- If Canadians are in the Middle and Harper Is Extreme Right, Then Just Where Is Harper Leading Us

Posted: 11:51 AM & 12:57 PM on February 26, 2011 The Globe and Mail
Who’s afraid of a big, bad Harper majority? John Ibbitson, Globe and Mail, Feb. 25, 2011
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/whos-afraid-of-a-big-bad-harper-majority/article1921627/

"Reg Alcock, a Liberal who served in Paul Martin's cabinet as Treasury Board president and now teaches at the University of Manitoba's business school. 'Canadian governments are elected to serve all Canadians,” he observes, “and all of them tend to move toward the centre, because that is where the people are.' Mr. Harper's paramount desire to make the Conservatives Canada's new natural governing party will always serve as the best check on whatever rabid-right tendencies he might harbour."

The people of Canada are at the centre, politically - you got that right (morally)

So,

What rationale is there to elect the right-wing extremist Harper and hope he will 'drift towards the centre'

Doesn't it just make sense to elect a Party that is already at the centre, that shares, and understands, on a fundamental level, the core values of all Canadians, where no 'drifting' be needed

Now isn't that just rational

And it isn't simply the party drifting towards the centre. Harper and the Con's have been hard at work in the last 5 years, dragging Canada to the right, farther and farther and therein lies the problem

Harper has been quietly, 'under the radar', so to speak, in a slow, methodical and insidious fashion, tainting, perverting and corrupting various institutions, distorting, obstructing, obscuring, obfuscating, through the usurpation of administrative power and bad faith application thereof for the purpose of grasping and maintaining power and dragging all of Canada to the extreme right

One of the fundamental problems with the way power distribution has evolved in Canada is it is based on the assumption that the Prime Minister and the party in power act in good faith, for the good of all Canadians

With Harper this is simply not the case

Stephen Harper has 33% die-hard support, epi-centred in Alberta, that support him pretty much no matter what as long as he tows the extreme right ideological line

With a minority they have 'cut him some slack' since they feel it's better to have Harper in power than not

Describing this as 'moving towards the centre' is a serious mischaracterization.

With a majority Harper will willingly and whole heartedly, come home to roost in the extreme right, and not by drifting


Harper's game plan is to drag Canada and Canadian values to the extreme right, where people like GW Bush, Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing US extremists reside,

dismantling Canada and abdicating to the provinces - look at Harper's background to predict how he would negotiate Health Care, equalization and social transfers when they become open in a couple years, especially if he had a majority -


With a Harper majority we can all kiss our 'social safety-net' goodbye.

People seem to forget that a fundamental tenant of Con'ism is 'sink or swim', everyone for themselves, me-not-we, to the rich go the spoils.

Stripping Canada of our safety net does simply mean less taxes, which benefits the rich in a disproportionate fashion, but it also means less security, whether by way of health-care, support in our old age, education, day-care, unemployment, or whatever.

It is our seniors now that have the most to lose, since they have grown old and contributed a lifetime, expecting that these social safety nets will be there for them, only to have it all pulled-out from under them. At their stage in life they simply cannot adjust. The rest of us at least have some chance of adjusting.

But keep in mind that it is ever only a small per-cent that 'share the wealth' in a laissez-faire, win-loser system that is Con'ism.

Our youth also have much to lose by way of compromised education and child-care and restriction of opportunities to those that happen to have been born into a family that can afford good quality rearing and education - thus entering the viscous cycle of the dis-advantaged.

That's just simply what Canadian federalism is all about.

All Canadians getting together to help those that need help, to provide the opportunity for all Canadian to share in a 'good life';

to allow our elderly to grow old with dignity and grace, to reap their rewards for a lifetime of contribution, of hard work and sacrifice;

to allow or youth to grow and develop so that they may reach their potential not simply for their own fulfillment as a human being, but because it makes us strong and a nation - it makes us strong in a deep and fundamental fashion that a lucky few having lots of money simply does not afford.

excerpt: Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html