Harper's Religious Agenda?

Does Stephen Harper's religion affect government policy? He is associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical group. We all know how these evangelical groups have managed to shape policy in the US, helping create policies that aren't based on reason and science. Stephen Harper seems to be doing the same thing in Canada, cutting funding for research and ignoring environmental investigations. If there is an organisation that controls some areas of government policy, then we should know about it.

Therefore, I agree with Lawrence Martin: Stephen Harper's religion is fair game when his policies emulate the goals of his religion. It could be guilt by association: just because he is a member of that religious group, doesn't necessarily mean his policies are controlled by it. But, more likely, it's a way for him to impose his beliefs on government policy or keep his grassroots happy. Whatever the case, because the line between policy and religion for Stephen Harper has become increasingly blurred, his religion is fair game.

Because Stephen Harper otherwise appears to be a clear-headed rationalist, there is some wonder about the motivation for these impulses, including the question of whether they are triggered by his evangelical beliefs. The Prime Minister is a member of the Alliance Church, more specifically the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Tories Lie Again

There have been leaked reports from Auditor-General Sheila Fraser. The contents do not surprise me. The draft shows that the Tories passed a bill in Parliament meant to relieve congestion at the border. All parties were in agreement with it and so it was approved. Then, Steamboat, um, Industry Minister Tony Clement chose which projects were to be funded.

Of course, the Conservatives went around spending money in Tory ridings for no good purpose. They spent on gazebos, washrooms and other stuff that had nothing to do with a border initiative. This is the kind of reckless spending that Canada must avoid to get rid of our deficit. The Tories have a platform where they are going to have to find $11 B in spending cuts. Maybe they can start with this while improving openness in government. Surely, that will never happen and that's why we must vote Liberal this election.

Two buildings that cost $27-million in the lead-up to last year’s G8 meeting in Muskoka are now largely deserted, symbols of a new political headache for the Conservatives as they fight an election campaign in which they are accused of failure to be accountable and transparent with Parliament.

 Read more at the Globe and Mail.

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Harper will Scrap the Gun Registry

That is what he promised. If Harper gets a majority, it will be impossible to stop him from killing the gun registry. But, it's more than just that. If you think that the Tories are really governing the way they want to, then think again. Just read the Blogging Tories any day. A Harper majority would mean less government transparency, more private health care, layoffs of many civil servants, higher tuitions, environmental destruction.

There is no way in the world the Conservatives governed as they wanted to in this minority government. The gun registry will be only one of the cornerstones of what we call Canada to go if Harper gets his majority.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is again promising to eliminate Canada's long-gun registry. 

"When it comes to the wasteful and inefficient long-gun registry, you know where the Conservative party stands. We stand with farmers and hunters and we will scrap the long-gun registry," Harper told a group in Welland, Ont., Monday.

Read more at CBC.

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Harper has made Commonwealth History!

Harper must feel so proud! People will talk about this for years to come. His government was just declared in contempt of Parliament, provoking an election. This is the first time in the history of the Commonwealth that a government has been censured like this. And they deserved it. The Conservatives' five years in power have been marked by secrecy, smear attacks and complete disrespect or contempt for the rights of Parliament. This government is, was not transparent nor did it try to be. 

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• Harper government falls (macleans.ca)
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5 Years of Conservative Control Over!

The motion of non confidence has passed and now the Government has fallen. Finally now we have an election. In this election the choice is clear a secret, tough on crime, mega prison, oil lobbyist controlled, wasteful spenders, environmental destroyers, corrupt, in contempt and deficit hungry Conservative party. Or the fiscally responsible, environmentally friendly, transparent, senior supporters, family supporters and democracy supporters Liberal party. The conservatives want this election to be about the economy. Yes the economy is issue #1 in this election, and who can handle the economy. Harper didn't see the last recession happen as thousands of jobs were being lost. As the economy was spinning in a downward spiral Harper said the economy was fine. If we have a PM that doesn't know the difference between recession and economic success i don't want him in charge of the government. Last election the Conservatives didn't have a platform wonder if they actually have a plan they would like to share with the country, or keep to there secret ways and only tell the country what they want to do after the election which is Prorogation, tax cuts to the biggest profitable companies, allowing the oil companies to do whatever they want and not including Ontario or Quebec in the economic progress. It's time to get ride of this kind of Government that only tells us what they want to do after they get elected. It's time to vote Liberal.

