Tag Archives: Harper Government

The election period started yesterday and the writ hasn’t even been dropped

27th January 2015

Well this week it all starts again.

 

The venom and hatred coming from the PMO will be ratcheted up and the willing puppets of the administration caucus will continue to try and complete their almost successful efforts to turn the Canadian Parliament into a pathetic, dysfunctional, laughable joke. Judging by the Statements by Members of Monday 26th January we are already in full PMO election slander mode.

 

For those who think those words might be harsh and not apply to all the CPC MPs, let me say this.

 

When the votes are taken they all stand one after another, laughing, joking, gesturing at each other to support the most destructive legislation ever passed in any parliament anywhere, never mind in Canada. Do not take my word for it. Watch it on CPAC or read the votes in Hansard. It is all recorded.

 

When legislation was presented to endanger nearly two millions lakes and rivers in Canada by removing them from their protection against toxic dumping afforded by the Navigable Waters Act, they stood like one and thought this was a marvelous idea.

When the Environmental Regulations were gutted opening the way for destructive resource extraction, again they stood and applauded with their votes.

When the vets were being treated like vermin, again they all stood 4 square behind their PM.

When one of their members (Butt) lied not once but twice in an attempt to support the Elections Act they all stood again to make sure he didn’t have to appear in front of a committee to explain his deliberate lies. Their Speaker was not even in the chair when his ruling was voted down.

 

This is not good governance.

 

This is aiding and abetting the destruction of our Parliamentary system.

 

This is not representative democracy; this is not freedom of speech; this is not freedom of thought; this should not be a source of pride in work well done.

 

This is slavish breaking of trust and I would say partaking in treason against the people of Canada.

 

What could cause men and women who might actually be reasonable human beings to act this way?   Surely it’s not just money?   But then again maybe it is. We did get an example of the way the CPC members think in the way Del Maestro manipulated the system to ensure he got a pension for a job he cheated to get! Just an hour or so before his future was to be put to the vote in the HOC and expulsion would mean no pension he resigned uttering more lies as he did so. Does this mean that the cost to Canadians is second to the financial needs of the Members of Parliament?

 

I will willing grant that being an MP, specially a real MP, is an arduous job. Away from home all week for most of them, long hours with meetings that have no meaning (committees) attempting to read omnibus bills in a matter of hours, and good luck in having any say on them. Being subjected to cat calls, jeers and kindergarten behavior

in the chamber, subject to a speaker who owes his job to a vindictive Canada hater so he is hamstrung in his actions and ignored or rebutted when he makes a ruling against the administration.

 

However when I was young an MP was a person one looked up to, rather like a policeman, as someone there to help not to destroy.   Times have changed and no longer can either the average policeman or MP be trusted at all.

 

As long as the PM is controlled by corporate interests and other governments (Israel for example) Canada is doomed to be a third rate country, with third rate citizens and with no influence in the world. It is regrettable to say the least that that is what Harper gives every appearance of desiring for us, whilst he sits on his pile of cash (I believe he will get an over $5 million golden handshake from you and I for destroying Canada) along with the multi corporate boards upon which he has earned a place by his perfidy.

 

Shame on all who support these actions.

 

Register to vote, get your ID in hand and make sure you give Canada a chance to recover by voting. By doing those two things alone you will be defeating a potential dictator who only wants CPC votes to count. Oh by the way vote on early voting days and avoid the CPC scrutinisers who will make your life miserable on voting day itself.

 

Our children, grandchildren and in my case now two great-grandchildren deserve soo much better than the last decade of darkness.

 

 

Jeremy

What if….

One night not so long ago I was in bed thinking instead of sleeping, which I seem to do more today than yesterday and I was thinking thus:

Power in the hands of a few people, or one person, has the ablility to be very destructive. It will overcome common sense, lead to acts of extravagant stupidty, blind ideology, destruction of values and to wars both within a country and in foreign lands.

Over the years checks and balances were created to protect against absolute power, but even those can be overcome as is now happening in Canada, where by mischance both the House of Commons and its Speaker, the House of Sober Second Thought and the courts have all fallen under the control of one man….Or have they.

This led me to write this letter to all the Conservative Party of Canada backbenchers on February 21st 2012:

The letter was entitled “What if”.

An open letter to Government backbenchers.

 

Some of you will not read this because I am not from your riding, but I hope most of you will as it is not an attack upon you or the government caucus to which you belong.

 

It is generally accepted that the power of government rests with the PMO and the Cabinet , but that is, in my view, an illusion. The power rests with you the “back benchers” because without your support the government and its agenda cease to be.

 

I have watched on CPAC as some of you read PMO statements and as you stumble over words like ‘democracy’ or phrases such as ‘represent your constituents’ (usually directed at the opposition members), I have to wonder if perhaps you are in entire agreement with what you are reading. Maybe you are but what if you are not? What if you question this whole represent your constituents thing?

 

The job of the opposition is to study proposed bills, offer suggestions or amendments to improve them in both the house and committee, or to vote against them if those improvement suggestions are rejected and they believe the bill to be bad for the Canadian people.

 

I would submit to you that your job as a government backbencher is no different.  I do not think your job is to just rise from your seat and vote when so directed by thePMO.

 

Being an MP is not an easy job; being away all week that the House is sitting;  being available to your constituents when you are home; sacrificing family life to live in a hotel or lonely apartment in Ottawa; working on committees and keeping up with what must be endless correspondence requires dedication, and I applaud you for that.

