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The Woes of Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Why this Election is NOT a Single Issue Vote

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 91 Comments

 
In Oct 1993, the very angry voter annihilated a Conservative Party by reducing its previous 156 seat majority down to just TWO MP’s. It is time to do it again!

 


 
The Twitter world erupted in a purely juvenile frenzy late last night due to the CBC Marketplace video linked in the above tweet. In spite of the vulgarity, the creativity of those oppposed to the Harper Government came out in full force, united against #peegate. Then came #CPeeC, #PeeMHarper #PeeParty #UrineinTrouble and so on. With graphics guaranteed to split your sides. Why on earth would mature people stoop to such raucous behavior?

The answer is that on all levels, the Harper government demonstrates how lucidrous it is that they have managed to stay in power for 10 years and equally strongly, why everyone in Canada has to choose intelligently on October 19. #VoteABC is really, really important!

On one level, this last little charade has made Canada the laughingstock of the world. Here’s the NYT at 1:33 pm this afternoon (updated to add the already put-down scandal regarding another candidate Tim Dutaud). The AP also picked up on this late last night/early this morning. #Peegate was trending at #2 in the US before I finally made myself go to bed at 2 am.
 
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Then there was the #SyrianRefugeeCrisis, symbolized by the picture of little Aylan Kurdi; a truly horrible and gut-wrenching thing to see. While the media reported all kinds of angles, the (Canadian) Twitterworld jumped on an interview on CBC’s Power and Politics with The Hon. Chris Alexander, the current Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Rosemary Barton completely destroyed Mr. Alexander, no other way to describe it.
 

Alexander, the Conservative candidate for Ajax, responded to the question by saying the migrant death toll numbers “have been growing for years.”
 

He cited a United Nations report that half of all Syrians have been displaced as a result of ongoing conflicts catalyzed by Islamist militants.

“We are continuing to act, to be at the forefront of humanitarian response…” he said before being cut off.

“Mr. Alexander, you’re actually countering your own point,” said Barton. “If this is true, if this has been going on for years, why did government not act faster now?”

Alexander then tried to shift the focus onto the CBC.

“I’m actually interested in why this is the first Power & Politics panel we’ve had on this,” said Alexander.

The claim that was quickly shot down by Barton as “completely false,” adding that as a minister he was not allowed to appear on the network’s panel discussions.

“If you want to avoid the question, let’s just be clear that that’s what’s happening,” Barton said.

 
Canada has a rich history of generosity when the issue of refugees is examined.

Decades before the current crisis, Canada airlifted 5,000 people from Kosovo in the late 1990s, 5,000 from Uganda in 1972, and 60,000 Vietnamese in 1979-80. From January, 2014, to late last month, Canada resettled 2,374 Syrian refugees.

The Harper Government has enacted many policies that make it more difficult for refugees to come to Canada, some of which most Canadians are opposed to

The wealthy Arab countries in the Middle East have been widely criticized for standing by and doing nothing.

Germany is committing to taking 800,000 refugees. France – 24,000.00 UK -20,000. Australia – 18,000. Mr. Harper has refused to meet with Trudeau & Mulcair to try and work on an immediate response. He sticks to his perception that a military element is necessary and that Canada will take 10,000 over four years.

A simple solution would seem to be send people to Greece, Hungary & Turkey and get the people registered so they can obtain the exit visas they need and move on.
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Then the announcement that Canada is technically in a recession.

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Then there is #Harperman.
 

 

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The song/video has been out since June yet recently, it suddenly developed a huge popularity on the Internet. Presumably, Mr. Harper did not at all like it and directed someone at Environment Canada to suspend Mr. Turner, an employee there for 20 years, due to retire in a few months.

One would think Mr. Harper would understand that Canadians would not buy into the idea that Mr. Turner’s suspension had any relationship to his actual work (studying migratory birds) nor could the suspension be whisked away by the explanation public servants are expected to be non-partisan.

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And of course #Duffy

I was so disappointed when it was announced that the Duffy trials would adjourn until after the election. I thought, “Oh no, people will forget all about it by October 19. Little did I realize how rich the field (above) would become. Next to the Syrian refugee issue, the Duffy trial is probably the most serious set of allegations the CPC has to deal with.

