A Day of Shame

Our Prime Minster and a small group of his flunkies have taken democracy to a new low in Canadian history. A Bill which was supposed to be a budget turns out to be an almost 500 pages of Conservative demagogy. Under the guise of a financial plan for Canada, Harper has stuffed the bill with every list of wishes he had in his long term plans to make Canada a Conservative country, where business and jobs would be the goal without consideration for the environment, safety, or care for our natural resources. His sell-off of the oil patch to everyone or anyone who can come up with the cash is short-sighted and wasteful.

In order to get his wish, he has gutted the safeguards which had been established over the years and heralded by the world as the best of any country. If you say something over and over enough, as all the puppets in the cabinet have being doing for the past year, people will begin to believe it.

Let's look at a different picture. The prime minister has a clear majority in parliament and is pretty well assured to pass every bill presented. Had he been a democratic leader and not in such a hurry, he could have brought in every measure that is presently in the supposed budget and had it broken down into sections and presented. The members of parliament could have then gone through the committee system and come to a vote. It would be passed by the majority. It would have taken longer but there would be input from all the members of parliament - not just the government in power. Maybe, just maybe, with the discussion at committee level there could have been changes suggested that would make the bill better for the people of Canada.

This would be a good thing, and after some time and a second sober thought, we would have legislation that would be acceptable to all Canadians. Why the rush to lump all this important legislation into the budget? It is simply because they can - and thumb their noses at the rest of parliament and all Canadians. In my considerable years looking at the political scene, I have never seen anything approaching this level of shameful situation.

Shame on Harper; shame on his arrogant cabinet. Shame on all the Conservative back-benchers who sat silently. Shame for Canada for electing such a group of people who have driven us back years in areas that made Canada such a great and respected country. This day will be marked as a dark day for democracy  and we will be less respected around the world for the changes that will come about as a result of this so- called budget. Wearing the Canadian flag on our pack sacks will be less protective than it was. SHAME.