Canada being hit by speeding bus

Omnibus budget legislation lets Harperites roll progress back to 1950s.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube rant

These days in Canada, it seems you're either on the bus or off the bus. That's how the Harper Conservatives see it, at any rate.

The federal budget omnibus bill is a good example. It's a 400-page wishlist lays out changes to some 70 federal laws. It rolls up every Conservative's fondest dreams into one nauseating package — nauseating, that is, unless you're on the bus. This Bill has room for everything the Harperites love, and attacks everything public they hate.

If you like low wages, get on the bus! This bill includes changes to EI that will force unemployed welders, social workers, teachers and nuclear scientists to pick fruit, serve coffee or do anything else deemed "suitable." Not only will these trained, unemployed people find themselves working for low wages, they'll be competing with other low-wage workers, driving down the cost of labour for low-wage employers.

Ish Theilheimer rants about the "omnibus" federal budget bill in this YouTube video.

There's more still. Raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security will force seniors to work two more years before they retire. And seniors on OAS are, by definition, the lowest-paid workers there are.

If you like weak-kneed laws that let polluters and developers get away with environmental murder, get on the bus! The omnibus bill contains changes to the Fisheries Act and the environment assessment process that toss aside fifty years of progress with the snap of the PM's fingers.

Stephen Harper was just three in 1962 when Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking work, Silent Spring. The book documented how the widespread use of pesticides, like DDT, was killing songbirds. Public response to Silent Spring launched the environmental movement. The environmental protections we've come to take for granted are being thrown from the bus — because apparently this bus stops in 1959.

Just about the only so-called conservation group on this bus was the pro-hunting Ducks Unlimited (DU). Last week an analysis by The Canadian Press of charities' annual tax returns found DU is the only conservation-rlated organization of the top 10 charities receiving foreign money. Somehow, everyone else missed the bus.

Do you want to slash government services people rely on? Get on the bus! Whether you want to force pensioners and disabled people to wait months for service, close down parks or get rid of meat inspectors, the government is going your way.

Think we're wasting tax money on search-and-rescue or mental health services for wimpy soldiers? This is your bus.

What about being just plain mean and stupid, like replacing $16-an-hour kitchen help on Canadian Forces bases with trained soldiers who are paid $10 per hour more?

The Harperites love to chant that everything they do is about jobs and prosperity. It's pretty obvious, however, whose prosperity this is about, and it's probably not yours.

If you're like most Canadians, you're not on the bus. You're under it.

© Copyright 2012 Ish Theilheimer, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca