The Silence is Becoming Deafening.

A few weeks ago I reported that my local Conservative MP “will be declining to participate in any all-candidates meeting that follows the traditional format, one he says simply does not work. He says he would prefer a format where each candidate is given a few minutes for opening statements and then they go to a corner and take questions directly from voters.” This follows closely the mantra coming out of Con mouthpieces during the 2011 election where there was a very long list of Con candidates who refused to partake in all candidates meetings.
Here's what spokesman Ryan Sparrow wrote  in 2011 about the direction given to local candidates when it comes to all-candidates' forums:

We provide support for candidates to participate in candidates debates, but we don't instruct them not to attend debates. Most candidates would prefer to meet with voters one on one though instead of debating their opponents in crowds of committed supporters of the different parties. (I would have thought that the whole point of attending an all candidates meeting would be that you were NOT committed and wanted to hear alternative ideas and plans).

This time however it seems they are being instructed to avoid not only any public debate but also any interviews where their words may be quoted..............


Conservatives running in the federal election have been advised not to attend all-candidates’ meetings or speak to reporters during the campaign, a party source says.
A Conservative insider said Wednesday that most of Stephen Harper’s flag-bearers have “been told no debates and no media.”
The informal edict appears to affect Tory candidates across the country, which explains why so many press interviews are being rebuffed.
“They’re getting pulled out of everything,” the source said, noting even some experienced cabinet ministers are being instructed to avoid candidates’ forums before the Oct. 19 election.

Andrew MacDougall, Harper’s director of communications from 2012 to 2013, said “The number one job of a candidate is to meet voters and identify votes,” Apparently forums where the party line can be challenged by knowledgeable opponents and where opinions and platforms can be shared with a wider audience is verboten but meeting individuals at the door where it is much easier to bury them in party line bullshit is OK.
During the time I have lived in this rural riding (through two previous federal elections and several provincial elections) I have not once seen ANY candidate at my door, without public debates, the reporting thereof, and press interviews of the candidates, I may as well pull a name out of my hat. No candidate can personally visit every household in his riding and to suggest that this should be the ONLY way for a candidate to make his views known to the voters is patently ridiculous. There is only one reason for this edict and that is the Conservative record of destroying our democratic institutions, massive cutbacks to social programs, science, environmental protections etc etc simply cannot be defended and the pre-programmed lines dictated from above start to sound as meaningless as they actually are when repeated in the press time and time again.
The only real question is why these supposedly intelligent Con candidates obey the word of their master, have they all been lobotomized?



Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln

And if you want to see how vindictive and petty the HarperCons can be see this https://youtu.be/Ei50lM6ab1c then this Cons suspend writer of Harperman song







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Harpoon for Youth

We all know that getting our younger voters out is even more important this time than ever before and that it is hard to get many of them engaged in the cluster fk we laughingly call democracy. Who can blame them, even those of us who are 'engaged' are getting more and more disgusted with the shenanigans our 'government' thinks is acceptable, with more and more revelations coming daily. There is however a somewhat tongue in cheek site that provides information necessary to make an informed decision that may make it easier for 'the younger crowd' to absorb some of the necessary facts.


Harpoon2015 is “an eclectic bunch of comedy lovers, heartwarmingly united by disgust for our exceptionally bad overlord.” They say that “Our members include twentysomethings with hangovers, embittered cartoonists, nicely-dressed business people, Order of Canada recipients, one disgruntled ad exec, a lawyer, an environmentalist, a craft brewer, and a Good Wife addict — none of whom have anything in common, except wanting to get more people fired up about Canadian politics…and Harper pied in the face.
This part we’re serious about. Harpoon is a strictly non-partisan campaign. We are not, and will never be, affiliated with or financially supported by any political party. People from any political party or background are welcome to participate and share. While we don’t pretend to like Harper, we’re passionate advocates for civic engagement, and we encourage every Canadian — especially young ones — to hit the ballot box and vote for whoever they want. Even if he does have the most terrifying hairpiece* of all time.
*We are internally divided on whether his hair is, in fact, a hairpiece.”

Their site divides the information into a number of topics such as Democracy, Secrecy, Science etc etc, with short and to the point facts about the Harper Regimes actions within those topics. I highly recommend it and encourage readers to share the links, particularly with their sons, daughters and younger friends. Lets have everybody not only vote, but vote knowledgeably.






