Harper spent Paul Martin's budget Surplus

A blog reader had pointed out that Harper spent Paul Martin's budget surplus. I thought that was well worth looking into because I didn't realize Paul Martin had a budget surplus. Turns out he did. In fact it was bigger than they thought it was. In fact when Jean Chrétien took over from Brian Mulroney in 1993, the budget surplus consistently rose dramatically.

Debt reduction is important. Yet that doesn't mean removing public accountability and privatizing everything under the sun and handing over our democratic sovereignty to large corporations that has no regard for the Canadian economy only their own. That only shoots ourselves in the foot and reduces tax revenue.

A prime example of the false stereotype is in the US. People there claim the republicans will run a surplus while the democrats will run a deficit. History has shown that to be untrue. Bush sucked billions out of their economy to fund the illegal invasion of Iraq based on a lie. The British economy suffered from supporting that lie as well.



Yes we need a military. How many jets and what we use them for is open for debate. Invading countries for their oil is very costly not to mention immoral. That's not even touching on how investment fraud destabilizes the market.

New Liberal Attack Ad

The Liberals new attack add doesn't make sense. He claims that Harper and Layton are two sides of the same coin. Yet the NCC claims anyone who doesn't vote for Harper is a Socialist so who do we believe? Is it really that hard? Everyone claims the NDP will raise taxes but that is exactly what Harper is doing. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

National Citizens Coalition

Although Harper's quote to the National Citizens Coalition saying it's past time to scrap the Canada Health Act back in 1997 is old, Stephen Harper was president of that lobbyist group from 1998 to 2002. Now he's their candidate of choice for Prime minister.

That lobbyist group still opposes public health care so Harper's denial about a hidden agenda to privatize heath care is a bold faced lie. It is not surprising to see that their adds feed Harper's propaganda claiming everyone that doesn't vote for Harper is a Socialist.

It is a corporate driven propaganda lobbyist group with a secret membership list that pretends to be a citizens coalition when it is not. The Council of Canadians is a grass roots citizens coalition for Democracy. The NCC is not.

Donna Cadman's disappearing act

The headline on the Surrey Now reads: DESPERATELY SEEKING DONA. Looks like she's disappeared again and dodged another debate. It's kind of like that Eddie Murphy movie Distinguished Gentlemen. Dona has name recognition. Her husband did great things for Surrey and Canada. Dona herself is a great person. Yet she is currently somewhat conflicted.

In an earlier interview she claimed she disagreed with the party's position on the HST. I'm sure Harper's control freak censorship crew loved that one. They are the ones that likely banned her from speaking on the issue. Yet her disagreement with the HST runs hollow because she didn't show up for that vote. It would appear that Harper doesn't allow free votes for his party. The broken promise of free votes was so that MPs could vote the way their constituents want. Not in Harper's world.

The HST is just one of many conflicts. Voting for the party that tried to bribe her husband is another. Chuck Cadman ran as an independent after he was shafted by the party. Going back to that party after all the bad things they did is clearly a step backwards. There seems to be a lot of animosity towards Dona these days for her endorsement of Harper. She is a good person. Stephen Harper is not. It's important to draw that line. That would mean doing so at the ballot box this election.

Harper Censorship

Wee it guess this is why Harper’s crew limits press questions and stacks the audience. A journalist asked a question about one of his candidates receiving support from someone charged and acquitted in the Air India bombing Kim Bolan wrote about.

Harper gave a trite denial then when the journalist was asking his follow up question the stacked crowd drowned out his question with cheers and chants. If that’s not poison kool aid, I don’t know what is.

Finding balance in a world of extremes

Since the Anything but Harper campaign is starting to gain momentum, one news article commented on it and did a little bully playing the victim for Harper. They said that eliminating a single opinion wasn't right. However, that's exactly what Harper is doing.

Surely we don't want to go from one extreme to the other. Anything is a pretty big word when we say anything but Harper. Which is unfortunately what we sometimes do in British Columbia. Well that didn't work so let's try this. Well that didn't work either so let's try this. Back and forth from one extreme to the other. The answer is finding a balanced approach to politics and life.

Preston Manning challenged us to look beyond the left and right and look at the issues. That mission was lost when they changed Unite the Bright to Unite the Right and merged with Mulroneyism.

The Shit Harper did web site quotes Harper as once saying "Kyoto is essentially a Socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth - producing nations." Oh really. I always thought the Kyoto Protocol was an international attempt to fight global warming and promote the stabilization of greenhouse gas. What on earth does that have to do with Socialism? Does Stephen Harper really think protecting the environment is a Communist plot to take over the free world? That would be an example of extremism.

Harper does a lot of name calling and over sweeping generalizations. He continually calls people who disagree with him socialists. I suppose if you're a fascist, anything left of fascism would be considered socialism but not in the real world. Harper wanted to ban all other parties from the televised debate except for him and Ignatieff claiming that those are the two choices and of you don't vote for either of those two options you are a left wing socialist or a separatist. Aside from being absurd, what if I was? The founding fathers of the American Constitution were separatists. Everyone has an equal vote in a democratic society. Free speech is not just for the elite. It's for everyone.

I personally disagree with Harper wanting to build a huge number of more jails at taxpayers expense for nonviolent crime like possession of pot. Does that mean I go to the other extreme and support the legalization of all drugs including crack and crystal meth? Let's hope not. Yet that is a position the Green Party has taken. But there's a lot of other things in the Green Party I do support like protecting the environment. No single party is all right and no single party is all wrong.

There clearly are more than two options to vote for this election. I'm voting for Jack Layton because I trust he will protect pensions and medical and he's the only one that opposes the North American Union and the HST. Yet Stephen Harper claimed "The NDP is kind of proof the Devil lives and interferes with the affairs of men." I don't suppose you can get more absurd and offensive than that.

So invading Iraq for their oil based on a lie was not something the Devil would do? How is selling asbestos to India such a Godly thing? How is torturing prisoners in Afghanistan a Godly thing to do? Firing whistle blowers is something the Devil would do. Censoring the media is something the Devil would do. How is sending troops to Afghanistan to cultivate and harvest opium such a good thing? People who have a board in their own eye can't see clearly to take the speck out of their neighbours eye. Indeed by their fruits shall ye know them. That is, by the things they do not just by the things they say they'll do.

Stephen Harper is living proof why a majority government can be so dangerous. I do not trust Stephen Harper with a majority government. But I do believe he has a right to hold and express his opinion. In fact he has some opinions that I do share.

The key is very simple. We need to stop focusing on brainwashing the public and we need to start listening to the public. Remember when the Reform party talked about referendums and giving their MP's free votes? Harper has gone to the other extreme which is far from democratic.

We need to proceed with a Minority government. Move forward on the various political party's common ground and not proceed on any of the party's extremes where there is not consensus. That would mean taking the amendment on the crime bill. It really is that simple.

New Harper Web site

The Vancouver Sun ran an article about a new web site about the Harper government called shitharperdid.com It broke two million hits after it's second day and is a satirical look at what Harper has done trying to encourage youth to get out a vote. Well done.