It likely is common that public servants abuse the public purse. I doubt anyone was particularly surprised to hear Mike Duffy wrongly claiming living expenses from Ottawa due to the fact his “home” was in PEI.The original amount he took from taxpayers was $154,000. Totally outrageous as it has been a well-known fact that Mr. Duffy had lived in Ottawa for years prior to being appointed to the Senate due to his work with CTV. In February 2013, Mr. Duffy was added to the “Canadian Senate Expenses Scandal” being investigated via audit by Deloitte LLP. He resigned from the Conservative caucus in May 2013 and sat as an independent until the Senate voted to suspend him without pay for two years.In July 2014 he was charged with 31 criminal offenses including fraud, breach of trust and bribery.Nigel Wright, of the PMO wrote a personal cheque for $90,000 to complete the amount of repayment Mr. Duffy needed to take care of. Mr. Wright was then fired by PMSH and the controversy includes whether or not PMSH knew of the bribe as well as his current chief-of-staff Ray Novak. The Auditor General of Canada then investigated and reported that nearly $1 million worth of inappropriate expenses were filed by 30 Senators. This has led to repeated calls for the Senate to be dissolved.

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As if all of the above were not enough reason to seriously question voting for the CPC, there is more.

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So, just in case anyone was doubting the appropriateness of being a “one-issue-voter”, I would think something listed above would be able to convince you voting ABC is okay and extremely necessary. And once again, the organization LeadNow (http://www.votetogether.ca/riding/) is providing information on every riding to help with making a strategic vote. Please visit the site and find out who is the best choice to oust the Conservatives in your riding!
 

PLEASE DON’T FORGET:
 
In Oct 1993, the very angry voter annihilated a Conservative Party by reducing its previous 156 seat majority down to just TWO MP’s. It is time to do it again!

 

 


 
 

91 thoughts on “The Woes of Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Why this Election is NOT a Single Issue Vote”

  1. @Duke

    Is Trudeau’s stupid and hypocritical comment supposed to be forgiven because its election time, just as I should forgive those who don’t keep their campaign promises made in the heat of the moment?

    If he’s going to play along the blood line theme, should we be asking if mental illness is carried along blood lines too, like he’s implying his BCness is?

    Or are you supposing I’ll support Koopman over Goldsmith-Jones in our riding?

  2. Result: 18 Liberal signs with no mention of Trudeau; 16 NDP signs with Tom Mulcair on their signs; 7 Conservative signs. Note: all of the Conservative signs are whopping big ones and all of the Liberal and NDP signs are small, perhaps indicating the amount of money behind their respective election campaigns.

  4. I don’t get your bitterness. I was born and raised in Montreal. I cheer for the Canadiens and the Alouettes. It’s in my blood. No big deal.

  5. All I’ve got in my blood is the usual red and white blood cells plus some platelets. There’s nothing in there that makes me anything other than human. I’d simply like our leaders to respect and value EVERY human living in this country, no matter what route they took to be here and no matter which patch of Canadian soil they call home. JT’s statement is a bit strange but it’s the usual gibberish they all indulge in while electioneering. I’d like to hear a party leader talk truth, rather than “talk BC”, Alberta, Sask., etc. Truth would be something worth voting for but like many times before I find myself voting against — this time it’s the Harper regime.

  6. Confusion about blood lines seems to be an inherited condition.

    Pierre Trudeau said that white South Africans should move back to England. Never mind that some white South Africans were descended from Dutch who had immigrated six generations earlier without a drop of English blood.

    So by Pierre Trudeau’s reasoning, Pierre Trudeau should have moved back to England. NativeCanadian could help explain it to him.

    Now Justin Trudeau even has it in his blood.

  7. I hope this is the best place to post this really delightful (to me) but really woeful (to him) parody sung by a young, talented singer from Comox, BC — Helen Austin. I love it! Thanks to the person who passed it to the person who passed it on to me. Perhaps like-minded Brockers will help this video go viral like the Harperman protest song. It would be wonderful to sing and vote this man and his party out of office.