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Harper History, Part 8 – Senate reform / suspensions, Election Act

2013 – 2014
Even with the ongoing Senate expense scandal, the Robocall investigation crawling along (much delayed by the presence of the Conservative lawyer at E.C. Interviews) another suspension of parliament for no apparent reason followed up by another massive austerity budget it was the (un)Fair Elections Act that got all the attention during this period. The closing or cuts to any number of federal programs and departments continued, many aimed at scientific, public safety and oversight areas, in an apparent effort to be able to 'balance' the budget just before the 2015 election. It becomes increasingly difficult to see the attacks upon our democratic systems through the BS being spread by the PMO and their ever increasing advertising budget, that difficulty is reflected in many such instances not being listed in this post.

July 2013
Harper’s approach to risk management is illustrated by a deliberate process of offloading costs on the provinces and cuts to essential services. As shown by a reduction in support for heavy urban search and rescue teams (HUSAR) in Vancouver, Calgary, St. Boniface, Toronto and Halifax. Meanwhile, a training center for first responders that was run by Public Safety Canada has been shut down and the Canadian Center for Emergency Preparedness has ceased operations.
August
The Minister of State for (un)Democratic Reform, Pierre Poilievre, held a press conferance to reiterate the Harper regimes position is that it can proceed unilaterally on Senate reform and to outline what they have presented to the Supreme Court of Canada in this regard. As expected by most constitutional scholars this idea was rejected by the court.

Forest Ethics Advocacy, launched a constitutional challenge to new requirements in the National Energy Board Act that place severe restrictions placed upon public comment by Bill C-38 whereby any citizen wishing to comment upon projects, even those directly affected, are effectively prevented from doing so have the effect of silencing citizens concerned about tar sands pipelines.
Sep. 13, 2013
For the third time Haper Prorouges parliment in a move that ensures he won’t face opposition questions on the Senate expenses scandal for an extra month, saying that most of the promises the Conservatives made in the last election have been fulfilled. Upon returning in October however he promptly reintroduced nearly all the government bills that were killed by the suspension of parliament.
November
The Senate flexed its muscle Tuesday and in an unprecedented move the Senate suspended three of its members —Conservative Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau — out of the chamber, cutting their salaries and use of office resources. Some senators said that the suspensions largely supported by the Conservatives was as much about politics as expense claims and the process was flawed.

In a more directed to sideline independent MPs and more particularly the Green Party the right of independent and small party MP's right to intervene at the report stage of proposed legislation was removed.

At the Conservative convention the ruling regime came out AGAINST proportional representation and for 'riding equality' whatever that means! It must be noted that in 1997 when in a minority position an essay penned by Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan extolled the virtues of both proportional voting systems and coalition governments however once brought to power by the FPTP that idea quickly disappeared.Program budgets show cuts to programs focused on aviation, marine and rail safety and security at Transport Canada as well as reduced spending on food safety at Agriculture Canada. At the same time other less essential departments such as the PMO and their advertising budget are increasing substantialy.
In a closed-door session with dozens of bureaucrats (information commissioner) Suzanne Legault cited a series of novel measures she says are damaging an already tottering system. "I am seeing signs of a system in crisis, where departments are unable to fulfil even their most basic obligations under the act," Legault told the group.

As an example, she cited a directive in April this year from the Treasury Board warning bureaucrats to steer clear of ministers' offices when looking for documents to respond to an access-to-information request.

In other words the bureaucrats have been told to not even look in certain places so that they can say that they found nothing!!

"When the access system falters," she said, "not only is Canadians' participation in government thwarted, but ultimately the health of Canadian democracy is at stake."

A group of Conservative MPs has been meeting secretly for well over a year, discussing ways to inject more democracy into the Commons. One of the solutions they have embraced is the removal of the leader’s power to veto individual candidates.
Michael Chong is expected to table a private members’ bill that would change the leader power over candidate nominations.This he did and the bill eventually passed but in such a watered down form as to all but meaningless.

