A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Last Chance .........

Tomorrow will be the last chance to have your say as to who you want to represent you in parliament and, although we currently vote for individuals, this election has been all about which party is best positioned to replace the Harper Regime, With a minority government very much a probability we can only hope that whichever party get the most seats will work with ALL MPs to undo some of the antidemocratic practices that the Conservative have made common practice, and that opposition MPs from other partys put aside partisan games to ensure that this happens. That the remaining conservatives in both the House and the Senate will mostly be obstructionists in this regard is a given so its even more important that the remaining MPs work together for the good of Canada.


Even this faint hope will disappear if Harper get back in, and if the Libs and the NDP are to be believed will result in a 'hung parliament' that does NOT have the confidence of the majority and given Harpers past performance would result in a 'constitutional crisis'!
So if you have not voted already, which almost 4 million citizens have done, then please ensure that you do get out and vote and please vote for change......
And do not forger that the millions being spend on those almost continuous adverts, telling us that if you vote for anyone but Harper yes men the world will end, will be reimbursed at around 60% from the taxpayers pocket, the upper limit of which has basically doubled due to the long election and Con legislation! So much for lower taxes eh.
If you are reading this you have no doubt already decided that Harper and his 'election team' are a bunch of lieing, scheming, anti democratic, would be dictators with no morals and who will do and say ANYTHING to retain power, so I am preaching to the converted but I will leave you with these thoughts from Kibycairo who sums up my thoughts with remarkable accuracy.....


“Some on the left might argue that the Liberal Party is just a 'kinder gentler' group that is going to screw the weak and the vulnerable. And there is a sense in which that is true. But here's the thing - when you eliminate the rule of law (as Harper is doing), when you eliminate the ability for people to protect themselves against the arbitrary power of government (as Harper is doing), when you make the House of Commons entirely unaccountable (as Harper has done), when you gut Elections Canada and make Election Fraud de facto legal (which Harper is doing), when you destroy the freedom of information system (as Harper has done), when muzzle scientists and eliminate fact-based policy efforts, when you do all these things then it really doesn't matter what you believe because you really can't change anything. And this is the trap that Harper represents..............


The Liberals may not become the progressive government many of us were hoping for, but HarperCons are a threat to the very system itself, to a system in which we can meaningfully fight for justice and equality. Harper represents a dark, American-like (Pottersville) sort of future where the justice system is a pawn of the government, where the police and the Army are an extension of a political party, where racism is institutionalized, where guns are everywhere, where the Charter of Rights is distant memory, and eduction and healthcare is reserved for the rich. Justin Trudeau may not be a progressive wonder-boy, but I will take a man and a party that represents the possibility of change than one who represents a dark, goose-stepping future any day of the week.
Amen to that!




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7 comments:

Unknown said...

October 20th, 2015:"And The Healing Has Begun" Van Morrison

Lorne said...

A nation is crossing its collective fingers, Rural. And thanks again for the Herculean task you undertook to chronicle the terrible abuses the country has suffered under the tyrant's rule.

Rural said...

I just hope that my 'Harpers History' helped make a few people realize the necessity of riding ourselves of said tyrant, Lorne.

Frank A. Pelaschuk said...

So what I read is not advocacy for change by the entrenching of the status quo, back to the revolving door of only two parties, people so afraid of real change (notwithstanding the Liberal party's motto) that even with the revelations of emails by Dan Gagnier, a Liberal insider still working for Trans Canada explaining to his corporate bosses how to lobby the new government (presumably Liberal)some are calling for the return of the old Liberal party and too many are willing to blindly follow. That this came out just days before the election, that Trudeau waved it off and then saw something wrong seems not to trouble those apparently willing to give the Liberal party another chance. What we have witnessed provides a foretaste of what we can expect from the Liberals. How many chances do we give the Liberals and Conservatives after over 140 years of trying to get it right. Does no one remember the sponsorship scandal? Does no one care? Evidently not. This is not real change. This is just a recycling of one corruption for another. Real change is more than a change in leader and offering the charisma of youth and good looks. People buying into the Trudeau bandwagon are not new and voting for Justin will give us nothing new. New? It's a bad joke and anyone buying it are as bad as those supporting Harper.

Rural said...

Unfortunately Frank we can only enable change within the system we have and thus we must vote for those that both have a reasonable chance of being in a position to bring that about who also are open to at least some positive change. It would be nice to vote for the best candidates irregardless of the party they are associated with but NOT at the cost of further degradation of our democratic systems under the Harper Regime. Pragmatism must take precedence over idealism and partisanship at this point in my view.

Frank A. Pelaschuk said...

I have nothing against pragmatism, but yours is really a call for voters to vote for what may possibly mean second best as far as they believe. That's surrender. To achieve a goal at any cost diminishes the process and, worse, diminishes the person. I want Harper gone, make no mistake (for those who may doubt this, look at my blog www.politicalknocks.com) but not by going for the lesser of two evils: that's no choice.

Rural said...

Whilst we may agree that the removal of the Harper Regime is the main goal, Frank, we will have to agree to disagree on the way to get there.