Stephen Harper is truly a pathetic facsimile for a leader. In yesterday’s National Post article entitled “It's been two years, where will he go now?", we are privileged to learn about Stephen Harper’s self assessment of his two years in office and the unchartered nature of where he is headed, with the statement:
"Along the way, we've made the occasional mistake, but experience is a great teacher," Mr. Harper admitted. "We've listened. We've learned. We've grown. We have tacked and weaved in the face of wind and storm, but our final destination -- a better Canada for all of us -- remains the same."
To which Don Martin appropriately responded: "Okay, yuck."
As for "tacked and weaved", I wholeheartedly beg to differ, as I think Harper’s mantra and modus operandi is better summed up by Lie Conceal Fabricate. And I’m not just talking about the scandalous income trust treatment afforded by his back handed government.
Evidently Don Martin of the National Post is having a serious rethink about just how alive today the income trust betrayal is in the minds of voters.
On December 31, 2007 Don Martin tried to fly the lead balloon idea in reference to Jim Flaherty that Flaherty “seems to have finally put the income trust flip-flop behind him.”
More realistically, Don Martin yesterday pointed out that:
“The five priorities of the 2006 election, spliced into 170 Blue Book promises, have largely been met with only the odd flip-flop, the most spectacular being when the government reversed its position and opted to tax income trusts.”
Again, I beg to differ.
What Don Martin and all Canadians need to realize is that the income trust issue is about so much more than income trusts and about whether a government should have the right to summarily “raid seniors nest eggs” to the tune of $35 billion. The income trust issue is about whether we as Canadians have a transparent and accountable government as we were promised and as we should demand at the very minimum.
The central rationale for braking the income trust issue is the unproven allegation that income trusts cause tax leakage. Seldom is proof for the central tenet of a major policy so readily available and so easily discerned.
So where is it? Where is the proof of tax leakage? Where is the transparency derived from 18 pages of blacked out documents? Where is the accountability for this policy’s many adverse outcomes, apart from Flaherty’s reprehensible plea of “It’s not my fault”?
Apart from Diane Francis and occasional others, where is the press? As one example of the press' co-joined indifference: is the press not even remotely aroused by the fact that the government demanded that the 18 blacked out pages issued under the Access to Information Act be returned immediately?
Democracy should not be thought of as the default mode that societies like Canada revert to in the absence of ongoing scrutiny and vigilance by its citizens. Whereas plutocracies are.
That is the ultimate destination of the short journey on which Stephen Harper is taking Canadians when he is “tacking and weaving” and allowing an embedded plutocracy to take hold unfettered in this country that for lack of better definition goes by the name of Corporate Canada’s Controlling Elite (CCCE).
What’s their common modus operandi and jelly bean mentality?:
Answer: Lie Conceal Fabricate.
To quote Don Martin: “Okay, yuck”
To quote Diane Francis: “Prove the case or drop the tax”
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Stephen Harper: "Tacked and Weaved"? .... more like: "Lied, Concealed and Fabricated" !
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6 comments:
To Garth Turner's motion, I add the following resolution to be dealt with by the House Ethics Committee:
"That this committee as soon as possible resolve to censure, remove from office and submit for prosecution by the appropriate authorities Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty, Mark Carney and other members of the Conservative Government for injustices and crimes against Canada, its citizens and its institutions, as evidenced by the following actions (amongst others):
1) Lying to Canadians (and especially seniors and retirees) about income trusts, thereby unnecessarily and unconscionably causing, amongst other effects, a $35 billion loss to their savings and putting in jeopardy their financial futures.
2)Aiding and abetting the takeover of sovereign Canadian businesses by wealthy private, foreign or undemocratic state-owned wealth funds at the expense of ordinary, average Canadians and other Canadian companies.
3)Lying to Canadians (and especially those in the Atlantic and Saskatchewan provinces) about the Atlantic Accord and the retention of natural resource revenues.
4)Lying to Canadian aboriginals with respect to the Kelowna Accord.
5)Lying to Canadians and Parliament about Afghan detainees, thereby putting in jeopardy the country and Canadian soldiers with respect to international obligations against torture.
6)Allowing Canadians abroad to be subject to the death penalty, contrary to domestic policy and Canadian values.
7)Attempting to eliminate equal rights for all citizens (such as for aboriginals, women, gays and lesbians), contrary to Canadian values.
8)Attempting to subvert domestic and international agreements on climate change.
9)Disrupting and interfering with Canadian Parliamentary committees and witnesses in an attempt to contaminate, conceal or obscure evidence and testimony.
10)Committing elections financing fraud, as evidenced by the irregularities reported by Elections Canada."
It's remarkable that senior reporters are obscuring actions and legislation that are anti-Canadian and anti-democratic. These are two massive failures of democracy: a government aligned against many of its citizens, and resorting to denial or fabrication of truth, and/or concealment of the reality; you might expect the press to be in a frenzy of investigative reporting.
The second massive failure is that Canadian newsmen and newswomen press have prostituted themselves to the financial and political interests of their owners. Clearly, the press has cheapened their franchise.
Gilles Duceppe has touched the essence of the Harper Tory Party. “This is a government that lied to the people, that lied to the House, which manipulated public opinion, which manipulated the House of Commons.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080125.wmanleyopposition25/BNStory/Afghanistan
Duceppe was speaking only of the Afghanistan file. In fact, almost every file touched by this government involves lies to the people and the House, and manipulation of public opinion.
Don Martin said "Okay , yuck".
I say "Blah , phooey".
This gov`t constantly calls itself transparent & accountable--sounds nice & flowery--certainly nice enough & flowery enough to be believed by many.
The term Tax Fairness was equally believable by anyone who didn`t care to dig deeper--seems that has included the press & many of the Conservative , Liberal , NDP & Bloc MPs.
An example : I contacted my local Cons MP back last year after we had received the recall letter for the blacked-out pages--he had me forward this material on to him because he had not heard of either.
He was duly flabbergasted by both --he could not explain either--I was told by him that his knowledge on the trust file was not sufficient to comment on what might be on the blackened pages (somehow this guy voted in favor without any knowledge--goody)--as far as the recall letter . his advice was since he had never heard of such a thing , that we just ignore it.
Yikes!!!!
This guy is an elected MP & he is completely clueless as to what he voted on & as to the rules of parliamentary recall.
Well , at least this guy was transparent.
Unfortunately , to be accountable one needs a basic knowledge of the subject first.
MIke.
Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part but after 2 years of Harper and constant reminders (from himself and a willful press) Camadians are not that excited by Harper. Despite the petty bribes of minor GST cuts Canadians yawn at him.
Over time the broken promises mount, the willful behaviour becomes more obvious and eventually time will run out for Mr. Harper. That is my hope anyway.
xenos said:
"In fact, almost every file touched by this government involves lies to the people and the House, and manipulation of public opinion."
Xenos, truer words could not have been spoken!
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