Finally in November having said two years ago that the data collection for the Artic claim was complete, and having reduced our government scientific community to a shadow of its former strength, just a few days before the submission was due to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf Harper suddenly said the submission was incomplete because it 'did not include the north pole'.
December

Quantity not Quality is apparently the Harper regimes measure of 'success'

Mr. Van Loan extolled the virtues of the 34-day fall session, which started late because of prorogation and was adjourned early. He said 2013 was the most productive year on record, with 40 bills receiving Royal Assent. “ “That’s something we can all be proud of. It shows how Parliament is working better than ever right now,” he said. With many bills rammed through the House by government limiting debate and using their majority to pass flawed and controversial legislation most Canadians would beg to differ!
January 2014
It was revealed that in addition to the 'consolidation' of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries, where reports say that despite assurances that much of the material would be digitized a large number of books and papers have been destroyed without such backup, the Libraries of Heath Canada are now under attack. Many scientists were so concerned about losing access to their research library that some are hording journals and books in their garages for colleagues to consult. This after a report calling for the libraries to NOT be closed was rejected as 'flawed' (i.e. Not the answer that was required) and the library's collection was moved to the National Science Library and the inter-library loan functions were outsourced to a private company.'If you want to justify closing a library, you make access difficult and then you say it is hardly used.'— Dr. Rudi Mueller, retired Health Canada pathologist
February
Just a day after the 242-page (un)Fair Elections Act was tabled House Leader Peter Van Loan gave notice that the government will vote to send the bill to committee the following day, a move that seemed to signal the government plans to push the bill through the legislative process without changes.
What follows is just a very small selection of the opposition expressed about this bill.In an interview on CBC Radio Canada's Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand said "my reading of the act is that I can no longer speak about democracy in this country." it "limits the chief electoral officer's power to provide information to the public."
Under the proposed bill, the only role of the chief electoral officer would be to inform the public of when, where, and how to vote. Elections Canada would be forbidden from launching ad campaigns encouraging Canadians to vote. Surveys and research would be forbidden under the new bill, Mayrand said.
Ed Broadbent
Past governments have avoided turning democratic process into a tool for one party’s advantage. Changes in electoral processes were always based on all-party consensus.
That Harper derides such all-party consensus is, sadly, no surprise. That his robotic backbench will unquestioningly obey is not news either. Except now, the victims of his disregard for debate aren’t only the people we elect. It’s those doing the electing as well.
A letter signed by over 150 professors at Canadian universities who teach and conduct research on the principles and practices of constitutional democracies, including 15 past presidents of the Canadian Political Science Association.
We, the undersigned — professors at Canadian universities who study the principles and institutions of constitutional democracy — believe that the Fair Elections Act (Bill C-23), if passed, would damage the institution at the heart of our country’s democracy: voting in federal elections.
More at undemocratic-democratic-reform
19 international Scholars from six democracy’s across the world add their voice to the over 150 Canadian scholars and almost universal condemnation of the Harper Regime's attempt to introduce partisan bias into our election rules and to reduce the powers of the world respected Elections Canada We, the undersigned, international scholars and political scientists, are concerned that Canada’s international reputation as one of the world’s guardians of democracy and human rights is threatened by passage of the proposed Fair Elections Act.
More at electoral-integrity-of-act-questioned
With the Elections act dominating the news and the legislature agenda the House Affairs Committee studying the bill conducted one day of hearings after MPs returned from the spring break before going into a rushed clause-by-clause review ending May 1. “Clause-by-clause review will begin Tuesday, April 29 with morning and evening meetings for three days until it wraps up May 1.” On May 14^th 2014 the deeply flawed “fair” Elections Act passed final reading with a few amendments that public pressure made the Cons include but without the dozens of amendments proposed by the opposition and without even considering the 75 amendments that the Greens were not even permitted to table.
Returning to other issues in the spring of 2014
Tabled around the same time as the (un)Fair Elections Act the 2014 - 359 page budget received little attention but the budget projections, including a cushion of reserve cash, show a deficit of $2.9-billion for the 2014-2015 year. To get there Harper “delayed” $3-billion in defence spending and saved more than $1-billion annually by clawing back health benefits for public-sector retirees.