 

But is it not in the interests of your constituents to ensure that legislation is the best it can be for them? You were elected to be their MP.  If we look at the national average then 25% of eligible voters or 39% of actual voters in our current system elected this government. This means that 61% of the actual voters did not vote for you, yes in some ridings this was not the case but I am using the national average.  Does this mean that 61% of your constituents are not represented by you, and if so how democratic is that?

 

What if you actually went to the Liberal, NDP, or Green people who represent the majority in your riding and asked them what they think?  What if you actually represented your whole riding to Ottawa, not the government to your selected minority of the riding? That is your job, and if you do that why would you ever be rejected by the people or your party?

 

Democracy in Canada has been dead for years because we the people are not only under represented but are largely ignored except at election time, and it is, I think, because of fear of rejection  by the ‘party’ that causes MP obedience to the party line.  Yet the party of any government is made up largely of backbenchers such as you and without you they have no clout. If by standing up in the House, or in committee, and asking for the best for the people of Canada you feel you run the risk of being rejected by your party I have to ask:

 

Is this what you would be doing, going against the party or are you actually saying to the leader that you have a voice on behalf of all the people of your riding and you should be heard because your support is very important, actually vital, to the government?

 

I leave you with this thought. 

There is an opportunity to reclaim parliament, at all levels, for the people of Canada and it rests with you the backbenchers of this government to do this.

 

You have the power but will you use it?

 

Thank you for reading this.

 

Jeremy Arney

An extra 30 MPs is good for what? or whom?

THE ABSOLUTE FOLLY OF BILL C-20

Well like in so many other things Dictator Harper has rammed through his Bill C-20 to enlarge the House of Commons by 30 more MPs at a financial cost of about $100 million per election cycle and with only one thing to actually show for it.

Less representation for the people of Canada.

How can that be you may ask, well its actually very simple.
There is already no time for most MPs to represent what they think their constituents may think or feel, never mind what their party does, and closure is called more often than not, so where are the extra 30 voices going to be heard? And how can this extra number of MPs jostling for time be either fair, representative or even loosely democratic.

Oh wait a minute, they will probably all be CPC voices so it doesn’t matter, it’s just extra bums getting off the back benches to vote as instructed by Harper when the time comes.

This is another example of sleight of hand where the object is not allowed to be examined to carefully lest the public see what is really going on here.

Have you ever played “Find the Queen” ? well that is what’s going on here

Let it be said that I have nothing against real representation and would applaud it if it were happening here in Canada. It is not and will not under Harper, and with more MPs it will just get worse.

The financial shell game being played on Canadians is absolutely appalling. We
have the ability to be debt free in the eyes of the world, no compounding interest to international banks, no debt to the IMF, World Bank or Bank of International Settlements. Just a debt to ourselves through the Bank of Canada, and any interest we were charged by the BOC would be paid back to us again; so simple and so pure and yet so unfriendly to the IMF, etc., that we would never be allowed to do it.. The last country that tried to do this (Libya) Canada helped bomb into destruction and killed the leader at the behest of those same banks. In fact we “lead” the mission, if doing the bidding of the IMF, USA, Israel etc., can be called leading.

 

Back to those extra 30 MPs.

How can more be better in a restricted time and place?

Is quantity better than quality?

Is force better than serious contemplation?

Silly questions to ask the CPC as they have no voice,.

Silly questions to ask Harper because he will not answer.

Can you imagine Question Period with an extra 30 MPs to drown out questioners and hurl jeers and smears at them?

I have suggested to the opposition leaders that as question period does not elicit any real answers from any minister, including the head one, in this Harper Government that they should just get up and walk out for the 45 minutes of oral questions and do some work in their offices for their constituents instead of wasting time at a verbal bun fight.

That would be the day !

Meanwhile we are now stuck with an extra $100 million to be found, and you know that is coming from the pockets of the working stiffs, not the corporations who are getting yet another tax gift.

Jeremy

What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?

The Chretien Government for example was called that by the media, MPs of all sides and the people of Canada specially those who could not bear the thought of a Liberal Government.

I have not been able to find where that name went any further than what was really a nickname.

The “Harper Government” on the other hand has letter head for governmental communications, instructions from the PMO to refer to the government as the Harper Government, and of course media branding as well. All back benchers for the government refer to “our” government or even “this conservative” government and I feel sure that is because they cannot use the name Harper in the House.

So why am I going through this exercise?

Well I suppose it is because the Harper Government does not reflect the views, morals or concerns of the Canadian People either here at home or to the world generally. I have no need I think to list where we have lost our way internationally, but I believe it is because the Harper Government is based completely on an ideology which is in turn based on international corporate needs and regulations, and trade deals that are not in Canada’s best interests, nor those of the Canadian People.

So I reluctantly acknowledge that the government we currently have is not the Government of Canada, but is indeed the Harper Government. In a way I am glad because I would hate to think that any Government of Canada would openly and proudly use its military to destroy another country (Libya) simply because the corporate IMF told it to do so.
I would hate to think that a Government of Canada would be so inept as to be unable to get a seat on the security council of the UN; nor so determined to sabotage and disrespect the world’s attempts to get some control over climate change simply to protect a filthy development in Alberta.

For these reasons and others too numerous to list here I would say that on May 2nd we elected for better or worse a majority “Conservative” Government for Canada, based on election lies, contempt and disrespect for the Canadian People. However we did not elect a “Harper Government” and frankly I refuse to acknowledge that this Harper Government is in fact the Government of Canada.
As we are stuck with this Harper Government which is determined to completely change Canada as we have known it, by its leader’s boast, let them do their worst as we cannot stop them, but let it be known that the damage is being done by the Harper Government, not the Government of Canada.

Jeremy