May 24, 2006
Down the wrong path
The longer that this new government is in power, the more concern I have for Canada's future. I'm not concerned about economic future, but rather the health of our freedom of speech, environment and our global role as a peace-keeper. The recent change of government seems to be going farther and farther down the path that the US gov't has already trod. No Canadians wish to become Americans other than apparently our Prime Minister.
Harper is ignoring all of the warning signs of environmental chaos, even though The Debate is Over on global warming. Even GWB has acknowledged it and wants to focus on a solution rather than placing the blame. Harper's idea of an environmental plan is to let you write-off part of the cost of your bus pass. Yeah, fat lotta good that's going to do for farmers or people in the sprawling cities of Alberta. Edmonton's bus service is so shitty it can take up to 2 hours to get to a location it takes 20 minutes in a car. Oh and I almost forgot: "Let's get out of the Kyoto agreement because it's going to be too difficult", way to make us look like schmucks, Stevie.
Harper has also turned the gov't of Canada website into a propaganda machine for the Conservative party (found this through Darren's blog), plugging their five priorites, and news articles making them look peachy. Alongside the propaganda machine is his refusal to meet with the Ottaway press corp, they apparently didn't ask they right questions.
"They don't ask questions at my press conferences now. We'll just take the message out on the road. There's lots of media who do want to ask questions and hear what the government is doing."Ok, so he doesn't like they way they are playing so he's going to take his ball home to western Canada where he hopes they will ask questions he is willing to answer. We don't know what he's planning next but if he keeps going down this road I can see the black helicopters on the horizon.
Military commitments seem to also be a priority for this government, not merely for peacekeeping but for coalition forces in Afghanistan rooting out terrorists. Ok for some this sounds fine, but really that has never been our role as a country, we go in after-the-fact and keep things calm until some semblance of order can be maintained. When our forces start bombing civilian towns as is what happened recently, it tarnishes our country's name. I also don't agree with the change of policy that flags will no longer be flown at half-mast with military casualties, although I can almost understand this concept because as of late the flags would be lowered 3 days out of 5.
We can only hope that his continued disregard for Ontario and other cities,his preferential treatment of Quebec and the absolute abysmal environmental plans will push the Canadian people over the edge. With regards to Quebec, as Harper himself said:
"Make no mistake. Canada is not a bilingual country. In fact it is less bilingual today than it has ever been."So why is he suddenly making concessions for one of the last standing refuges of the French language in Canada (other than New Brunswick)? Votes. That's right, Quebec has a shitload of people, and somehow they also have a federal party even though there are no PQ MPs outside of Quebec and no electoral candidates for that party outside of Quebec. That same federal party has a party leader willing to ignore the rest of Canada for the good of Quebec, to prop up a government that is not good for us and is leading us down the wrong path.
Edit: Turns out Quebeckers aren't entirely down the wrong path: Quebec is "resolutely committed to Kyoto," says Charest, a former federal environment minister in the early 1990s, and he expects the federal government "to do its part.", so why are they so quick to jump into bed with the PM?
Posted by Oorgo at May 24, 2006 12:48 PM Permalink - Category: Politiks | TrackBack|
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