████'s Record

Enough Harper has come out with another ad on booting Harper out of office. This one attacks the secrecy of the Harper government, always censoring and hiding information from Canadians. I like these ads. I think that they should be run on television. These would be good at showing the Conservatives' secrecy. Also on this topic, the Afghan detainee files could be released mid-campaign. Finally, we will know what Harper did not want us to know.

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Harper deserved what was coming

The Harper government has been found in contempt of Parliament for failing to produce information about the cost of  being "tough on crime," the F-35 fighter jets and corporate tax cuts. Again and again, the Tories continue to hide documents from Canada and they get away with it. Not anymore. In theory, as this is the first time a government would be in contempt of Parliament in the history of the Commonwealth, the penalty could be imprisonment.

However, it seems that the Conservatives have stuffed the agenda with other motions and reports that the vote could be put off far into the future before a vote in the House of Commons is held. By then, there could be an election and then it would not matter if the government was in contempt of Parliament. Nevertheless, this seems to be the only way to hold the Tories accountable as they don't care for open government nor do they care for the rights of Parliament or Canadians.

OTTAWA—A Commons committee recommended the government be found in contempt of Parliament, but the Conservatives could still avoid the historic censure if a vote on the budget or other confidence motion launches an election first. 

The Commons procedure and house affairs committee tabled a majority report Monday concluding the government is in contempt for refusing to disclose enough information about the cost of several big-ticket items.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

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• MPs: Conservative government should be found in contempt of Parliament (macleans.ca)
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Harper vs Harper

Somebody decided to keep Harper accountable for his words back in 2004, when he spoke out against the sponsorship scandal. Back then, he would have been appalled at the "in and out" scheme to spend more in elections and other scandals that plague this Conservative government? Probably so. The Tories are not responsible or transparent. They do not disclose important information to Parliament and half of the documents they do hand over are lies. I have had enough of Harper. We need to kick him and his party out of office.

$28B for Jets

As normal, the Conservative government has something to hide. According to Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, the cost for the F-35 fighters will be about 28 billion dollars. That's just a lot higher than the Tories "estimate" of $9 billion. Here we find that the Tories are once again keeping secrets. Actually, that's a euphemism. Let me put it this way: they are lying. This is a lie that could affect Canadians for decades and we are talking about many billions of dollars. It's not fair to Canada for the Tories to keep lying like this.

OTTAWA — The federal government has grossly underestimated the cost of the F-35 fighter jet deal, according to a newly released report that suggests the controversial purchase will be nearly twice as much as initially thought. 

The report, by Canada's parliamentary budget officer, pegs the total cost of the stealth fighters over a period of 30 years, at more than $29 billion U.S. ($28.5 billion Cdn).

Read more at the Ottawa Citizen.

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Muzzle the Ignatieff

Maybe the Prime Minister's office has noticed that it cannot stop Ignatieff from speaking against the government. So now, they will stop the media from listening to Ignatieff and reporting on his remarks. On Friday, Harper's communications department made sure that journalists were out of the room right before Ignatieff was to speak, but after Harper spoke.

They are calling the fiasco a "misunderstanding." But, why would the media have to leave the room in the first place. This is just another example of the Conservatives' campaign to muzzle the media, keep secrets and brainwash Canadians. But, it won't work. When attempts to do this are made, we end up with a story like this.

OTTAWA — A “misunderstanding” led to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s media officials ushering reporters out of an announcement in Gatineau, Que. Friday night right before Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was about to speak, Harper’s spokesman said. 

The Liberals say Mr. Ignatieff was about to comment at a news conference at Quebec’s Museum of Civilization where Mr. Harper had just launched the Year of India in Canada 2011 with the High Commissioner of India to Canada.

