We have all by now seen the Harper
regimes modus-opandi whereby they attack the organizations that
disagree with their view of Canada not by presenting a reasoned and
documented argument against such opinions along with alternatives,
but by destroying or demeaning the organization itself. The examples
are many, some of them very scary, they are clearly ideological
choices but are the methods used in keeping with democratic
traditions or are they over the top? Most governments make similar
choices when in power their favorite causes may get additional
resources and other may get less but of late it seems that things are
getting totally out of hand, the default position seems to be if you
cannot summon a reasonable rebuttal....... shoot the messenger.
There is little doubt that government
spending must be held in check and that ways to reduce the deficit
must be found but are the choices being made based upon fiscal
realities or ideological wishes. Several others have listed some of
the cuts and and slights that have occurred since this regime took
power, I will jut touch on a few that seem to me to
be bordering upon an abuse of power.
From the firing of Linda Keen the
nuclear regulator to the shutting down of Rights and Democracy, from
cuts
to the CBC to budget cuts
to Elections Canada, from cut backs at the Food
Inspection agency to the demise of the Community
Access Program it seems that this government has a habit of
closing down or defunding those institutions that do not fit their
vision of Canada. This seems to include a Canada where
Youth and Women
receive little help from Government, even youth emplyment
programs have been cut. Canada's student
summer employment offices have been chopped by federal government
cost-cutting and also
by the Ontario Government where youth unemployment is as high as
25%. Their thoughts and actions regarding Environmental organizations
and regulations are well documented and need no further comment here.The reaction always seems to be attack the messenger not the message.
It would seem their vision of Canada is
much different from mine, I see a democratic society where we share
our resources, share our information, help those who are less
fortunate, encourage our youth, protect out parliamentary and
electoral systems whereas the Harper regime seems to be saying its
every man for themselves.
There is little doubt that we all
gravitate to things we like and steer away from that with which we
disagree but this shoot the messenger bit seems to be getting out of
hand, I see folks slamming newspapers because they don’t like the
view of one or more columnists, others slam TV stations for their
coverage which they claim as biased, some reports are indeed one
sided and within a 'news' organization that is troubling, but we now
see 'cliques' developing across the internet whereby any given site
is limited to one particular particular point of view. There is
nothing new about this, you don’t go to a Con site expecting to see
Lib views and we here hardly subscribe to the Harper regimes point of
view, but it seems to be getting worse, now there are divides
developing across those sites that have thus far provided a
relatively broad selection of progressive opinions.
At the top of our site we say
'Democracy Requires Dialog' and my guest last week made the call
for greater dialog between opposing ideological mind sets,
and I have repeatedly called
for cooperation rather than confrontation, you
don’t always have to agree with the other guy but you do have to
both listen to it and present your alternative. As another observer
said 'it
isn’t just or even politicians whose minds need to be changed -
that may never happen under the Harper Regime - but those of our
fellow citizens'. Shooting the messenger or
building silos of like minded rigid thinkers is not the answer, be it
in Parliament, on the internet, or in our lives, we must make an
effort to be open to other opinions not shut down or ignore those
with whom we disagree.
Democracy Requires Dialog!
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