Editor:
I deplore the niqab and what it says about women. However, this is a distraction from the main issues in the coming election and must not be allowed to hijack it. The Harper government is trying to run this election on a platform of fear to avoid looking at their record over the past decade.
Harper boasts of his economic stewardship, but in reality, it has been deplorable. During the last downturn, Canada was the only G7 country to slip into a recession. During the last decade, the middle class has slipped substantially. Unemployment is at a very high level. People are working at part-time low paying jobs with no benefits or security and no real hope of bettering their prospects. Young people, even those with advanced degrees, are finding great difficulty in finding good jobs. Our veterans have been treated shabbily, and the poor have become more poor. Ontario is becoming a “have not” province. Harper has squandered millions of dollars in making this election far longer than it should be, in order to give them an advantage because of their much larger funding power.
Harper has damaged our democracy. He has stifled debate within Parliament with his omnibus budget bills, preventing discussion of important legislation included in the bill. He has muzzled the scientists and destroyed most of the environmental protections built up over the years. Anyone who disagrees with him is dismissed or demoted. Any organization that does not agree with his policies is closed, defunded or subjected to odious audits. He has arbitrarily cancelled the long-form census as well as the gun registry (even though the police wanted to keep it). He arbitrarily tried to railroad Nadon onto the Supreme Court of Canada, and he has publicly assailed the integrity of the Chief Justice when the court declared Nadon ineligible. His appointments to the senate of such unqualified people as Duffy and Wallen have been well documented in the press. (Does anyone believe that he knew nothing of the payment to Duffy given his well-known micro management?) What about some of the people he has chosen to run in this election (eg. the former candidate who was caught peeing in a customer’s cup)?
Harper has damaged Canada’s reputation abroad. In 2010, for the first time, Canada’s bid for a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations was defeated. Jean Chretien has said the Harper government has tarnished almost 60 years of Canada’s reputation as a builder of peace and progress developed under both successive Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments. Harper’s heartless response to the Syrian refugee crisis is the latest example.
I am very worried about what he has given away in the secret negotiations to join the TPP. Canada is not a super power and would not have a big voice in negotiations. It is rumoured that the agricultural and automotive sectors will suffer. I am very worried about how our medical system will be affected. We have a good medical system (not the best in the world but better than most, and infinitely better than the U.S.) I am afraid that our system might be privatized. I am afraid that the powerful pharmaceutical industry will destroy our access to generic drugs and our ability to buy drugs at a reasonable cost because of buying in such large quantities.
We must realize the Harper government is not the old Progressive Conservative Party of yesterday. It is in reality the Reform Party led by an autocratic and mean spirited leader. Harper must go.
Christina Wigle,
Creemore.