According to the 2013 annual Public Works ad report, (released in 2014), Canada spent more than $14 million on advertising Canada’s Economic Action Plan (which was called “propaganda” by survey respondents) and an additional $8.2 million on its Responsible Resource Development campaign (which was, in part, responsible for Canada's severely weakened environmental legislation). Both advertising campaigns placed heavy emphasis on the Alberta oilsands as central to Canada’s economic future.
These two campaigns were Canada’s most expensive advertising projects for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, dwarfing the amount of money spent on any other advertising effort.
The $1.25 million supplied to News Canada for publicity work falls outside the disclosed advertising funds mentioned in Public Works annual report, meaning this is additional money devoted to government communications above and beyond its advertising efforts.
March 28, 2014 The ongoing Elections act cluster fk successfully distracted from the latest omnibus budget from the Harper Regime, hardy a word has been seen about the 350 page “Harper Government Creating Jobs & Growth While Returning to Balanced Budgets With Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1.”. Yep, we are back to that H*&^%$# Government thing again........ Also in March The Harper Regime having eliminated the long form Census thus also eliminating reliable information on the economic and social status of various areas and communities across the country then cut Statscan's budget.

Like many other departments (with the notable exception of the PMO) their budget has been cut. Statscan’s budget has fallen by $29.3-million in the past two years, and its staffing has fallen by 767 people and do not have the staff to analyze what little data that the elimination of the long form census has left available. Experts, including the C.D. Howe Institute and numerous economists, have said the quality of Canada’s labour market data is so poor that it is impossible to know for sure whether there is a serious labour shortage. Statistics Canada eventually withheld the release of survey data for one of every four municipalities and other census sub-divisions because of the poor quality of the numbers.
"As a result of data not being released due to quality concerns, potential users of this data for approximately 25 per cent of geographic areas do not have reliable National Household Survey data available for their use,"
AprilAfter commissioning a survey of 25,000 employers that cost $4.6-million to shed light on the extent of the country’s skills gap it was not published due to “ we have no funding for it, we’re reviewing the data so that we can document how well the survey worked”.
In a similar mindset it seems that a survey of the effectiveness the $15 million (2013) Economic (In)action Plan advertising that was taken at a cost of $31,000 now omits to ask whether those that saw them actually took any notice or went to the web site.

Over several moths in the spring of 2014 the Harper regime lost a series of Supreme Court rulings including the government's attempt to gain some clarity about its powers to change — or failing that, abolish — the Senate ran into a constitutional brick wall. The court ruled that reforms, including term limits or Senate elections, or abolishing the Senate altogether, could only be done with the consent of at least seven provinces representing at least half of the population. Also an attempt to prevent medical marijuana users from growing pot at home was defeated, the Court also ruled that cuts to health care for refugee claimants were "cruel and unusual" and that internet service providers must not disclose names, addresses and phone numbers of their customers to law enforcement officials without a warrant.

In the final article in this series we will attempt to make sense of the pre-election promises, misinformation and ongoing personal attacks issuing from the Harper spin machine, all of which were already in full swing more than a year ahead of the election.Please Note
Parts 1 to 5 are now available as one long document (19 pages - 7900 words) in chronological order and may be viewed, shared and downloaded on Google Docs. Due to the large number of embedded links I recommend you import it as a Docx, ODF Doc or HTML so that you may follow the references if you wish for more information on a particular issue.

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Gob-smacking!

“It was possibly the most gob-smacking election launch in modern Canadian history.”
So says much respected parliamentary reporter Susanna Kelley 

“The shockers began almost immediately after Stephen Harper announced he'd asked the Governor General to dissolve parliament and call an election for October 19 — at 78 days, it will be among the longest in Canadian history.
"I feel very strongly ... that ... campaigns need to be conducted under the rules of the law. That the money come from the parties themselves, not from government resources, parliamentary resources or taxpayer resources," he said. That statement came to the slack-jawed shock of every Canadian who is aware of two simple facts: the machinery of elections are paid for the most part with taxpayers' money, so the longer they are the more they cost; and that donations to political parties and their candidates are heavily subsidized by taxpayers as well.”

IMPORTANT NOTE – Apparently if you write critical stuff like the above you will not be let anywhere near King Harper even if you are a well know, recognizable, accredited reporter......
“In a departure from how campaign events involving Prime Ministers before Stephen Harper have been conducted, Conservative Party handlers refused a journalist admission to one of his campaign events this week because the RCMP and its search dogs weren't available to search her. Full disclosure: that journalist was me. (Susanna Kelly)
The Conservative Party apparently think the fourth estate are so dangerous that the protocol at the Prime Minister's election campaign events is to have them searched by the RCMP dogs if they are anywhere near Stephen Harper physically.”
Dont think I will be attending any of his events anytime soon.... but back to the main point.......

