Harper Conservatives on Liberal's Plan for OAS - 2004

Back in 2004, the Harper Conservatives accused the Paul Martin Liberals of having a "hidden agenda" to raise the age to qualify for the Old Age Security to 67.  The Conservative Party of Canada had acquired the information on the Liberals through access to information.

As far as I can tell only the NDP have been consistent on the issue of OAS.

Click on Image to enlarge

The campaign news release is still posted on http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/election/News1/CRelease17.htm

Courage in the face of Despair - I'm Voting for the Social Economy

While the Liberals and Conservatives spout on about how well each has handled Canada's financial economy they are both equally guilty of ignoring Canada's social economy.

What is the social economy?  Well it is wide range of community, voluntary and not-for-profit activities. The social economy has a distinct and valuable role to play in helping create a strong, sustainable, prosperous and inclusive society.

Successful social economy organisations can play an important role in helping deliver many key governmental policy objectives by:

• helping to drive up productivity and competitiveness;
• contributing to socially inclusive wealth creation;
• enabling individuals and communities to work towards regenerating their local neighbourhoods;
• showing new ways to deliver public services; and
• helping to develop an inclusive society and active citizenship.

The governments of the last couple of decades have bee systematically choking this economy by cutting funding.  And the Conservative government under Stephen Harper has increased the rate and depth of these cuts at an alarming rate.

The Conservative party sees no value in the social economy as demonstrated by their actions.  The Liberal party talks about social programs while campaigning but treat them as luxuries rather then essential to maintaining the Canadian standard of living.  And then there are the NDP, they have often been described as the conscience of the House of Commons.  Fighting continually to preserve the and enhance the government services and programs that benefit the 98.5% of Canadian society that is not independently wealthy.  Unfortunately due to their lack of numbers the House of Commons' conscience is often ignored.

For too long the NDP have been treated like children by the Conservatives and Liberals.  The reds and the blues pat the NDP on the head and tell them and the Canadian people "That just the way things are."  "That's the way things have to be"  The people that believe this myth feel powerless and some of  them stop voting.  Result: More of the same.

Liberals and Conservatives say the NDP will never win an election.  Repeating that phrase over and over until even the people who vote NDP believe it to be true.  Some more progressive people either change their vote or stop voting.
Result: More of the same.

Let's hope that this time something different happens.  That people will have the courage to try for change even if they think it will never happen.  Apathy it the status quo's best friend.

No More Red Kool-Aide

Many die hard Liberals are questioning the validity of voting for the NDP.  Many go so far as to say a vote for the NDP is a vote for the Conservatives.  I don't believe in telling people how to vote and for those Liberals that don't understand how ballots work.  When you place an 'X' beside a candidate's name that is the candidate you are voting for.  

Every election near the last few weeks of the campaign the red kool-aide comes out and everyone that is not supporting the Conservative government is told to drink it.  The reason that the NDP "never win" is because too many people that prefer the NDP drink that koolaide and vote Liberal.

Voting with the Conservatives on most issues or not showing up for votes is not what I consider representation. Ignatieff, you gotta be in the room to make a difference. You don't get to vote with the Conservatives and then campaign against them on the very same issue that you yourself voted in favor of.  

Here is the list of votes that Liberal leader Ignatieff missed.

(Government bills are bolded.)

• C-449, Free Public Transit for Seniors Act
• C-510, Criminalizing abortion
• C-343, Family leave
• C-300, Corporate Accountability of Mining, Oil and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries
• C-201, Stopping pension clawbacks for veterans
• C-384, Euthanasia
• C-302, Italian-Canadian Recognition and Restitution Act
• C-469, Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights
• C-307, Charter of the French Language
• C-530, Northwest Territories borrowing limits
• C-46, Canada-Panama Free Trade Act
• C-42, Strengthening Aviation Security Act
• C-501, Pension protection
• C-473, Protection of Insignia of Military Orders, Decorations and Medals
• C-393, Aids-drugs-for-Africa bill
• C-304, Secure, Adequate, Accessible and Affordable Housing Act
• C-47, Budget implementation act II, 2010
• C-386, Replacement workers
• C-290, Tax credit for loss of retirement income
• C-440, War resisters
• C-308, Improvement of the employment insurance system
• C-5, International Transfer of Offenders
• C-45, Appropriation Act II 2010-11
• C-280, Qualification for and entitlement to EI benefits
• C-2, Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
• C-475, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (methamphetamine and ecstasy)
• C-395, Employment Insurance during a labour dispute
• C-9, Budget implementation act I, 2010
• C-232, Official languages for Supreme Court justices
• C-444, Québécois national identity in the Telecommunications Act
• C-241, Employment Insurance removal of waiting period
• C-7, Appropriation Act I, 2010-11
• C-392, Made in Canada Act
• C-50, Employment Insurance benefits
• C-42, Ending Conditional Sentences for Property and Other Serious Crimes Act
• C-52, White Collar Crime
• C-306, Canadian Products Promotion Act
• C-268, Minimum sentence for trafficking minors
• C-309, Economic development agency for Northern Ontario
• C-279, Employment Insurance severance and vacation pay
• C-20, Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act
• C-288, Tax credit for new graduates working in designated regions
• C-273, Right to repair
• C-310, Air Passengers' Bill of Rights
• C-11, Human Pathogens and Toxins Act
• C-24, Peruvian Free Trade
• C-9, Transportation of dangerous goods
• C-2, European Free Trade

Angry White Men Storm Parliament Hill

On the front page of the Ottawa Citizen today the headline reads "Hey hey ho ho Stephen Harper has to... stay!" Put aside for one moment the paper's obvious slant towards supporting Stephen Harper (a similar demonstration in support of the coalition only made page 6 of paper on Dec 5, 2008) and dissect the coverage of the facts.

If the page one photo of the demonstration in support of our create-a-crisis Prime Minister accurately protrays the crowd, it contained 99.9% men, carrying English signs, draping themselves in the Canadian flag and all angry (really all that were missing were the pitch forks). The question becomes why did the crowd look like that. Could it be because the Harper Conservatives have been attacking women and minority rights since day one?

The page 6 photo contains a mix of men and women all carrying simple signs in both English and French a single Quebec flag. (I can't help but wonder if that was the only Quebec flag there and the photographer chose to do a little editorializing of his/her own.)

The Ottawa Citizen, on the day that it covered the demonstration in support of the coalition chose to put a super size picture of Harper on the front page proudly stating that 43% of Canadians polled said that the would vote for Harper in an election.

First a lesson in civics: Unless you live in the riding of Calgary South, you can't vote for Harper. In Canada, citizens do not vote for Prime Minister they vote for their Member of Parliament (MP for short). Stephen Harper is Prime Minister because his political party, the Conservative Party of Canada (the Conservatives), chose him to be their leader and the Conservatives won more seats that the other parties (although not a majority of the seats).

In the House of Commons all MPs are created equal, and all MPs are elected in their perspective ridings, including Stephen Harper. Therefore if the coalition forms and takes over as the governing "party" all that will have changed is who wears the hat of Prime Minister. The MP that was elected in your riding will continue to be your MP and represent you in the House of Commons. -- I.E. No one's vote will have been stolen and the angry mob was attempting to say on Saturday.

Now on to my second point, if my math serves me correctly if 43% of Canadians would vote for the Conservatives that means that 57% would not! In the absence of Parliamentary reform, a coalition that represents how the majority of Canadians would actually vote, sounds VERY DEMOCRATIC.

Reference: Thousands rally across the country to protest coalition's power play