Wreckers make a moonscape of Canada

After 13 damaging months, Conservatives' changes will be hard to reverse.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube video "rant"

At his last news conference of the session, government House leader Peter Van Loan told the truth for a change. They "got the job done," he said. It's true. In 13 months, the Harper Conservatives have done what they set out to do nine years ago when Harper became head of the newly-incarnated Conservative Party of Canada. In just over a year, his government has laid waste to Canada's public services, its cooperative traditions and its reputation. Mission accomplished.

Although Stephen Harper became Prime Minister in 2006, his government's minority status always restrained him. That all changed 13 months ago when the Conservatives achieved their majority. The wrecking ball has been swinging wildly since then.

 

It's a pretty impressive list of accomplishments — or devastation, depending on how you see it, which depends on whether you're with the one percent or the 99.

Ish rants about the record of Stephen Harper's wrecking crew, in this YouTube video.

The Canadian Wheat Board has been wrecked, leaving farmers to fend for themselves against greedy multinationals.

Employment Insurance has been wrecked, forcing unemployed Canadian workers to leave their home communities to compete for the worst and lowest-paying jobs.

Dignity for seniors has been wrecked (along with hope for youth) by raising the retirement age by two years. This move will force the poorest seniors to work longer and keep young workers on the streets.

Environmental regulation and oversight have been wrecked by a government that doesn't conceal having blatantly sided with the oil industry over the concerns of environmentalists, fishers, Aboriginal people and communities.

"Fair elections" seem so wrecked as to be an oxymoron, with the Conservative Party in a constant battle with Elections Canada over voting irregularities and election fraud.

Parliamentary oversight of military purchases has gone out the window with the F35 purchase, which will cost every Canadian $1,000 apiece for the purchase of flying Edsels — massively expensive, bug-prone jet fighters Canada doesn't need.

Canadian compassion lies in smoking rubble on the ground in the wake of the government's blame-the-victim reaction last Fall to the native housing crisis, not to mention the closure of youth programs at native Friendship Centres in the budget this Spring.

Public protection is a wreck, with hundreds of public protection workers — food inspectors, search-and-rescue personnel, border guards, even — sacked.

Canada's international reputation is a wreck too, as our government bails out of environmental commitments, shuts down or attacks non-partisan organizations like Rights and Democracy and KAIROS, and dispenses gratuitous advice to the world. It's no wonder Canada didn't get a seat at the UN Security Council.

Barring unforeseen problems, like contested elections thrown out by courts, Canadians will have to endure three more years of the wreckers. The Conservative have probably planned to make their most unpalatable changes in early years and distribute goodies over the next three, all the while stacking agencies, boards and commissions with their operatives.

Experience in Ontario, where top Harper ministers like Flaherty, Clement and Baird cut their teeth, shows that the policy around their politics will catch up with the Conservatives before long. You can't cut public protection workers without creating Walkertons. And already, there is squabbling among the wreckers, some of whom didn't realize how extensive the damages would be.

In the next three years, the Liberals will pick a new leader and decide where they fit into the current political scene. The NDP and new leader Tom Mulcair have made such a positive impression, there's not much room for them on the left. There's no room on the right, of course, and the centre will has become political no-man's-land since the wreckers arrived, so their choices are limited, as Dionne, Ignatieff, and Rae, in turn, have discovered.

The NDP, meanwhile, will have to convince Canadians to hold onto their anger until the election — despite the prospect of trinkets and the real chance that by the next election, the economy may finally turn around despite the best efforts of the Harperites to wreck it.

The wreckers have changed the political landscape. Despite public anger today — with the NDP leading the Conservatives in recent polls — a wrecking yard is never an easy or safe place to fight.

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