"The world actually still likes Canada; they don't like Stephen Harper"

The Galloping Beaver: The day the world rejected Stephen Harper
The global community made a decision. They decided that Stephen Harper
was someone they would rather not have at the table. It was not about
Canada - it was about him and his reckless foreign policy.

Harper and his unelectable senators

A BCer in Toronto: Harper’s road to an elected Senate: Appoint Conservatives that can't get elected
This is a brilliant post by A BCer in Toronto about all the senators who originally ran in elections and could not get elected - showing us that Harper is not serious about an elected Senate.

Will Stephen Harper do the right thing regarding Omar Khadr? - No.

Montreal Simon: Omar Khadr: When Hope is Finally Lost
...
The Federal Court has given the Harper government until Monday to intervene in Khadr’s case. If Ottawa did ask for his repatriation at this late date, there is no certainty that President Barack Obama, under his own domestic pressures, would agree. But it is time for Harper to show confidence in the Canadian legal system and make the request.

Stephen Harper should do the right, decent, and Canadian thing and make that request.
...

"Only in my nightmares is this my Canada"

Montreal Simon: The G20 Gorilla Show: My Video
As I said about a week ago, I've always
wondered what it would be like to live in the kind of police state
Stephen Harper would create, if he ever got a majority.



Well now I
know.
...

Let the protesters protest

CathiefromCanada: Let the protesters protest
...
Even Lloyd Robertson and Lisa LaFlamme looked
uncomfortable when they were talking about the new secret Ontario
law that basically criminalizes
dissent and would have allowed wholesale arrests of G20 protesters
at tomorrow's big rally. As Marcus
Gee writes:

Canadians who are simply walking along the
street are under no obligation to tell police their name or agree to be
searched. “Papers, please,” are not words that people in this country
need to fear.

Police -- who actually must be pretty bored,
with thousands of them standing around day after day with virtually
nothing to do -- are already
abusing their shiney new law:. . . once the erosion of
rights starts, it’s hard to stop. On Friday, Toronto police were
stopping and searching people entering Allan Gardens, a public park
about three kilometres from the fenced off-zone where the G20 leaders
are due to arrive Saturday.
“We just want to make sure you’re not
carrying anything dangerous,” one officer told me, after asking for
identification, as another flipped through my notebook.
The problem,
it seems, is that anti-G20 protesters were having a (perfectly legal)
rally in Allan Gardens prior to setting out on a march.
“Do you have
anything here that might hurt me?” the officer said as his partner
looked through my glasses case.
...

Conservatives continue to show their contempt for parliament and democracy in Canada

Contempt in the guise of accountability - Hill Queeries
The Conservative contempt for Parliament continued unabated yesterday
with a showdown at the Government Operations committee that nearly erupted in a fistfight. Four
Conservative cabinet ministers showed up at committee, uninvited, rather
than their staffers, and proceeded to run roughshod over the
proceedings – and at the centre of it was John Baird, who just a few
hours later would be named “Parliamentarian of the Year.”


Liberal MP Siobhan Coady was having none of it, and she called out Baird
for being a bully and warned him against trying to intimidate her. But
Baird’s behaviour


For the Conservatives to send ministers to committee when their staff
have been called – and curiously not have those very same ministers show
up when they’ve been summoned – and yet call it ministerial
accountability is an insult to the basic tenets of Parliamentary
democracy. They are not responsible in the traditional manner, and their
only purpose is to obfuscate and claim they appeared, therefore they
have been responsible. It’s nothing short of doublespeak and the
undermining of our system of government, and Canadians shouldn’t stand
for it.
was completely shameful, as he tried to
bully the chair and run roughshod over the established rules of the
committee to suit his purposes. (I later heard Baird say that he sent
Coady a note that said, “Damn, you’re good.” Not that it excuses his
behaviour in the slightest).


Read the link for more.

Harper Conservatives caught on lies about environmental regulations in Canada

Reality check: Harper Conservatives mistruths exposed by leading environmentalist | NDP
The Harper government claims that our regulations are more strict than in the USA. This is not true. Read the link.


Also
http://www.ndp.ca/press/us-laws-on-drilling-safety-are-stronger-than-canada-s

Harper government's $75 billion Canadian bank bail-out

THE WOODSTOCK ONTARIO INDEPENDENT NEWS: Bank tax 'unfair,' Harper says
Frankly, this is all BS.
Harper says he didn't bail out Canadian
banks, but that is not the case, it is a lie.

"But Canada has
consistently argued that it would be unfair to impose such a tax on
Canadian banks, given that they didn't receive any direct bailouts
during the crash - a case Harper made again yesterday."

That is
utter crap. Your tax dollars went to support Canadian bank bailouts as
the following global research article points out.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12007

Harper and the Religious Right destroying Canada

Montreal Simon: Are the Cons a Threat to National Security?
read the post, watch the video!

Happy F*cking Mother's Day (from Harper)

DAMMIT JANET!: Happy F*cking Mother's Day
excerpt:
Harper again makes Canada an international pariah.

By the way,
the argument that 'abortion is mostly illegal in the developing world
anyway so what does it matter' is, surprise, surprise, bullshit. Abortion
-- at least to save the life of the woman, and often to preserve her
mental and/or physical health -- is nominally legal in most of the
counties where aid is desperately needed.

Access, of course, is a
totally different matter. And that's where the West must help,
providing training and supplies and supporting local efforts to improve
access and expand the conditions under which abortion is allowed.

