Archive for December, 2008

Earlier today, Stephen Harper went to Rideau Hall asking Governer General Michaëlle Jean to progue, or suspend, parliment. To my suprise, she actually did. This is the first time in Canadian history where a sitting Prime Minister has suspended Parliament in order to avoid a non-confidence vote. By doing so, Stephen Harper has ignored the will of the majority of the democratically elected Parliament. And his media blitz has gone too far. He’s undoing all the good will he gathered from Quebec in his past few years by attempting to turn Canadians against the Bloc Quebecois, refusing to admit that the Frencophobia that he is pushing is nothing more than pure racism. On top of that, he’s also trying to revert Canada back to the 60s with Red Scare tactics such as refering the the NDP as socialists, as though it were a negative thing, calling this a “seperatist” coalition (refering to the Bloc) and so on to scare Canadians is simply unacceptable. I found out while writing this that pro-coalition protesters got attacked at the rally at Churchill Square. Good job, Mr. Harper, you managed to turn the citizens of this nation against each other. In any other country that would be called terrorism. I thought we were in Afghanistan to remove terrorists from power, not to install one in our own Parliment. Harper has shown that he is not fit to run the local McDonalds, nevermind this country. Stephen Harper, if you truly love Canada and democracy as much as you claim, do what’s right, nay, what’s nessecary to save this country: resign. Resign before you can do anymore damage, turn any more Canadians against eachother and scare more Canadians into blindly hating Quebec and anything left of centre. Resign because we do not let terrorists run Canada.

Goodnight and good luck

I decided that I’ll comment on the cover of the November 2, 2008 edition of the Edmonton Sun. The editorial section has always been notoriously right-wing. That’s ok, it’s expected for an editorial section to have a bias one way or another. In fact, that’s why I focus on getting letters published there, rather than elsewhere. I want to give the readers of the Edmonton Sun comments page a liberal persepctive. That being said, on November 2, the Edmonton Sun went too far and showed that it did not value what little journalistic integrity it had. The front page had a picture of the news confrence with Dion, Layton and Duceppe, with the words “NO, NO, NO” superimposed on it. How can you claim to be a news organization when you blatently interject your personal opinions and biases into a news story? This is absolutely shameful and I urge anyone who currently has a subscription to the Edmonton Sun to cancel their subscription. News organizations have a duty, especially during a time of political tumoil to present the facts in an unbiased manner, presenting all points of view, while passing judgement on none of them. If the editor has an opinion they want to share, they can do so in an editorial or start a blog. This shameless, partisan, reminicint of Fox News bias is unacceptable and we must send a clear message to the Edmonton Sun: we will not accept anything other than balanced stories and real headlines, rather than the sensationalist drivel we’re being fed. Cancel your subscriptions and boycott the paper and send them your letters to the editor letting them know that you’re sick of this garbage and that they will no longer get your money.

This is a letter to the editor I sent in to a couple of news papers. You can see an abridged version in the print and online November 4 editions of the Edmonton Sun and the full version on the Edmonton Journal website.

I fully support this Liberal-NDP coalition. It is important to remember a few things that Albertans seem to be forgetting. Stephen Harper was appointed Prime Minster, not elected. He only became Prime Minister based on the number of seats his party got and the majority of Canadians still voted for someone other than Harper. On top of that, we need to quit throwing around the Bloc as a reason to fear the coalition. The Bloc is not a member and has no cabinet seats. It will be no different than any other minority government where the Bloc holds the balance of power. On top of that, by referring to them only as separatists, we risk reigniting mostly extinguished calls for Quebec separatism and alienating an entire province. Stephen Harper brought this upon himself by acting as though he had a majority. This pompous, sad excuse for a leader needs to be removed before he can destroy our country.

I do find it interesting that the portions that got trimmed from the Edmonton Sun version were the section that deals with the Bloc and the second adjective describing Harper.

The Liberals and NDP have announced that they are planning on forming a coalition government with the support of the Bloc Quebecois. If their motion passes on December 8, Dion will become the next Prime Minister of Canada. Reading some of the comments in the Edmonton Sun today, as well as the editorial, it astounds me how little Canadians know about our political system.

In Canada, we do not elect the Prime Minister, we instead elect representatives who hold seats in Parliament. Most of these representatives are members of political parties. Whichever political party holds the most seats has their leader become the Prime Minister. Even though all the major parties have somewhat democratic elections to pick their leaders (I don’t consider requiring delegates, etc. to be really democratic), they don’t have to. If a party wanted to, they could randomly pick whoever they want to be the leader. It is important to keep this in mind, so that we realize that we did not, in fact, elect Stephen Harper to be out Prime Minister. Calgary elected him to be their representative, but he was appointed Prime Minister because he was leader of the party with the most seats (it’s also important to remember that they still do not have a majority).

With the new budget that was announced, Stephen Harper showed that he was not willing to act as the leader of a minority government, and will do whatever it takes to get a majority, even if it means forcing a new election only months after out last one. Thanks to this tyrant, we have had two elections in the span of two years. How anyone can think he has the interests of anyone other than himself is beyond me.

The opposition is right to attempt to remove Stephen Harper from power. He will ultimately destroy this nation if he is allowed to stay in power. To all those who say that we’re removing an elected leader, it is important to remember that the majority of Canadians did not vote for Harper. In fact, considering the political ideologies of the parties, it is likely that if Canada were a two party system, the Liberal Party would have formed the government. The majority of Canadians do not want Stephen Harper in power, he was only given his position with the mandate of working with the other parties. Like a school yard bully, he has shown that he is not willing to work with others and that he wants everything to be done his way. It’s time to kick him out and put in someone who can work with the other parties.