Stephen Harper: Bad For Democracy

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Several days after the Conservatives won their majority government this election I lambasted the results as undemocratic and outdated. With facebook status updates I vented my frustration with the winner take all Canadian system, calling out the voters to be prepared for a Prime Minister that shows no consideration for the democratic process. With my family members being approached to see if I was "alright" by people who don't know me well enough to understand I (mostly) can separate politics from reality, not letting my at times, passionate political views interrupt my day to day life, I felt I needed a break from my minuscule public reach (you know, the handful of people who actually care about my thoughts). I also received emails putting the global perspective of democracy into view, and had to halt my social media sites and collect my thoughts.

There is something disturbing happening in this country. As many of you know, I try to spend massive amounts of my time and energy consuming what the "other guys" are selling. As I listen to the right-wing pundits, who tell the same old tales of the liberals who are bent on destroying Canada, with their anecdotal evidence from Mrs. Good For Nothings For Kids Who Blames The Liberal School System, or Mr. My Taxes are TOO HIGH, and I'm worried people have swallowed the line. I am reminded of the Shane Koyczan line: "We are an experiment gone right for a change" and am wondering if anyone will recognize the Canada we have all come to love in the near future. Is Canada perfect? Absolutely not. But I'll tell you one way it isn't going to get better...

Stephen Harper is about to shove a crime bill down our throats. As for the democratic process that will bring this major change into action? A 48 hour limit has been placed on any political debate for the 102 page legislation, encompassing nine separate bills, that will change the shape of our criminal system! Mega prisons; US style War on Drugs policies; A massive effect on crime prevention and services; Stripping judges of their discretion in sentencing. Mr. Harper, this smells like the all too rotten failure of the United States criminal justice system! As I heard it put today: Building more prisons to fix crime, is like building more cemeteries to fix cancer. This is not a bill for the 21st century.

And so begins Stephen Harper's Canada, with a mere two days to object.

I hope you enjoy the real Stephen Harper, because this is just the beginning.

Comments

Christopher Spicer said…
This is the type of stuff that was keeping me up at night back in May, when the nightmare of a majority Conservative seat became a reality. It is the same stuff that is causing me to constantly change myself as the provincial election approaches.

Harper and the Conservative hate the fact we aren't a dictatorship, and this is proven on a monthly basis. The majority seat is making it all that much worse.

The thing about this crime bill that is a joke, Harper is getting people to swallow the lie that we live in some barren crime wasteland. Yet crime hasn't been this low since the early 70s. Yet we are getting bills signed that will continue to crap all over our rights and liberties.

Well played Harper, you're getting ever closer to the the America 2.0 that you dream of (minus those annoying freedoms).
12:08 PM
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