Stephen Harper’s record in office, is one of deception, incompetence and corruption:

I think Canadians deserve better than this:

Harper’s record of deception:

Stephen Harper is deceitful by his very nature. This probably explains how he rose to power from the netherworld of the Conservative/Reform/Alliance parties.

Harper’s deceit in office, is evidenced in technicolor by his litany of broken promises...income trusts, Atlantic accord, fixed election dates, product safety, etc. etc. So called “leaders” that lie with such regularity, deserve no roll in governing this country of Ours.

Stephen Harper’s greatest act of deceit was when he broke his solemn income trust promise, after he pandered that he would “never raid seniors’ nest eggs”. He broke this promise by coldly concocting the lie that income trusts cause tax leakage. Not only is tax leakage a lie, it was a completely manufactured argument created by the bureaucracy (Mark Carney et al), for the sole purpose of providing false justification for Harper’s act of deceit. This is either gross incompetence on Harper’s part or the act of callous deceit.

Either way, the cover-up of either incompetence or deceit is obvious to the naked eye, as Harper’s “proof” of tax leakage took the form of 18 pages of blacked out documents issued under the Access to Information Act. Like the thief returning to the scene of his crime, he then demanded these documents be returned immediately. This is also how Harper deivered on his solemn promise of Accountability and Transparence. Two more acts of deceit to add to the list.

Meanwhile credible studies by the likes of HLB Decision Economics, BMO Capital Markets, PricewaterhouseCoopers, reveal that tax leakage lie for what it is, since their is no tax leakage from income trusts, when analyzed properly. Even disgraced Jack Mintz has admitted to the falsehood in the analysis done by the Harper government, when he revealed to me in writing on November 23, 2006 that: “ There is a serious flaw in some analyses, especially on the taxation of pension and RRSP accounts. Finance was not right to treat the impact as zero.”

As for the other acts of deception, I would refer you to Danny Williams on the Atlantic Accord or Rex Murphy on the Fixed Election, empty promises. As for product safety, Harper was spending money on ads promoting the notion of product safety, while saving noney by cutting back on meat plant inspectors. Deceivers always prefer perception to reality. Governance under Harper is the equivalent of living in the Land of Oz. Just ask Canada’s former Nuclear Safety head, Linda Keen.

Harper’s record of incompetence:

Surely any definition of incompetence would include acts in office that involved achieving a result that is diametrically opposed to the intended outcome. Income trusts, like scoring a goal against you own team, is a perfect example of Harper’s policy incompetence.

It is a known fact that income trusts provide Ottawa with more tax revenue than those same businesses would as corporations. Having argued the opposite for his income trust tax, Harper’s actions have caused the very tax leakage outcome that he professed he sought to avoid. Achieving an outcome that is 180 degrees away from the intended target, is as incompetent a result as is imaginable. Harper’s trust tax, has induced $95 billion in takeovers, including BCE. BCE is the poster child for the incompetence of the Harper government;s fiscal management of this country. A $52 billion blunder with one of Canada’s iconic company’s. Harper’s policy has lead to the loss by Ottawa of $800 million in tax revenue from BCE, has turned BCE into a junk bond basket case at a point in the economic cycle were debt is an anathema, causing BCE to have insufficient capital to become competitive again, leading to increased service cost (ie text messaging fees and more of the like to come) and massive job losses of 2,500 skilled knowledge sector workers (soon to grow to 4,000 if the Globe and Mail is to be believed).

Other acts of economic incompetence by the Harper government was his politically motivated and hastily agreed to 50 cents on the dollar softwood lumber capitulation, which was on the verge of a successful court ruling in Canada’s favour, the reckless and non-stimulative successive cuts to the GST, and the wholesale exercise of vote buying in Quebec with increased transfer payments as part of one of the greatest balloonings in budgetary expenditures in the history of this country.

Harper’s record of corruption:

Harper’s record of corruption is one of the main reasons that Harper is reneging on his fixed election date promise and is (incredulously) asking the Governor General to abort 4 late stage by-elections. The other reason is the nose diving economy. Harper wants to sweep all of this under the carpet, in the hopes that it will all go away. Harper’s leading examples of corruption in office are:

(a) Cadman bribery scandal
(b) Taxpayer rip off/ election tampering scandal known as the In and Out Scandal
(c) Cover up of his cutbacks in food inspections which led to the 13 confirmed cases of lysteria deaths, which he hopes to cover up by deferring the matter to a post election public inquiry
(d) Acting at the behest of narrow commercial interests to perpetrate his income trust tax leakage fraud, the consequences of which is costing Canadian taxpayers the loss of $2 billion in annual tax revenue and which incentivizes the foreign takeover of Canadian business like BCE by foreign private equity and Prime West Energy by Abu Dhabi Energy , to name two of thre45 trust tax related takeovers
(e) The curious alignment of Brian Mulroney’s close ties to Archer Daniels Midland and Harper’s fixation on eliminating the Wheat Board, which ADM would profit from immensely

Canadians can not afford Stephen Harper. He is a proven risk. A sub-prime Prime Minister, in every conceivable respect