I will admit that when I downloaded and read a transcript of his statement upon emerging from the Governor Generals residence after dissolving parliament and launching us into an extend taxpayer subsidized 11 week campaign I was totally speechless. Then Angry, Frustrated, Disgusted, and yes like Susanna totally Gob-smacked!
One must give Mr Harper credit he can lie with a perfectly straight face, or should I say a perfectly smirking face. Below please find some extracts from his remarks and the things that he omitted to tell us:-


As it is my intention to begin campaign-related activities, as is also the case for the other party leaders, it is important that these campaigns be funded by the parties themselves rather than taxpayers..........
.....and my use of taxpayers dollars to inundate them with advertisements promoting our “Economic Action Plan” and our “Bribe Families with Kids Plan” was not partisan at all. It is just coincidence that our MPs have been out handing out more funding cheques in the last few days than in many years. Also I will not be accepting the 50% taxpayer funded reimbursement of our expenses.


It is an election about who will protect our economy......A national election is not a popularity contest.......

.....which is why we have spent millions trying to reduce the popularity of Justin and ignored the fact that the Economy still has not recovered from the recession.

Our choices have been prudent and our actions have been disciplined........
........the closure of scientific library’s, coast guard stations etc and the defunding of organizations supporting democracy and womens rights etc were not ideologically driven at all.


As a result, our economy and our employment have grown steadily over six years......
.........and those studies and charts that say that the economy is tanking and 1000s of Canadians have given up even trying to find a full time job and similar reports were not dreamed up by us and therefore must be wrong.


Our budget is balanced........
........ and we have a pristine island for sale in an Albertan tar sands effluent pond.


Our social programs have been preserved.,,,,,,,
.......the veterans, womens groups and others that say they are not getting federal support are just a bunch of whining sissy’s.


Jihadi terrorists have declared war on Canada and Canadians by name, and last October violent attacks were carried out on our soil.......
...........I know because I heard the shooting from the single disturbed gunman from inside the closet I was hiding in.


Now is not the time for political correctness, inexperienced governance or an ideological unwillingness to act...........Now is the time to face those who threaten us with moral clarity, strength, and resolve.........
.........those threats include opposition politicians, environmentalists, scientists, charitable organizations and anyone who does not agree with me. My dismantling of our parliamentary democracy and refusal to debate these issues is a measure of my resolve to finish totally destroying Canada as you once knew it.


I will be asking Canadians for their support to continue to deliver sound economic management, and to take the difficult decisions necessary to protect our country’s security...........
...........and if that fails we will lie, cheat, ignore the rules and try and buy you votes in any way possible because we are the only ones who know anything and all others are terrorists trying to kill you.


Update:- Please also see Politics and Discontents and Northern Reflections for more upon restricting details of Harpers Campaign events.

Next week I will post part 8 of my Harper History Series featuring more lies and anti-democratic actions by the Harper regime in the past decade.




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A Study in Tyranny (Part 2 )

"We Hear you Knocking but You can't come in"

A guest post by Pamela Mac Neil

We have a government, who, for the most part operates in secrecy along with a Prime Minister who rules from the sidelines. It is also obvious that his refusal to debate the other leaders on TV networks is because of their 10 million plus viewers. In short the Canadian majority. He and his regime operate more like a cult. Cult leaders and cult members also don't deal with the rest of society. Harpers hiding and secrecy is intentional, a strategy, used to get reelected no matter how removed he is from the electorate. The offensivness of this exclusion is that more then any other way in which he shows contempt for Canadians, this exclusion reflects not just his disdain, but the sheer arrogance of trying to hold on to power without the consent of the the Canadian majority. Everything that Harper and his CONs do in secrecy is about solidifying and expanding their power. Operating in secrecy is the result of a sustained, strategic, organized policy with the goal being to take control of the country, but Harper in his campaigning has taken his secrecy and information control to new, extreme levels and this is being done for all Canadians to see, only because it can't be hidden. Anyone attending Harpers campaign stops in 2015 will be vetted before hand and can only come to hear Harper speak by having an invitation.

