Conservative Policy Discussion

I am going to steer away from prorogation for a moment here and bring up some old but interesting points. Perhaps the following can be seen as being applicable to that issue, I leave that to the reader.

Populism=Anti-intellectualism.

I do not intend to engage in a debate about proper criminal justice policy. I intend to prove that Stephen Harper and his Conservatives adopt a position of Anti-intellectualism.

Anti-intellectualism is an ignorant position. Either the Conservative leaders are ignorant or they intentionally champion ignorance. We’ll assume that the Conservative Party knows anti-intellectualism is ignorant. The only logical explanation for a political party’s intentional championing of ignorant policy is to garner votes. The Conservative party champions ignorant policy to garner votes. The Conservative Party banks on voters’ ignorance.
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Photo Credit: Toronto Star

The coming year will be integral to the rebuilding of Canada’s international image. Regardless of one’s views concerning the Copenhagen climate summit, it is unarguable that Canada’s position in the world has been damaged due to it. The perceived image of Stephen Harper’s government put forward by the majority of the international press was overwhelmingly negative. More importantly, it was seen as a fall from grace by a country popularly looked upon as America’s more liberal, and green, cousin, particularly in Europe.

I recently attended an orientation for a job at the 2010 Winter Olympics. As expected, one of the central themes was the history and tradition of the Olympic Games, from their beginnings in ancient Greece to the global brand of the new millennium. However, it was one particular aspect of the presentation that strikes a chord with Canada’s needs coming into 2010. I was informed that the Olympic movement is a celebration of three pillars: Sport, Culture and Sustainability. It is this last pillar that it is necessary for Stephen Harper and the government to grasp in the forthcoming year.
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The Monkey House

Bored and dipping in the whiskey last night, I decided to engage in a little social investigation. I have long been curious by the human tendency to, once provoked, enter into group-think mentalities and demonize potential outsiders. In civil, civic discourse, this trend is reversed by sophisticated rhetoricians through the disarmament of their opponent, first through finding common ground and then, point for point, countering hostile suggestion with legitimate fact, all the while ignoring the hostile tone of their opponent. Well, sometimes it is nice to return slight for slight, but the skilled debater always returns to the facts that support his or her opinion. Now, in the case of political discussion, there may not be only facts but there are reasons behind the opinion and it is to these which one must turn if one’s position is to be defended.
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Photo Credit: Maxpower

The unabashed cowardice of Stephen Harper’s latest move may rekindle the suspicions of many voters come election day. It is safe to surmise, yet early to assume, that Harper is attempting to force the opposition to trigger an election by timing his important confidence motions for the spring of 2010. With two solid election victories under his belt, it is no wonder why Harper might want to take a shot at the long coveted Conservative majority. However, this overly cautious move to suspend government business as a lead up to his big power play harkens back to the Harper from 4 years ago. It is starting to look like the long awaited socially conservative Harper may be stepping into the light.

In his recent interview with Peter Mansbridge the Prime Minister makes no bones about his effort to change his image. He admitted becoming a less partisan leader, yet he openly expressed his contempt for the opposition in his tone and his belittlement of their inquiries into government business. Harper admits that he is anxious and frustrated that Senate Reform has not moved forward, all the while drooling over the new power balance he’ll create with his new Conservative appointees. And worst of all, he admits that he will be looking to these new Conservative Senators to advance crime legislation that has been roundly rejected by our delegates in the Senate. This last hypocrisy is the most telling of what is on the mind of our Prime Minister.
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Photo Credit: Igougo

A few months ago I wrote a paper for a poli-sci class predominantly in response to an article we were instructed to read by Juan Linz. Linz had contrasted presidential with parliamentary democracy, leaning heavily towards the latter as the preferred system of government for most democracies. I couldn’t help but take issue. After all, Linz had never seen the likes of Stephen Harper. Harper, I argued, was already proving that there are several ways to make a mockery of Parliamentarianism’s famed ‘checks and balances,’ the devices often cited by those like Linz as the selling points of the system. Indeed, Harper had (incredibly) exemplified how a prime minister with a penchant for despotism could effectively rule a liberal, democratic state almost autocratically, and that it was high time for Canada to reconsider its parliamentary system as a means to facilitate democracy.

