XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: puela@nyet.ca   
      
   Save this list as a reminder.  Share this list with others.   
   _________________________________________   
      
   25 reasons Stephen Harper is bad for Canada   
      
   1. Contempt for Canada   
      
   The reason you're being called to vote again, is because on March 25th, 2011,   
   the Harper administration was found to be in contempt of Canadian parliament.   
   This is the first time in the history of any commonwealth government that this   
   has happened. The Speaker of the House of Commons had to rule three times that   
   "the Harper government" appeared to breach parliamentary privilege.   
     ~  The Globe & Mail   
      
   2. Cheated in the 2006 Election   
      
   In Spring of 2011, a federal court found that Harper's Conservatives wilfully   
   violated the $18.3 million election spending limit, during the campaign which   
   originally brought them to power in 2006. 4 Conservatives (including 2   
   Conservative Senators) currently face charges and possible jail time.   
     ~  The Globe & Mail   
      
   3. Turned Canada's Surplus into Debt   
      
   In 1993, the Conservatives chalked up a $38 Billion deficit. By 2006, under   
   non-conservative leadership, this had been turned around into a $16 Billion   
   surplus. Four years later, and Harper's Conservatives have returned Canada to a   
   record $56 Billion deficit.           ~  Catch22   
      
   4. Wants US-style bank deregulation   
      
   When Harper was president of the National Citizens Coalition, founded in 1967   
   to oppose universal health care, he supported US-style bank deregulation.   
   Nevertheless, since the 2008 Financial Crisis, he has been taking credit for   
   the relative strength of our financial sector, based on a system he inherited,   
   but didn’t support.   ~  The Tyee   
      
   5. Opposes universal health care   
      
   Harper believes that universal health care should be provincial, and wants to   
   break it up. While heading the National Citizens Coalition, founded to oppose   
   universal health care, he said "the feds" should scrap the Canada Health Act.   
              ~  Hill Times   
      
   6. Harper shut down Parliament. Twice.   
      
   One of the Conservative platform promises was more accountability. Since making   
   this promise, Harper has shut down Parliament twice. Once for several months to   
   block an inquiry into Afghan detainees and to stall government bills, and a   
   second time to avoid a vote of non-confidence which he was expected to lose.   
           ~  The Globe & Mail   
      
   7. Wants to replace the stable CPP with the untested PRPP   
      
   Although seniors' incomes have dropped for the first time in decades, it is   
   clear that the Harper government was laying the groundwork to replace Canada's   
   well-run, cost-effective, and stable CPP with a private, more expensive pension   
   scheme - the Pooled Registered Pension Plan (PRPP), run by the bank, mutual   
   fund, and insurance industries. This new plan would mean Canadians would have   
   to work for longer, or to retire on less.             ~  NUPGE [PDF]   
      
   8. Shut down Women's and Minority advocacy groups   
      
   Since coming into power, Harper has cut funding for women's advocacy by 43 per   
   cent, shut down 12 out of 16 Status of Women offices in Canada and eliminated   
   funding of legal voices for women and minority groups, including the National   
   Association of Women and the Law and the Courts Challenges Program.         ~   
   Toronto Star   
      
   9. The Economic Action plan has been to the benefit of the super rich   
      
   Harper's economic 'recovery' favoured the extremely wealthy.  Over 321,000   
   Canadians lost their jobs in 2008 and Canadians' average wages fell. Meanwhile   
   Canada's 100 wealthiest persons became richer, reaching an average net worth of   
   $1.7 billion each, up almost 5 per cent from 2008.  The majority of those   
   surveyed by the Parliamentary Budget Office reported that the program has had   
   either a neutral or negative impact on jobs.  Even the conservative Fraser   
   Institute has criticized it.  ~  Canada.com & The Tyee & The Fraser Institute   
      
   10. Fraud   
      
   One of Harper's top aides, Bruce Carson, had been convicted of 5 counts of   
   fraud, and is currently under investigation by the RCMP. Most recently he was   
   lobbying the government to buy water filtration systems, from a company where   
   his wife was employed.        ~  National Post   
      
   11. Loosened regulations to allow more chemical residues on your food   
      
   Since taking office, Stephen Harper has weakened regulations so that more   
   pesticide residues can be left on your fruits and vegetables.  The plan is to   
   bring Canadian regulations in line with U.S. Levels, which can be up to 100   
   times higher. Under additional new regulations, corporate food producers will   
   be allowed to conduct their own safety inspections.  In 2008, when Luc   
   Pomerleau, a biologist at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency with a flawless   
   20 year record with the agency, leaked these plans, he was immediately fired.   
   Since then, the listeriosis meat outbreak killed 17 Canadians.             ~   
   Canwest News [1] & Canwest News [2] & The Ottawa Citizen   
      
   12. Wasteful G20 spending, and a record number of arrests   
      
   At the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto, Harper spent $1.9 million building an   
   artifical lake and nearly $1 Billion on security for the 3 day event.  1,105   
   arrests were made - the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. Of those 1,105   
   arrests, only 99 criminal charges were laid.        ~  The Toronto Star   
      
   13. Report an unsafe nuclear reactor; get fired   
      
   In 2008, Linda Keen, President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission,   
   reported that the aging Chalk River nuclear facility was at a risk 1000 times   
   greater than the international average. Harper quickly fired her.         ~   
   Toronto Star   
      
   14. Stephen Harper has shut down Canadian aid to the world's most impoverished   
   countries   
      
   Despite consistently pointing out that Canada's economy is a global leader -   
   Harper used the excuse of poor economic times to freeze aid to some of the   
   world's most impoverished countries.  An example of this is the African nation   
   of Malawi, one of the 10 poorest nations in the world.  Before Harper, Canada   
   was the 6th largest aid donor to Malawi, and the largest supplier of school   
   books.  After coming into power, he closed the Canadian embassy in Malawi and   
   took the country (alongside 6 other African nations) off of Canada's aid   
   priority list.  Harper cut aid to Africa in half, before finally freezing all   
   foreign aid in 2010.          ~  680 News   
      
   15. The Harper Conservatives want to buy 65 stealth fighter jets using $29   
   billion of tax payers' money   
      
   That works out to around $1000 per person in Canada.  The Conservatives   
   initially reported the cost would be $9 billion, plus $7 billion in maintenance   
   costs.  In March, Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page warned Canadians that   
   the Harper Government was low-balling the cost by more than $12 billion.   
     ~ The Globe & Mail   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)