We all know he is an unmitigated failure in all of his domestic and foreign policies. This is no secret, regardless of the fact that he created most of these policies in secrecy, he now wants to eliminate any discussion of them altogether as if they never existed. Secrecy is the magic wand that he waves to make all of his failed policies disappear. If at a campaign stop his policy track record is not discussed and no one is asking any questions then maybe his policy failures didn't exist, besides now he can bold face lie about them, turning his failures into successes with no one calling him on it. The icing on his flat, unrising cake is that he can now CAMPAIGN in secrecy. No worries about Canadians listening carefully to what he is saying and asking uncomfortable questions. It's full speed ahead in running a country wide campaign that is pure fantasy.What kind of a man, who as the PM of Canada, excludes the majority of Canadians, from his campaigning in a supposedly open election by preventing them from attending his campaign events and only those Canadians with an invitation, given to them by some conservative minion are allowed to hear him speak. The kind of man who is either very desperate and afraid or the kind of man who is so sure that his campaigning by invitation only will get him re-elected, that he is prepared to risk the rath of the Canadian majority, but it never did matter to Harper that most Canadians despise him. This is pure hatred that he is showing to the Canadian public and implicit in this hatred is the presumption that Canadians are stupid , obedient serfs who could care less who forms the government in October. Inherent in almost every action Harper has taken since becoming PM in 2006 is his step by step crawl toward full rule. Achieving ultimate power is so close, he is prepared to risk openly excluding most Canadians from the electoral process, which campaigning and engaging with ALL Canadians is part of. This campaign by invitation only is indicative of how deep his lust for power runs. It's not just his Neoliberal policies that he has forced on Canadians, mainly done behind closed doors particularly in the last 4 year, but rather it is that Neoliberalism itself is Harpers blue print to power. Neoliberalism, the economic system whose success has never been validated by evidence. Government involvement is needed to create Neoliberal policies. Because Neoliberalism lacks any real political or philosophical ideas or context of which can be studied to understand its nature and because it operates only as an economic theory although masked also as political theory it is empty of any substantial ideas and is actually based on dogma. Dogma of course can only be accepted by faith, because nothing in dogma can be proven , it is not open to reason's analysis, it is a blank intellectual wall waiting to be climbed by the faithful, the true believers, the corporate elite and those like Harper seeking power.

It is not a big leap to believe in evangelical fundamentalist christian dogma to a belief in Neoliberal dogma. Both are used by Harper to gain power. Government by stealth, now campaigning by stealth. Doing invitation only campaigning and allowing only the chosen ito attend, Harper is pulling out all the stops, even ripping off his own mask of civility, because the prize is so close. He is even prepared to reveal who he really is, a fascist tyrant and what he is really after, power. A profoundly insecure, malevolent little man who is in awe of being Prime Minister and who mistakes all the elaborate perks of that office, many that he has created himself, as symbols of power. It is always the most insecure and those who feel the most inferior who seek power to rule over others. Many Canadians I think confuse Harpers arrogance for self-confidence. His inability to communicate directly with Canadians is based on both fear and contempt. His arrogance is based on getting away with it. Power is not sought by self-confident men/women, nor by men/women of self-esteem. Harpers seething Hatred of Pierre trudeau is because Trudeaus self confidence was grounded in genuine self-esteem. Trudeau could talk to any crowd, entertain any group of dignataries, travel the world and assimilate himself into any countries culture. Trudeau felt at home in the world. Harpers world has to be choreographed before he enters it. Nothing spontaneous. A tightly controlled room where Harper can speak, do a photo-op then leave. I don't think Harper ever thought he could be PM, but through lying , cheating and deception he was elected PM with minority governments twice. So he discovered that cheating and lying does work. The dye was cast. Bad guys can finish first, so in the 2011 election with the liberals tanking and the Cons ramping up, no matter at what cost, their deceptive and corrupt practice of this is how we get elected, then voila, winning the election with a majority government. Harper has gone from not thinking he could be , but wishing he was PM, to a 2015 election that if he wins and wins a majority he will seize full control over the country, his dream of ruling Canada openly realized. He will feel very comfortable speaking at all of his invitation only campaign stops, his audience feeling priviledged for having been invited. He may even play the piano and sing for the the chosen ones, while those holding tightly to their invitations beam.