And then things got even worse…
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Canadians need a new national animal

Compelled by a strange feeling of responsibility to manufacture one of those generic end of/beginning of the year articles, I recalled a memory from my childhood. Thumbing through a geography textbook as a young mushroom-haired boy, probably wearing either a Spiderman jumpsuit or an entire Toronto Blue Jays uniform, I found a cartoon that was comparing the size of Canada with Russia. Russia, represented as a grinning bear in a fez cap, was much larger than Canada, which was depicted as a beaver holding a hockey stick. In my approximately seven year old brain, these images didn’t demand much scrutiny beyond wondering what the bear thought was so funny. After all, what’s laughable about a beaver? Nothing, that’s what.

The beaver is a builder, a herbivore, an aquatic genius, a noble beast with work ethic that can make hot-blooded Protestants feel fancy. Indeed, the beaver is a majestic creature, an animal that deserves better than to be sullied as Canada’s national creature. A suggestion: re-illustrate our geography books to include a species that actually reflects Canada’s behaviour domestically and internationally. I think some variety of snake is more fitting. Unlike beavers, snakes do not have legs, movable eyelids, external ear-openings, or eardrums, just like many of the government officials and corporations that represent us here and abroad. Therefore, considering the troubled eggs our dry-eyed, legless, and hard of hearing Canadian elites have been laying all over the planet this year, I don’t believe it’s fair to ridicule the beaver any longer as Canada’s national creature.
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The yellow-bellied turtle

On December 30th, two weeks after the House of Commons ended its last sitting of 2009, the Conservatives presented themselves with a belated Christmas gift, unexpectedly proroguing Parliament until March 3rd. It was to resume sitting on January 25th. As a result, the House of Commons will be vacant for nearly three months. The Conservatives assert that this is to allow them time to consult with Canadians, particularly regarding their economic action plan, before releasing their budget on March 4th. Is this what hockey fans would call “a turtle”, or is it a brilliant strategic move that once again demonstrates the Conservatives’ ability to outfox the Liberals?

Most Canadians have seen a few hockey fights. First there’s some verbal sparring, maybe some shoving, and then two guys go at it, sometimes by prior arrangement. It’s a good way to vent frustrations and stir up the crowd. Other times, a player is a pest or has done something that deserves some retribution. In this case, when the first punch is thrown the guy on the receiving end (the pest) refuses to fight back, unwilling to take the thumping he might richly deserve. He won’t put his money where is mouth is and either skates away or falls cowering to the ice, gloved hands covering his head – he is a turtle. The net result is that someone who deserved some payback doesn’t actually get much of it, and his team, in fact, gains an advantage.
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Photo Credit: Canadian Fermentation

As I’ve arrived home from my Christmas holiday, I like many other Canadians, am feeling the wave of depression at the prospect of going back to work. It is that time, and it is a painful time. Unfortunately, I have a full-time job like so many of you, I get paid every two weeks like so many of you, and like so many of you, I have to actually show up to work to receive my paycheque. But I can dream, and that dream is to work for the Canadian government. If I did, I wouldn’t be returning to work until March with the blessings of my boss and my paycheques still in hand. What a generous guy that Stephen Harper is when it comes to our tax dollars paying his MP’s salaries. Call me a slave driver, but I would expect my employees to actually earn their wage, particularly if the Canadian public is paying their salaries. I mean a four month holiday from Parliament seems a little excessive, doesn’t it?
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Photo Credit: imgur.com

For the second time, Governor General Michaëlle Jean has acceded to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s request to prorogue Parliament. This is dangerous, to say the least, as on both occasions Mr. Harper used prorogation to dodge accountability and to retain power. Given this, I am forced to conclude that Governor General Michaëlle Jean is weak, incompetent, or colluding with Mr. Harper.

Canada is facing serious difficulties on many fronts, from a still faltering economy to climate change to world issues (we are still at war in Afghanistan, last time I checked), so the idea of Parliament taking a two-month holiday is inappropriate at best, dangerous more accurately.

I am no constitutional scholar. I am simply a practical man seeing that Canada’s democracy is not functioning well, and may in fact be in danger. Some constitutional scholars think the same: “parliamentary democracy is in danger.”
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Any follower of professional poker knows that Stephen Harper just went “all in” by proroguing Parliament. It’s because he now holds all four aces.

Ace number one is an opposition in disarray. Iggy is nowhere to be seen or heard. Gilles is emailing-in his commentary. And Jack is basking in the knowledge that eighteen percent of Canadians would vote NDP even if he were a mustachioed blow-up doll.

Ace number two is a reluctant but growing acknowledgment by the national media of Harper’s management of the country relative to the rest of the sinking world, H1N1, his piano playing and yes, Afghanistan. They, like he, know that the majority of Canadians don’t give a rat’s ass what the Afghans do to each other if it means finding and eliminating those who are building the roadside bombs that kill our selfless troops.
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