Read more at the National Post.

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• PMO apologizes for dismissing media before Ignatieff's speech (thestar.com)
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Fire Stephen Harper

Gerald Caplan from the Globe has a good take on Harper's need to control everything. According to him, the decision to cut funding to KAIROS has nothing to do with Bev Oda. It has more to do with the Conservatives' need to control everything and make sure that there are always less criticisms of their party position. This is why the Harper government must defund organizations that disagree with them and control everything that goes out to the press. This contributes to Stephen Harper's War on the Non-Conservatives.

This is also done by the following: shutting down government transparency, proroguing Parliament, makes him and other ministers lie in order to avoid scandal, personal attacks on political opponents and other people that might get in his way and many other things. Even though Michael Ignatieff calls for Bev Oda to be fired, it is Stephen Harper that must go (along with Bev Oda and the rest of his MPs).

What happens when the smartest man in the room (by his own estimation) proves too clever by half? What happens when a one-man band puts on a third-rate show? What happens when a “brilliant strategist” is so full of uncontrollable resentment and meanness that he keeps getting himself in trouble by interfering where he has no business?

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

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Harper's Secret Government

Harper likes to keep things secret. Although campaigning on freedom of information was one of the things that brought him to power, he has not kept his promise. In fact, he has made it even worse than it was before. Now, information is not disclosed in a full state, some requests are denied outright and even if the request for information was accepted, the Tories do not report back on time as stated in Canadian law. Now, Canada ranks last in access to information when compared to Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

I would like to see something like the Liberal Party's "Open Government Initiative." It includes setting up websites to make it easier to submit and track requests for information. Another feature would include uploading government data. This would increase government transparency while making the system simpler.

The law that determines what secrets Canadians can pry out of their government hasn’t been substantially overhauled since Pierre Trudeau introduced it in 1983, an era when Ronald Reagan was U.S. president and the Internet connected fewer than 600 computers.

As it nears its 30th anniversary, the Access to Information regime that was designed to furnish Canadians with government records on everything from the military to health has grown sluggish, unresponsive and obstructionist.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Some Great Year

In Prime Minister Stephen Harper's New Year's message, he went through all that was accomplished in 2010. Indeed there have been accomplishments, but also many failures. The year began with the prorogation of Parliament for the second year in the row. This time, it was designed to get away from the Afghan detainee scandal while gaining more support while the Olympics were happening. The Olympics were a great event that brought Canadians together. Congratulations on that, Mr. Harper. Following this was the G20 G8 double summit, plagued by useless pork-barrel spending, protests, a fence and a fake lake. So much spending led the French president to publicly state that next year's convention in France will cost substantially less. Along with the Tories' war on freedom of information and reducing emissions, Canada's international reputation is suffering. Election, please.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper toasted Canada's solid successes in 2010 in an undramatic New Year's message that contrasted sharply to those of global leaders who face continuing economic or political crises.

Despite a massive federal deficit, Mr. Harper offered no call to Canadians for common sacrifice, as British Prime Minister David Cameron did. Despite a sluggish economy, he felt no need to reach back to the achievements of previous generations to urge Canadians to renew their country's greatness, as U.S. President Barack Obama did.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

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Tories Continue War Against Gun Control

The Tories have once again continued their war against gun control, secretly this time. They quietly delayed implementation of gun tracing legislation that police say is vital to trace guns used in crimes. The former Liberal government was going to implement this legislation in April 2006, but the Conservatives delayed the regulations not once or even twice, but three times! These regulations are now delayed until December. The law would require firearms to have a marking that indicates the origin of the gum and the year it was imported. It`s not even an inconvenient type of gun control. I don`t really see how engraving this information on a gun can actually hurt anyone. It helps police be more efficient and solve crimes.

The Harper government has once again delayed implementation of regulations that police say they need to quickly trace guns used in crimes.

The government quietly posted a notice last Tuesday — one day before the firearms marking regulations were to have come into force — disclosing that implementation has been postponed until Dec. 1, 2012.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

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