URGENT - Harper signing away our sovereignty while parliament is closed

James Laxer: Urgent National Debate Needed on Harper Trade Deal

excerpt:
In return for this “concession” from Washington, Ottawa has agreed to pay an unacceptably high price. Under the deal, Canadian provinces and municipalities will permanently give up the right to favour local companies in awarding contracts. Government procurement at the municipal and provincial levels is an extremely important economic development tool, crucial for job creation, the encouragement of Canadian firms and the development of home-grown technology. At a time when cities are rebuilding their transit systems and are refitting homes to make them more energy efficient, it is the height of folly to open all these contracts to American bidders. (Given the multiplicity of measures used to protect them from outside bidders, it is foolish to imagine that Canadian firms will have an equal opportunity to bid on U.S. state and municipal contracts.)

What makes the Harper government’s deal particularly maddening is that the Buy American provisions in the U.S. Recovery Act violate the spirit if not the terms of NAFTA that guarantee the right of Canadian firms to bid on U.S. federal government projects with the exception of defence contracts. Instead of publicly and loudly asserting that Washington is violating NAFTA, the Harper government is bribing the Obama administration to stop doing that by opening up tens of billions of dollars worth of public contracts in Canada to American corporations.

Harper, accountability and democracy

Accidental Deliberations: The reviews are in
Lawrence Martin:
(The Conservatives) campaigned heavily against Liberal abuse of power and promised a new era of accountability. And the Accountability Act did, in fact, contain many fine reforms. But as Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch (who advised the Conservatives on the legislation) will tell you, a goodly number of the proposed reforms never made it to the table, and others that were enacted have since been violated in spirit. When Stephen Harper's all-controlling proclivities are factored in, the end result has been a further worsening of the problem.
...

"Harper and his too-clever-by-half cronies in the PMO neglected to consider a very important constituency"

Prorogation, Disengagement and Cutting the Democratic Deficit in Canada « bastard.logic
News on an interesting report on Canada and Canadians by the Institute of Wellbeing.

Harper plans to help women and children in the 3rd world, he reduced support for them in Canada

Stageleft: life on the left side » Shorter Stephen Harper
Harper talks big on the world stage about women and children, yet back at home he has been cutting funding for women's issues and child poverty for years.
The example in this article is about Inuit children and how little Harper cares for them.

The direct cost of Prorogation

The Scott Ross: Actual Cost of Prorogation $130 Million
...

In combining the direct cost of Canadians paying for a Parliament to do nothing for 22 days and the indirect cost of Parliament's lost time due to scrapping a portion of viable Bills, the total cost of prorogation can be justifiably approximated at $130,407,733.
...

More Conservative Spin

Accidental Deliberations: The reviews are in
Yesterday, Conservative anyonymice (sic) were offering a new reason for prorogation. The PM, we were told, wanted to ensure that ministers with new portfolios had time to bone up before facing their opposition critics in Question Period.

Pish.
....
And, Stockwell Day is now in charge of reigning in spending. His experience? He was Alberta's treasurer - the per capita spending then in Alberta was the highest of any province in Canada. They put a big spender in a position to reign in spending.

Only in Canada: Harper's prorogation is a Canadian thing

Yappa Ding Ding: Only in Canada: Harper's prorogation is a Canadian thing

Go searching for the last time a Westminster-style parliament was shut down to free its leaders from unwanted censure or scrutiny — and you'll end right back in Canada, where you started.

It turns out, no other English-speaking nation with a system of government like ours — not Britain, Australia or New Zealand — has ever had its parliament prorogued in modern times, so that its ruling party could avoid an investigation, or a vote of confidence, by other elected legislators.

Only three times has this happened, all in Canada ...

Do the Harperites think nobody gives a damn when you defecate all over those values

Accidental Deliberations: The reviews are in
Column by Rick Salutin on Harper's prorogation move.

Worst Governer General Ever?

Pulse Niagara Online Edition

...
Harper deliberately chose to pick a political fight with the opposition just six weeks after promising to work with them. Faced with certain defeat, he demands Jean prorogue Parliament. Did she consult with the leader of the opposition to see if he could lead a government? There’s no sign she did. Instead, she simply gave in.
Fast forward one year and Harper is again in trouble—this time over his government’s handling of the Afghan detainee torture issue. On the last day before the Christmas holidays, MPs passed a motion calling on the government to release thousands of uncensored documents on Afghan prisoners. Harper promised the committee looking at the issue they would receive “all legally available documents.” Instead, he prorogues Parliament, thus disbanding all committees in both the House and the Senate and killing government bills, no matter how close they were to approval.
And as many others have argued, Harper’s timing said everything. He chose to announce on December 30 – the same day five Canadians were killed in Afghanistan and at a time when the public and media were focusing on the announcement of Canada’s Olympic ice–hockey team that Parliament wouldn’t resume until March 3. Even more troubling is that Harper didn’t even bother to follow tradition and make his “request” of the Governor–General in person, instead telling her over the phone. Yet, the Governor General’s official residence is right across the street from the Prime Minister’s Sussex Drive home. Constitutional expert C.E.S. Franks, a Queen’s University professor, called Harper’s actions “an affront to the dignity of the office of Governor General.”

The British magazine, The Economist, an influential and largely right–wing publication, stated in an editorial, “Mr. Harper’s move looks like naked self–interest.” The magazine, which once dubbed former Prime Minister Paul Martin “Mr. Dithers”, said Harper’s a competent tactician with a ruthless streak. “The danger in allowing the Prime Minister to end discussion any time he chooses is that it makes Parliament accountable to him rather than the other way around.”

Top Ten Reasons Stephen Harper Prorogued Parliament

The Top Ten Reasons Stephen Harper Prorogued Parliament | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen
Comic, but true!
(By true, I mean it had everything to do with the Afghan Detainee Scandal, etc.)