[Newsbot]

Title: Harper opposition must continue/
Topic: Canadian Politics
Written By: Janet M Eaton
Date: Saturday, February 06 at 20:17
Prorogation was the tip of the iceberg of Harper's dismantling of democracy in this country.  Prorogation should be viewed within context of Harpers on-going destructive agenda which is documented to a limited extent by the media and by some national NGOs among others. The latest issue which has occurred with the " Rights and Democracy" agency [see article below] is a further example of the harm Harper is doing to this country, our democratic traditions and institutions, and our international reputation. Let's look at some of his attacks on democracy that proceeded proroguing: (a) gagging of MP´s (b) gagging of senior bureaucrats, (c) muzzling the media - cancelling press conferences in the parliamentary press gallery, (d) shutting down essential 'access to information' registry and database, (e) cancelling funding for all manner of civil society groups (social justice, anti- poverty,environmental, feminist, peace ) that recommend sound policy options for a principle- centred society (f) threatening to cut funding for political parties(g) Conservative Party chairpersons walking out on and thereby shutting down parliamentary committees, (g) Harper's manual of "dirty tricks" for his MPs on how to block the function of Parliamentary committees, (h) consulting with corporate sector and not rest of civil society groups as with the National Advisory Council on Competitiveness (NACC) and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) (i) producing aggressive attack ads on the opposition between election periods etc. j) failing to implement legislation passed by Parliament with which he disagrees.k) ongoing interference in so-called independent agencies such as the RCMP review, the firing of Linda Keen from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and now this Rights and Democracy incursion aong others.
read more

[Dave Ruston]

Add to this list the fact that both Ignatieff and Layton behave as though Harper has a majority. Ignorantieff and Laydown aren`t fooling everyone when they do their well scripted squaking about Harperoid, as they too, are puppets to their banker masters.

[RickW]

Harper will be coming out with his "austerity" budget in March, complete with downloading many, many costs onto the straining backs of Joe and Janet Lunchbucket. And it will strain whatever credibility the NDP has left if the party does not support a coalition effort to dislodge the Cons, in support of basic justice for the ordinary Canuck.

Iggy is a wus, so it will really be up to the Bloc and their reaction to Harper's intentions.

[kbaum]

how can you be on the NDP side. In the past with British Columbia and in the present with Nova Scotia they come in to an election pointing there fingers at anything they can dig up to paint the picture they want. I have been in and out of Halifax for the past few years and am from Alberta, born and raised. When the PC party won here in NS the increased spending in joe lunch box jobs. Built up the airport, upgraded roads schools and land marks. All of a sudden there was a high percentage of new cars on the road, malls had record sales even though we where in the middle of a down turn in the economy. everywhere you looked new business's where popping up and people had work and money. the one thing that was not done as promissed was the halifax harbour. For years there has been raw sewage pumping in there. They tried a few ways to fix it but had no success. the project was haulted until they could come up with a way to deal with it, that did not turn into a sink hole for tax payers dollars. Then along came the NDP in 2009. Pointing there finger at the one thing that is not going to plan. There was not a word of the the new airport, roads or schools that had been built or the economical up turn the province has been seeing. No, "the harbour" that's it. Along with the promise to clean up the harbour they promised to keep tax's the same and pull the provice out of debt. in the first 3 months of power the harbour project has been scrapped do to exesive cost. also taxs are getting a 2% hike. Government provided work, as in, airport shcools and roads have been all but cut, creating a spike in unemployment, which in turn sucks money out of the tax pool. to top off the past half year of NDP genius they raised the cost of bridge and road tolls buy 25%.

Now i here all of you saying that we need to have them in parliment. Never has the NDP lasted in a province for more than two terms, they promise the world to get the steering wheel but when it comes down to it they fail not at one or two things but everything that they promised.

The key is a majority government. This is why "Ignatieff and Layton behave as though Harper has a majority", some one has to stop the cycle of one side to the other. The Harper government at least has taken some other's under there wings and worked together. the bloc.... i mean really unless you are speakign french and taking about Quebec they are not going to do anything for you. The liberals have famously done the opposite of everyone else. They would not want to look as if we agreed with harper.

Seriously people, this country is being torn apart by the people who do not look at the big picture. Why are we voting someone in becasue the will allow gays to get married. How is that going to help with the national debt or education or health care. But we will forget about all of that so that a couple guys can not just be common law but have a peace of paper with there names on it. O and then the best part is i get spit on when i say that health care and education is more important than gay's with rings on. Human rights are one thing but a nation try to come out of one of the worst depressions in 50 years is another. Get over yourselves and make a differnce.

"ASK NOT WHAT THE COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY"!!!!

It is up to each of us to make a difference. Finger pointing does nothing but strain you finger.

[Individualist]

Quote:

cancelling funding for all manner of civil society groups (social justice, anti- poverty,environmental, feminist, peace ) that recommend sound policy options for a principle- centred society

How is it reasonable to expect a government to fund left-wing lobby groups whose only purpose is to oppose everything that the governing party (and those who voted for it) stand for? Why should my tax dollars go to pay for you promoting *your* agenda? How is that fair or just? I just can't understand this shameless sense of entitlement that the Canadian left seems to have.

How would you like it if your tax dollars went to support the Fraser Institute? Would you expect a Liberal or New Democrat government to continue such a scheme were it ever put in place?

[Brent Swain]

Kbaum your post is bullshit. The NDP were in power in Sask from 1944 until 1966 then form the early 70s till recently, far more that two terms.
In BC with the NDP in power, raw log exports dropped to 1.8% of the market . Since the right wing Liberals came in raw log exports have risen to 37% and USanian companies have bought out BC sawmills closed them down and used their cutting permits to export the logs and jobs to the US. The NDP based cutting permits on jobs created locally.
Right wingers gave themselves up to a 53% wage rise, claiming we need to enhance the "greed factor" in order to get "good people"into politics, then increased the tax on private boat and car sales to 18% total, to pay for it. The right wingers promised a new island Highway for decades but never built it. The NDP started it in their first term which the Liberals vehemently opposed.The NDP insisted all hireing on the project be from within a 50 mile radius,at union wages, which the Libvberals vehemently oppose. So which highway do Liberal supporters use when driving on Vancouver Island . The old Right wingers highway, or the new NDP highway? Can you say Hippocrite? I knew you could.