10 Reasons Not to Vote for Stephen Harper

Hello, A forward from my friend Sharon, plus a PDF list of my reasons. Susan Ioannou -- On Thu, 4/28/11, Sharon Singer wrote: Hello, This may be the most important Canadian election of our lifetime. If you haven’t made up your mind, please consider the information below. Feel free to edit and change and forward to anyone you know. Let us stand on guard for the Canada we love. All best wishes, Sharon   10 Reasons not to vote for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives 1.       “YOU WON’T RECOGNIZE CANADA WHEN I GET THROUGH WITH IT,” said Stephen Harper in an ad in an earlier federal campaign. In this remark he revealed a secret agenda.  What did he mean? Perhaps this is an indication: for almost 20  years Harper was a member of the National Citizens Coalition founded to get rid of Medicare.    2.       CUTTING CORPORATE TAXES: The cutting of taxes for corporations has left Ireland bankrupt. It could do the same to Canada. Financial experts have shown that cutting corporate taxes does not create jobs. The money saved by corporations ends up in the pockets of their executives. Lower personal and corporate taxes will not provide the same standard of living we are used to—how is government supposed to pay for health care, food inspection, old age pensions and other vital services? The lowering of corporate taxes puts the burden of taxes on the middle class.   3.       SLASH HEALTH CARE, SOCIAL PROGRAMS and end GOVERNMENT REGULATION :  Like President Reagan, Harper is against government regulation. Canadians need regulation  of the economy to protect consumers (bank regulation saved us from the worst of the sub-prime mortgage disaster); we need regulation so that we have safe food and water; we need regulation so that Canadian culture is preserved. Our health care is also in danger since Harper wants a two-tier health plan which would end up gutting Medicare.   4.       KING HARPER’S DESTRUCTION OF DEMOCRACY : Harper has said that one of his main goals is to destroy the Liberal Party, and no doubt all opposition. This can only be called what it is—FASCIST. Harper does not care about the idea of Canada that most Canadians espouse. He thinks of himself as an absolute monarch. He does not allow his MPs to talk to the media without his consent or express any view that is contrary to his position. John Meisel in the Toronto Star April 20/11, warns of the “Harperization” of our minds   5.       A VOTE FOR HARPER IS A VOTE FOR THE REFORM/ALLIANCE:  Harper leads a party that is called Conservative but is in actuality Reform/Alliance. Funded by right-wing Christian evangelicals who remain in the shadows, the Conservatives have tried to hid Harper’s fundamentalist beliefs. Witness the CRTC approval of the right-wing SUN TV, a clone of the US Fox Network. With a Conservative majority, the fundamentalist agenda would reveal itself with all flying colours – there would be an end to free-choice for women, no support for women’s groups or shelters, no same-sex marriages, no day care, and more money to keep women poor and pregnant.  [See Marci McDonald’s book “The Armageddon Factor”]   6.       THE ENVIRONMENT: Harper has slashed funding for climate change, air pollution, wildlife and toxic waste clean-up while one of the greatest ecological disasters is happening under our noses with the Alberta tar sands oil project.   7.       WAR MONGER: Harper is a war monger and has ordered more weapons and jet fighters for foreign wars. Canada always had a reputation as a peace maker, and this is the role that Canadians are comfortable with. We do not want to be Americans. We are not interested in fighting on foreign lands to support greedy corporations who want to exploit the resources of the globe for their own profit.   8.       SCARE TACTICS: What hasn’t Harper used to make Canadians afraid to elect any party but his own? With his attack ads he has created alarm and fear about the leadership abilities of the other contenders, and the possibility of a coalition, which he falsely calls “unconstitutional.”   9.       WASTED FUNDS INSTEAD OF SOCIAL SERVICES: Harper will spend any amount of money to make Canada seem like a world power—witness the disastrous G20 where fortunes were wasted on fake lakes and where people got arrested and brutalized not only for protesting, but also for merely walking down a street near the protestors. This occurred while financially strapped Canadians are ignored: single parents, the unemployed, the disabled and the elderly. Funding has been denied to the International Planned Parenthood Federation just when the world is teetering on a population explosion that the planet cannot sustain.