Dear Editor
For more than 30 years, an economic phenomenon throughout most of the world has been a slow, but nowadays more rapid, increase in disparity between the very rich, who are getting richer and the rest of us, who are not. For a while, Canada seemed to be avoiding this downward slide, but lately, thanks in some degree at least to our Harper government's fixation on corporate advancement and devotion to Big Oil, we are catching up. That's one reason I am hoping the Harper government won't get another mandate from voters to help continue the slide.
A more important reason, though, is the Harper government's many mean-spirited moves while in power to undermine our Canadian (and Christian) spirit of concern for our neighbours and each other. The examples are many, starting slowly, but continuing today with such measures as the withdrawal of funding from agencies devoted to helping the less fortunate among us, dropping the long-form census, denying government scientists the right to freely voice environmental concerns, putting the squeeze on refugees seeking asylum while favouring millionaire immigrants, and dropping generally helpful and ecologically sensible projects like the community pastures program. Most people could think of many others.
But the most important reason of all is the insidious undermining of our parliamentary democracy by this government, especially since gaining a majority in Parliament (with only 39 per cent of the votes) in the last election. The so-called Fair Elections Act comes immediately to mind. Because of examples of unfair practices by Conservatives in the last elections, resulting in at least two convictions, the act now strips Elections Canada of the kind of powers that led to those convictions, and gives oversight of elections to the government of the day, putting the fox in charge of the hen house, so to speak.
Under the Harper government, Question Period has become an exercise in obfuscation. Parliamentary committees have become far less functional as a democratic part of parliament, closer to an arm of the PMO. And if the present Bill C 51, which so broadly defines “terrorism” that almost any kind of questioning of the government or corporate prerogatives could be included, is rammed through parliament without considerable re-writing we would be well underway to perpetual one-man rule.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
