“You’ve got to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettoes and who are not integrated into western Canadian society. ” Quoth the Harper (Report Newsmagazine, January 22, 2001)
Western alienation is something only felt by people who have lived for generations in western Canada and are white, so it would appear. It also seems that if you are white then Harper wants your vote. If you are Asian, from eastern Canada or are poor then you are too stupid for the Conservative party. But, stupid or not, Harper probably wants your vote. Or so it seems that this is how Stephen Harper feels. If this is not what Harper believes then the question is: What does Stephen Harper believe?
Harping on Values
“But I’m very libertarian in the sense that I believe in small government and, as a general rule, I don’t believe in imposing values upon people.â€? (National Post, March 6, 2004)
Abortion and Same-Sex Marriage are both questions about values. When life begins is a question of faith and belief. There is no way to definitively define nor to definitively determine when life beings. This means that a woman must decide for herself when life begins and must act accordingly. If a woman all her life believed that life began at conception then I would hold her in very low regard if she had an abortion and reversed her opinion on the matter. But she would not be wrong. If there is no absolute right then there can be no absolute wrong. It is a matter of personal morality and a value that Harper has an opinion on and wishes to impose on people. However he would not impose this directly as a government bill but, rather, have one of his men (maybe a woman for the appeal to that demographic for some reason) present a private member’s bill.
Same-sex marriage is also a question of values. I, personally, do not understand gay sex, the gay lifestyle, the gay scene or dancing. That is, unless, it is two women. But that is where preference comes into play. It is not sexist for me to say so, but it is hot. Furthermore, I believe that if a man loves a man, a woman loves a woman, or a woman and a man love each other then get married already. Fine and dandy. As far as religion is concerned in there, if your religion forbids it then you best be changing religion or conforming to the ideals. If you want to get married then realize that a government bill supporting or denying rights will not change what your god, goddess or phallic symbol will feel about your relationship. The government bill about marriage is purely financial and has no consequences on the price of your eternal real-estate. It is about values. Respect your own and everyone else’s. And shut-up already.
Harping On Welfare
“Our position generally has been to recognize the need for reduction in the areas of federal transfers and specifically in the area of welfare.â€? (Hansard, March 25, 1994 – in the HoC)
“I think in Atlantic Canada, because of what happened in the decades following Confederation, there is a culture of defeat that we have to overcome. …Atlantic Canada’s culture of defeat will be hard to overcome as long as Atlantic Canada is actually physically trailing the rest of the country.” (New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, May 29, 2002)
In Harper’s eyes it is OK to kick a man with one testicle in the ball. The Atlantic provinces are not faring as well as anyone would like and it seems that Albertans have forgotten what it was like before 1946. Before LeDuc struck oil. As nice as it sounds, it seems that all Harper wants to do for the poor is provide golden showers. And everyone knows that such a shower is not as luxurious as it may sound.
But Harper has announced a promise to provide money to parents so the children can be sent off to day-care. Rather than simply providing a national day-care system Harper wishes to give money to parents. Harper does not believe in a universal system for helping Canadians. In fact he brags about being against such things.
“Universality has been severely reduced: it is virtually dead as a concept in most areas of public policy…These achievements are due in part to the Reform Party…â€? (Speech to the Colin Brown Memorial Dinner, National Citizens Coalition, 1994)
“These proposals included cries for billions of new money for social assistance in the name of “child poverty� and for more business subsidies in the name of “cultural identity�. In both cases I was sought out as a rare public figure to oppose such projects.� (The Bulldog, National Citizens Coalition, February 1997)
“Recently, the Ministry of Finance released a document that showed our unemployment insurance program to be one of the most generous in the world. This can create serious disincentives to upgrade skills, to work and to move to find work.â€?(Hansard, January 20, 1994 – In the HoC)
Money for social assistance is a bad thing, for Harper that is. But he pledges to give money. Has he diverted from his values? Will he hold true to his promises? Harper does not like the government taking money from one person and giving it to another. This is like stealing. The government should not be Robin Hood. The government should not even be Rocket Robin Hood or Friar Tuck. Rather the government should be the audience and should watch as Dr Manta destroys RRH and FT. If Harper actually means to help people, and money is the only way a government could do that, then he must believe in taxes of some sort.
Harping On Taxes
“We must aim to make [Canada] a lower tax jurisdiction than the United States.� (Vancouver Province, April 6, 2004)
[Rintrah Shrugs] The only way that is possible is to reduce spending. The only way to reduce spending is to stop spending and that means that something will be gone. The CBC, health-care, social services, and pretty much everything else except the military, the RCMP and our ever growing space program. Some day we may reach the clouds. The thing about taxes is that if we don’t have to pay the government then we will have to pay someone else for those services. So, while taxes may be less we still may end up paying more money per person for a service that would be provided to fewer people. Much like the American system. Canadians pay less per GDP than the US on health-care and everyone in Canada is covered. Not so much a guarantee in the US.
Harping on Harper
Stephen Harper is a politician. Politicians play politics. Politics involves saying things sweet to the ear. People like hearing things sweet to the ear. What is sweet to the ear rots the brain. By the transitive property, then, listening to Harper leads to brain-rot.
Stephen Harper does not believe in Canada. He does not believe in people. Stephen Harper appears to have dynamic answers to all our problems but all his answers are to questions that have died, been buried and have been turning in their graves as Harper and Friends have been telling hero stories about them. Harper seems to think that throwing money at an issue is not a viable answer except when it is to the question of how to get votes. Cut GST? Why not, it at least sounds good and $250 dollars, my my. Day-Care money IN YOUR HANDS? Why not, I like holding money.
The thing is that Harper does not seem to like Canadians. He wants to “firewall” off Alberta and re-negotiate federal-provincial relationships. He wants to keep Alberta from paying equalization payments to, say, the Maritime provinces. He feels that the west is alienated from the east but then considers the Maritimes (the eastern most region) as a region “physically trailing” Canada. He does not like the Liberal voters in the West because they are not from there. I guess they are tourists. He does not want to tell you what your values should be. But he can have others do it for him. He feels that helping people in need only can lead to helping more people in need. And the rich need to have tax breaks. Because, for the rich, tax breaks are an incentive to make more money. A poor man with money in his pocket is lazy. A rich man with money in his pocket is an investor.
It looks like Harper wants to be an American but, because he is Canadian, he can never be President so he wants to make Canada look and feel more like he was in the US. And he will say and do whatever it takes to get there. Because it is most important to Harper, and I guess to all of us Canadians, that the US love us and let us suck at its teet.
“We’ve just become increasingly irrelevant to a country [U.S.] that has a lot of priorities…â€? (CBC Newsworld, July 11, 2003)
Because being thought of as relevant by a country that hates the poor, the minorities, those living different lifestyles or refusing to be assimilated is a very important. Being thought of as relevant as an ally by a country that blows up and invades those that are relevant only for economic and semi-political reasons is important for the reason of not being invaded. And if Canada were to be irrelevant it would damage our ego, not to mention our street-cred. As long as we are relevant then it does not matter what we think of the individuals in our country. Our greatness is determined by our relevance on the world scene not on how we treat our own people – the poor, the minorities, the religious, the non-religious, the other religious groups, the gays, and any other group.
But I feel that Harper is wrong.
