To the Editor:
The cultural divide between the Canada we believe we want and the Canada we are being frog-marched into has, since NDP leader Jack Layton's death, become obvious.
The responsibility for that divide lies with the federal Conservative government and with the controlling prime minister, who could not have asked for a better post-election outcome than to have both Opposition parties, the Liberals and the New Democrats, in a quandary of leadership.
Stephen Harper's majority government can now do want it wants for the next five years, with little opposition. It's clear the prime minister doesn't listen much to people, unless they endorse his fixed views. He is determined, for example, to abandon the Wheat Board, over the objections of the very farmers affected. He wants more prisons, more minimum sentences, over objections from judges and lawyers.
Canadian majority governments have always been able to push their preferred legislation through, but rarely do they stray far from the centre. Not so now.
This past week, culminating in Layton's funeral Saturday, is a reminder to all Canadians we are losing a country that has a warm heart and forgiving nature, a country that welcomes immigrants, that believes in peace-keeping instead of peace-making and a country that listens and then does what it believes best for the most of its citizens.
In the public tributes to Layton whose commitment to his country was deep, obvious and compassionate, ordinary Canadians told all of us his was the kind of country they wanted.
What trace of liberal ideals are being erased. Things like the country being able to stand in its own two feet, without having to tug forelocks and bend knees to the monarchy. The return of "Royal" to the Canadian air force and navy serves no purpose but to remind us we are an arm of the British Crown.
I have nothing against the British royals, except they aren't Canadian. They serve a useful purpose, even if that purpose is to avoid the ennobling of our politicians. When former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said Members of Parliament were "nobodies" off Parliament Hill, there was general outrage. He was right, but not for the reason everybody got their knickers in a knot. They are "nobodies" because Canada is a democratic country and a classless country. Nobody cares if your voice carries the tinge of Newfoundland's coast or the market gardens of southern Ontario. We don't judge people by their accents, as the British do. We might judge people by their education, or their jobs, but this country pretty much lets you run your own show, be whomever you want, whatever you wish, and good luck to you. The notion that MPs are nothing special is great things about Canada.
What we're now getting is a return of the bully, just as we begin to understand the harm bullies do, whether in the classroom, boardroom or government.
Nothing like a good old-fashioned dose of manly muscle to set this wimpy country back on its feet.
In case you believed this country would still operate as a consultative democracy, welcome to the new Canada - where the words "in all thy sons command" are taken literally. Stand and accept your applause from the right-wing of Canada, all you men who believe feminists, equal rights advocates, activist judges and multicultural supporters turned Canada into the soft underbelly of North America. This is your time to shine: five years of a majority Conservative government whose prime purpose seems to be to turn this country back a few centuries, when men were men and women were in their place.
Remember there is no "Progressive" in this brand of Conservatism.
Years of Liberal governments which tried to strike a balance between rights and responsibilities, broken only occasionally by Progressive Conservatives who tried to strike a balance between responsibilities and rights, have fooled us into believing that Canada was a social democracy.
But don't say we weren't warned: Harper has never made any bones about his goal - to rid Canada of all traces of Liberals, which the last election nearly accomplished, and any trace of overt liberalism.
At some point, the prime minister must have encountered the most influential media thinker of the past century - Marshall McLuhan. How else to explain Harper's slavish adherence to one of McLuhan's notable sayings: "When faced with a totally new situation, we tend always to attach ourselves to objects, to the flavour of the most recent past. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future."
Catherine Ford, Troy Media Corporation.
