ensure that developing nations and emerging economic powerhouses had a say in the 'big' decisions (remember it as Paul Martin who pushed for the creation of the G20) that affected them.

With his dogmatic approach to foreign affairs Harper has turned this around to the point that Canada was denied a seat on the Security Council for the first time in history. Note, Libya had a seat there at the same time. Libya! Yet Canada was denied.

The Harper Conservatives refused to recognize the signs of global warming and would not sign on to climate accords which actually addressed the real issues facing our planet. The Harper Conservatives cut funding to aid groups that did excellent, important work in Africa, but who also spoke out against the actions of Israel in Gaza. The Harper Conservatives cut the funding for the Canadian Teachers' Federation so that the organization could no longer send well-trained Canadian teachers to third-world nations during the summer to train teachers there to be better teachers. The Harper Conservatives refused to allow any discussion of birth control to enter into the discussions on Maternal Health and projects that came out of the summit.

Within a short period of time Canadians went from being lauded for our efforts to being booed. We were openly criticised by foreign leaders for the position taking by our government. We weren't respected as we had been. The trust was lost. Those who know anything about trust know that once lost it takes considerable effort until it can be regained.

The next reason why I won't vote for the Harper Conservatives is the misuse of public funds. This government was originally elected because the previous government had been found to have misused public funds as a slush fund. The Harper Conservatives have signed contracts for untold billions of dollars on fighter jets that no one seems to know the final price tag of. This contract wasn't tendered, wasn't held to public scrutiny (perhaps this is what comes from having a former military lobbyist as your Defence Minister).

They are planning on building expensive prisons at a time when the crime rate in Canada has gone down considerably.

This government funneled hundred of millions of dollars into the riding of Tony Clement for a G8 meeting that lasted for one day. Much of the spending was untendered and was on things completely unrelated to the G8 meeting. The police here in Ontario are investigating how some of this money was used.

The Harper Conservatives spent more than 1 billion dollars on the G 20 meeting in Toronto. That is a lot of zeros for a meeting that did little but disrupt Canada's largest city. Toronto came to a standstill, there was little economic benefit to the city at all, and money was spent on the most bizarre things. Again, no public scrutiny, no tendering, little follow through.

The next reason why I wouldn't vote for the Harper Conservatives is because of the control of the public discourse that has taken pace under his watch. The Prime Minister's Office muzzled MPs, refusing to allow them to talk to the media. Harper himself is cocooned in a bubble, not meeting with average Canadians - especially those who may not share his views. Harper won't engage in a dialogue with the media.

Scientists who work for the Federal government have been fired if they espouse views that might be contrary to those of the Harper Conservatives. In fact, anyone connected with the Federal government who dared speak out against the government or their policies have been hit with horrific smear campaigns, their professional reputations dragged through the mud. Speak out against Israel and Israeli actions in Gaza or try to shed light on the Afghan detainee scandal or provide statistical evidence of climate change or indicate concern about the handling of the medical isotope issue or raise concerns about how the shredding of the long-form census will affect Statistics Canada and your professional judgement is questioned in a ham-fisted way. Your character is questioned. Hell, it is destroyed!

Public discourse is essential in a democratic society. People have the right to disagree with the leader. They have the right to provide additional information, to clarify things. Societies where the public sharing of information is curtailed and denied aren't democratic. In fact,such autocratic societies like that are generally called a dictatorship.

There are many more reason why I would not vote for the Harper Conservatives but I need to close shortly. So I shall finish with what I call the politics of fear. This government hasn't been visionary. They don't really have a happy vision for a better future - instead they rely on character assassination of the opposition leaders and ferment fear in the hearts and minds of the public in order to gain power and stay in power.

They have convinced Canadians that we live in a country rife with crime when statistics prove the opposite. They tell Canadians that big government is bad and responsible for so many of the evils in their lives when the very things these same Canadians value were created by the federal government. This government pits one region of the country against the others.

The Harper Conservatives have proven adept at finding wedge issues in individual ridings that will help them to get elected there. 'Wouldn't a train connection to Toronto be a good thing? Well, vote for us or it won't happen.' People foolishly buy it.

The Minister of Citizenship wades into Canada's ethnic communities searching for support. Think about this . . . the Minister who is ultimately responsible for new Canadians being allowed to bring their spouse, parents, or cousins into the country knocks on the door and says 'help us'. The subliminal message being 'well, guess who won't come to Canada if you DON'T help us?'

The end result is a policy that lacks coherence. A policy that doesn't inspire hope for the future. A policy the feeds mistrust of other Canadians. A policy that causes Canadians to be suspicious of government. A policy that holds us back, rather than creates a future for our children. A policy that hurts Canada's bright place in the world.

I refuse to vote for such a government.

Comments

[Sandrac]

Let me count the many reasons......excellent post, Jerry. I am SO with you!

[JDeQ]

Too bad more good people weren't Sandra.