Harper and the advent of Anti-Social Media

Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook led the advent of Social Media. Harper, being who he is, learned how to turn that technology into Anti-social Media and use it for his own nefarious purposes of screening out people who he considers ne'er-do-wells.

Warning to Tories -- you better not read this
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
By: Staff Writer

After Stephen Harper's henchmen kicked out a young woman attending a Tory rally because she had posted a photo of Michael Ignatieff on her Facebook page, our readers had an open political debate of the sort Harper apparently wants to avoid.

Readers' comments:

WE all know Harper thinks for everybody from his supporters to his MPs.

Well outside of Harper's controlled environment people actually have choices. Our lives aren't scripted and we can ask questions.

Once you can escape from the Harper cult you will see a wonderful world where people are encouraged to think.

-- hi there

STEPHEN Harper is the George Bush Jr. of Canada. It's getting more and more like the U.S.A. every day. A vote for Stephen Harper is a vote for America.

-- BlueBerry

THE Liberals... a rare and timid species normally found in Eastern Canada. This species likes to please those around them only to honour less than half of its promises. Common habits for this species is spending, giving money to their friends, raising taxes and destroying the military (its natural defence). Liberals, thumbs-down if you were fooled by your leader.

-- tobascocat

CONSERVATIVES... a rare and extremely aggressive species normally found in Western Canada. This species likes to destroy those around them only out of fear of those who think differently. Common habits for this species are spending like crazy, giving money to their friends, raising taxes, attacking people for being different and destroying democracy. To deal with a Conservative, one should wrap a towel around one's own head. This creature is so mind-bogglingly stupid that it assumes that if someone cannot see it, then it cannot see the person... No wait, that's the relatively timid Bugblatter Beast of Traal. It's OK Conservatives, I understand that the thumbs-down is your natural defence against people who think differently than you.

-- Mhirnatsu

HARPER is all about payback and he will lash out at anyone who opposed him as soon as he has all power concentrated in his hands. We won't recognize this country once he is through with it and no decent Canadian will want to show their face outside this nation and have to explain how we elected a guy in contempt of Parliament all over again.

-- engelbert

WOW, I just don't get this. Why the secrecy, why the unwillingness to talk with the Canadian public, to let the Canadian public hear you and your ideas!! Now I have tried to maintain an open mind, and willingness to hear the Conservatives' ideas for our country, but with each passing day this is getting harder and harder to stomach. If he is acting this way during an election, it scares me the way he may act if he gets a majority.

-- 5yearstime

VOTE strategically to prevent Conservative candidates from being elected. Check out the Catch22 Campaign. Message to students and young people: please vote!

http://catch22campaign.ca/

-- InsideTrack

SDLqSTAFF runs our campaigns and I can't comment on individual matters like that": Harper.

You can't comment???? Get a backbone!! You can comment and you should!! A political science student has a picture of the Liberal leader on her Facebook.... and that's cause for expulsion? Unbelievable!

O Canada, true, strong, free (but a tad fascist).

-- gmci

IF Harper were given a majority, there is nothing stopping his party from bringing in private member's bills on abortion and gay marriage. This cannot happen considering the current system and how Harper has stacked the Senate, which would rubber-stamp anything his party threw at them. These are issues dealing with our progressive society's core. We cannot let Harper get a majority and bring us back into the Stone Age, fighting for basic human rights for 10 per cent of the population while also forcing women to go to back alley abortionists to get abortions.

-- philE

I don't understand how you HarperCons can possibly think Ignatieff is less Canadian than Harper. Everything Harper believes in flies in the face of the last 50 years of Canadian politics. He is sending us spinning backward socially, politically and economically. I am proud of what Canada has built. Harper wants to destroy it. Piece by piece. He's using the same divisive rhetoric the Republicans use in the U.S. And some 30 per cent of Canadians are dumb enough to buy it.

-- Dan W

YOU know, I wanted to support the Conservatives. But Harper's blase attitude so far in this campaign is really making me think twice. If it doesn't improve, guess I won't be voting at all. As long as Ignatieff is running the Liberals, I'm not going anywhere near them; and the NDP, well..... I've lived in this NDP province long enough to know I don't want them leading my country, thanks.

-- Peekaboo

I'M struggling to understand how I should think about Mr. Ignatieff. Am I to distrust anyone who has lived and worked outside Canada? Should I be derisive toward any Canadian whose career path includes time in another country? Is there any room to be proud of a Canadian working in a prestigious position somewhere else? Or should all of those positions be available only to other nations? The Con attack ads' line of "logic" moves me farther away from a vote for Mr. Harper, and to consider casting a strategic vote to prevent the chance of a Con being elected in my riding.

-- Fred McTaggart

I'D like to know if Harper's henchmen have taken a liking to brown shirts.

-- logicdefied

SHAKING my head here. So, we're not free to attend any political events to become informed and decide how we want to vote? I'm tired of this third-world dictatorship that we have. I want my country back! Wake up people and vote Harper out! (And no, I'm not really excited about the choices for leadership, but it has got to be better than this!)

--Winnipeger2010

I love this. The anti-Harper vitriol and bias will make victory all the sweeter.

-- factchecker

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 10, 2011 A10