  9. Here’s the chorus to Helen Austin’s parody (to the tune of the “American Pie” song):

    We’ll be singin’
    Bye, bye, Mr. Harper, goodbye
    With your psychopathic ways
    And your evil eyes
    If you had your way
    You’d bleed Canada dry
    As a leader you don’t qualify
    So, Mr. Harper, goodbye

  10. Hoping that Torontonians will not re-elect the current Conservative Party Minister of Finance, Joe Oliver…

    The polls apparently say that:

    “Meanwhile, in another closely watched Toronto-area race, Conservative Joe Oliver (38 per cent) is trailing Liberal candidate Marco Mendicino (44 per cent) in Eglinton-Lawrence.”

  13. Yes, heartsick — and one of the signs would be one that I donated for. Matt Masters Burgener says at http://mattmasters.com/2015/09/25/100/

    Thanks to strong supporters like you this campaign continues to grow.

    You may have heard the news, we had a challenging week on the campaign trail. With tonnes of new Send Harper A Message sign requests pouring in we made the decision to hold back planting most of them until we could find out why our signs were disappearing. One sting operation and an investigation of a Calgary bylaw officer later, we’re back up and running again. Thank you for your patience!

    Would love to see innovative and quite literate Matt take the riding from Stephen Harper. In Calgary, stranger things have happened. Go, Matt!

  14. Maybe the Alberta government can investigate what happened in Calgary?

    How come the biggest most dangerous sign wasn’t removed?

  15. Norman Diamond,

    Smiling — the other Party signs I see around my and other neighbourhoods seem to easily outnumber the Conservative signs — but NONE are as big as the Conservative signs. Those Con signs represent lots of $$$ backing.

  16. Here is my sign to send Stephen Harper a message in his Calgary Heritage riding — planted by the Matt Master Burgener NDP campaign.

    FATCA - 2nd Class Citizen Sign (1024x768)

  18. On the subject of SECOND-CLASS CANADIANS (and danger in the slippery slope of Bills C-51 and C-24!)

    ” How I became a second-class Canadian” — A member of the Order of Canada, Patricia Aldana says she and other immigrants have become second-class citizens in Stephen Harper’s Canada.

    But the final and most egregious act by Harper’s government against those Canadians born outside of this country is Bill C-24. Add it to Bill C-51 and if some judge somewhere agrees that by demonstrating, opposing government policies, protesting, we are a danger to this country and can be stripped of our citizenship and expelled. Can we “new” Canadians even be considered citizens at all under such a law? This is not only a reason for anger, it is a legitimate reason for fear.

  19. You can see similar themes being sung out by Tony Turner and Helen Austin and now Blue Rodeo too. Did Harper really think he could get away with all the damage he’s been doing without Canadians noticing? We need to sing and vote out this smarmy smiling, evil eyeing, dream stealing, US law adopting man. October 19th is fast approaching. Do what you can Brockers to make sure many, many Cons lose their seats in parliament.
    http://www.bluerodeo.com/stealingdreams/

  20. Here’s the direct link to youtube for Blue Rodeo’s “Stealin’ All My Dreams”. It looks like it’s going viral.

  23. and it continues …

    But all you need to do is spend 5 minutes outside of downtown Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver to know that the rest of country – in its relative isolation from, and ignorance of, multiculturalism – truly thinks that there is a Muslim terrorist (or a dozen) sitting behind every mosque in the country.

    Everyone here thinks that every Muslim woman wears a niqab and that she never ever has to reveal herself in court, at citizenship ceremonies, or to vote.

    And that’s just un-Canadian!

    Harper knows full well that the majority of people will never actually investigate to see if this is true (it is not – of course they will have to reveal themselves – just not in front of men) – he also knows that the majority don’t know that in the last 2 years and a half million new immigrants, only 2 women requested wearing their niqabs at citizenship ceremonies.

    Facts are always the first to fall in an election campaign.

    What a sleeze!

  25. Everyone’s probably sick of me posting Harper protest songs but here’s another one anyway …
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=228&v=5ahVfJGqjXs

    BTW if any Brockers live in or near Ottawa you could join Tony Turner in a sing-along of “Harperman” the day before the election. Sunday, October 18th, 2 p.m. on Parliament Hill
    or Ottawa City Hall if it rains     They tried to silence him but he’s free to sing now.

    Also, Canadians living in the USA may be interested to know they CAN vote in the election. Here’s one man’s success story …
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/elections-canada-expat-sault-ste-marie-vote-1.3266434

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