Pamela Mac Neil's main interest is studying how  ideas from philosophy and history shape politics.

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Too Much Money?

With much speculation (Harper, will meet with Governor General David Johnston, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in Canada, Sunday at 9:55 a.m., according to a statement released late Saturday by the prime minister’s office.) that today is the day that Harper will go to the GG and dissolve parliament thus resulting in a record 11 week election period (or not) here is a quick review of the inordinate amount of money that will be spent during that time. No attempt has been made to estimate the millions spent by the Harper regime in recent months assassinating one particular opposition leader or how much of our money was spent promoting their various taxable bribes for families with children and other self promotion on our dime.

With longer campaign possible taxpayers could be on the hook for more than ususal since they subsidize the donations that fuel campaigns and then subsidize parties and their candidates again for spending that money during a campaign.

“Most of the money parties and candidates will be throwing around during the campaign comes from donations, which are worth a generous tax credit of 75 per cent on the first $400, 50 per cent on the next $350 and 33.3 per cent on the next $500.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation estimates those tax credits are worth somewhere between $16 million and $36 million per year in foregone revenue.
Each party running a full slate of candidates is entitled to spend a maximum of about $25 million for a five-week campaign; each candidate an average of about $100,000.
But, under the recently passed Fair Elections Act, those spending limits will increase by 1/37 for each day a campaign exceeds 37 days. That’s an extra $675,000 per day for each party’s national campaign, an additional $2,700 per day for their candidates.
A campaign that is double the minimum length would effectively double the spending limits and, theoretically, double the amount of money parties and candidates stand to be reimbursed, at up to 50 per cent for parties and up to 60 per cent for candidates, — by taxpayers — when it’s all over.
The rebates handed out to parties and candidates after the five-week election campaign in 2011 were estimated by Elections Canada to be over $60 million, presuming most of their funding came from individual donations a further $60 million or so in tax deductions would also be available to those individuals. With an extended election period the various rebates, tax deductions and extra administrative costs of longer office leases for returning offices, staff and equipment, estimated at $375 million for a 37day campaign, could easily approach $100 million.
A third party can spend a total of $205,800 across Canada during a 37-day campaign, and no more than $4,116 in any riding, this total however would increase by a little over $5500 per day for a longer election period. A number of rules as to what and who falls into this category exist.


Then there is this courtesy of Montreal Simon

Many, if not most, of these cheques will go towards community projects that desperately need some federal funding, some of which have been waiting for years for funding, its not the expenditure thats the problem its the timing! This ploy to buy votes is so obvious and blatant that no one should fall for it, but many will actually believe that line “well now we have balanced the budget we can afford it” line, this despite the PBO assertion that that we are in fact in the hole still and that the economy is tanking!

As I have said here before I am coming to the conclusion that the limits on party and candidate spending, contributors tax deductions, and party and candidate reimbursement, should all be further restricted not increased as was brought in by that “Fair” Elections Act. If we are to have “Fair” elections the impact that “big money” has upon what the electorate hears about a particular party or candidate must be restricted and the ability of parties or candidates with less access to large war chests, such as those with support in less affluent riding’s, to put their platform before the public must be enhanced.

There are ways that they can put their ideas and platforms before the general public across the country without any cost to the public purse or their own coffers – one such is called 'debates' and although many will have limited circulation there WAS one that was available across the country. Now it seems that Mulclair has joined Harper in laying down 'conditions' tor any debates that he participates in that will kill the TV Consortium’s proposed October debate and further sideline the only Leader whom they all seem scared to debate. How can any leader who supports democracy (we know Harper does not, but Mulclair purports to) agree to debates that do not include ALL party leaders who have a seat in The House and support in every province.

Unfortunately little can be done to restrict advertising by individuals, groups or parties outside the election period, in a democracy folks are free to express their opinion and spend their money how they wish, but I sure want MUCH stronger, enforceable, rules upon government self promotion advertising and an independent body to vet such advertising BEFORE it hits the airwaves. Well I guy can dream cant he?

Sadly there is a real danger that the guys who spend the most money on attack Ads, self promotion and spreading lies and innuendo will be the ones to buy the most votes, would but that were not true but far too many folks are easily fooled.


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