Canada Likes Dirty Oil

[JimD]

Or at least our government seems to. And dirty water, and fished out oceans... http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/10

... scientists say a rash of recent cuts exposes the government's hostility to evidence-based research and is putting the public at risk. Despite claims by government officials that the cuts are a necessary part of a cost-cutting and efficiency plan, the scientists claim they are directed at research programs critical of the government's energy development plans, specifically the tar sands mining taking place in Alberta.."The Harper government is the most environmentally hostile one we have ever had in Canada. Harper...gutted the Fisheries Act (our strongest freshwater protection law), and hollowed out our environmental assessment legislation, making it easier for extractive industries to get licences to exploit," said Maude Barlow, a former UN advisor on water and chair of the Council of Canadians. "It is heartlessly shutting down a program that costs very little to run given the incredible benefits it brings, in order to silence the voices who speak for water.".

[Paul Pless]

you get the government you deserve. . .

[Nanoose]

excuse me? What does that mean?

[wardd]

not me, i don't vote republican, i don't deserve this

[Captain Intrepid]

The folk that voted for him won't be alive long enough to see the results of the distruction he's causing. Selfish old bastards.

[tigerregis]

I'm an old bastard and I sure as hell didn't vote for the Cons. Actually I think more younger people voted for them. Only the people in Calgary South or whatever the Riding is called did. You are right about the destruction, though. The worst P(os)M we have ever had.

[Captain Intrepid]

Not blaming all the old bastards, just the ones who voted for the Cons. As for young people, unfortunately, we just don't vote that much, much to my chagrin.

[bob winter]

I voted conservative but I didn't vote for what our brilliant Mr Harper is presently up to. These various and sundry cuts are taking place at entirely the wrong time and they are cutting the wrong things. I can state with a certain comfort level that there is plenty of money to be saved without the present cuts. Straight out stupid.

Show me a reasonable alternative and I will consider changing my vote.

[gilberj]

We just need to help people remember what the cons have done next time we vote. Nearly everything they have done is deeply offensive to me. Unfortunately people forget. There is three years for them to "Buy" back the votes (trust).

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

you get the government you deserve. . .

You bet we do. Canadians are really going to regret the Harper government in a few years.

[B_B]

You bet we do. Canadians are really going to regret the Harper government in a few years.

Some of us already do.

Who in the world would think a trained economist would have so little knowledge about how the economy works...

[bob winter]

I think Harper may be in considerable trouble when the next election comes along, depending. I have no faith in his economic policies and they seem strange considering he is an economist. Clearly not a follower of Keynes. If the economic conditions when the next election comes around are as bad as I suspect they may well be, he will have issues.

A lot will depend on what the Liberals and NDP manage to accomplish. It will be interesting to see who ends up as the leader of the Liberal Party. I was kind of hoping Rae would take a run at it but it doesn't look like that will happen. I can't really see Trudeau pulling it off. The NDP are the ones to watch.

[Gib Etheridge]

The consensus among my friends is that Harper is a traitor. These are the same people who see the GOP as evil. I agree. I heard on CBC that the NDP is looking good for BC.

[TomF]

...Show me a reasonable alternative and I will consider changing my vote.

Aye, there's the rub. The very same dynamic which kept Chretien in power through the 1990s is working for the other team now; the only way to definitively turf Mr. Harper is to unite the Left/Centre, to counter the re-amalgamation of the Conservative party.

However irate with Harper some Conservative voters are, I do not think that it is likely they'd ever vote NDP. Much more likely that they'd either hold their noses and vote again for the Cons, or stay home and cast a protest vote with their feet.

Unless, that is, Canada flirts with the other Constitutional alternative, and if a minority Parliament is again elected, pursues the option of a coalition. For all that Harper sacked the Governor General who was more likely to go along with that option, our British friends are demonstrating that it is a legitimate option within our Constitutional tradition.

[gilberj]

I am not impressed with Thomas Mulcair yet. Can the Liberals find a credible candidate??, Can the Greens get a better footing???? Does spitting the vote of those opposed to the Con' agenda allow Harper to get back in???

[tigerregis]

Promise the world to your friends, divide and conquer the enemy; the age old method of a tyrant.

[TomF]

Does spitting the vote of those opposed to the Con' agenda allow Harper to get back in???

It absolutely does. Harper's Conservatives won a majority of seats, but only a plurality of votes cast. In many ridings, had the Libs and NDP run a shared candidate, the vote would have gone their way.

But it will likely take a resurgent Liberal party to woo uncomfortable Conservative voters ... or a formal amalgamation of the Libs and NDs (and perhaps Greens). Neither option seems on the horizon. I think we'll have to wait for a re-elected Conservative majority to prompt the other parties to wise up.

[gilberj]

The Con's mandate........~60% of the eligible voters actually voted. ~40% of those 60% voted conservative. That is 24% of the eligible voters elected the government. Not in my books a strong mandate... They did clearly get more votes than anyone else.
Democracy appears to be in terminal distress in Canada. The government is virtually run from the PMO, staffed by non-elected people. The back bench conservatives have no say at all outside caucus and probably little within caucus and are therefore a waste other than filling seats on that side of the house.
Truth is the Liberals were not really much better during their time.
The Conservative disinterest in the allegations of election fraud is astonishing and frightening.
The Government fiddling with dollar figures (F35) apparently to mislead Parliament and the Canadian People is discusting.
When the Government treats the opposition with amused distain, seldom if ever actually responding to any question with respect, the function and the integrity of Parliament is diminished.
The Government is downloading their budgetary deficit issues on to the Canadian People by cutting programs, and onto individual citizens in the way of ~20,000 civil servant layoffs, and unknown numbers of contract workers whose contracts are not renewed. They call this a jobs budget…..

[TomF]

I could not agree with you more. I find it utterly shameful.

[tigerregis]

Why,Tom? PP explained it in post #2. It is shameful, a far cry from yesteryear with Blue Helmets and Peace Keepers. Now a Highway of Heroes for the slain following orders. Absolutely obscene. Why not send the scientists to the front line and kill them off? They took over in the daylight, just like any other coup or putsch and we watched it happen.

[TomF]

Yeah, we get the government we deserve. Collectively, though perhaps not individually. A number of us didn't sit back and watch it happen, but as has been pointed out ... the disdain for Parliamentary accountability has been staggering. And the popular lack of understanding of what's been lost is equally staggering.

[gilberj]

lest we forget......

[Mad Scientist]

Something I've never understood about voter turnout...Nova Scotia is infested with smallish universities, and with every election, the media outlest ask young people whether they will vote. And for as long as I can remember, the reply is "I don't vote because none of the candidates speaks to my concerns."***

I don't have any idea how to change this.

***Could this be code for "I'll gladly vote for the candidate who will give me a free degree and a guaranteed cushy six-figure job when I graduate"?

Tom

[B_B]

***Could this be code for "I'll gladly vote for the candidate who will give me a free degree and a guaranteed cushy six-figure job when I graduate"?

Tom

Most certainly not. Youth (as a group) have never felt kinship with 'the man' - the Green Party, on the other hand, isn't 'the man' and draws a disproportionate support from the young. Different concerns, different values, different approach to life.

[SaltyD from BC]

I like it how this site isn't spammed and other wise its band width wasted on Canadian politics usually, as is not the case with other countries politics. Better places to complain about politics IMO and better yet to get involved and use your energy tangibly. There's my political comentary for the day.