That is what Stevie Spiteful and his pitbull, John Baird seem to be sayin’. Let’s tune in:
“We have debates in Parliament all the time. The Speaker rules. You win some, you lose some. If you lose, you comply, and that’s what we’ll do,” Harper said in Toronto.
“I understand in the game of democratic politics, oppositions and governments attack each other and there are parliamentary procedures and rulings back and forth, but that’s the way life is.”
Love the cavalier attitude, don’t you? Sounds like a bunch of kids who got caught doin’ something they shouldn’t have. Stevie says he’ll “comply”. We’ll see. “Comply” in the world according to Stevie Spiteful probably differs from our’s.
Enter Stevie’s pitbull:
Government House Leader John Baird went further, accusing the Liberals of being caught up in “distractions” rather than what Canadians really care about.
“Canadians are concerned about jobs, they are concerned about the economy, they are concerned about themselves and the future of their families,” Baird said during question period. “All we have are these Liberal distractions.”
Did he just imply that democracy was nothing more than a ‘Liberal distraction’?
So, just because we’re weathering an economic storm and jobs are top priority, the government should get away with breaking rules of democracy, being secretive and unaccountable and abuse power? I wasn’t aware that democracy/accountability and jobs/economy were mutually exclusive. It implies that if we’re to have democracy and accountability, jobs and the economy would go down the toilet. Funny, one would think the opposite to be true.
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Since Stephan Harper. Our Constitution is ignored. Our Civil Rights and Liberties, have been taken away from Canadians. There is no Democracy and Freedom, in this country either. We live in a dictatorship regime. We must now call our government, “Harper’s government”.
Seems Harper got caught, with his hands in the cookie jar money. Harper should be forced to resign. Harper is doing to Canada, as Campbell has done to BC.
We all know, Campbell works for Harper, they have a very close relationship. Harper is the worst thing, that has happened to Canada. If we want to keep Canada sovereign, Harper has to go.
I am upset with Jack Layton. He capitulated to Harper’s demand, that AGAIN, huge corporations get another tax reduction. This last tax reduction, comes off Canadians paychecks. Our government, steals from the citizens, to give to the wealthiest corporations in the world. Go figure…
Nicely said. I was going to write about this, but you covered it. steve’s shrug was bad enough, but baird calling the issue of contempt of Parliament a distraction is very telling. I’m sure legislation and laws get in the CONs’ way a lot. Very sad for us that the party in power feels that way.
They’re trying to use that old magician’s trick of creating a diversion so the audience will take its eye off the center of the action. We should know when we’re being taken for fools.
ck Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 4:12 PM
Sadly Owen, I don’t think the typical Jane and Joe Six-Pack and the Timmy Horton’s crowd does realize this. That’s what makes it all the more scary.
Those comments kind of frighten me, actually. If Canadians on the whole are prepared to accept that Parliament is a tedious inconvenience, we’re on a bad path.
ck Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 4:09 PM
Yeah, I know. I’ve been thinking about this for sometime now.
I’ll give you something else to chew on for your nightmares. Comment last year over at Blogging SupposiTory BC Blue from the Astute Wilson
Wilson, very recently had implied that no matter how bad Harper may be, he’s not as bad as the ‘alternative’–the ‘evul’ ‘coalition of losers’…What is scary is after hearing callers on CJAD saying they’ll vote for Harper for one reason–they haven’t forgiven the coalition of 2008, and yes, many believe that ‘evul coalition’ is still very possible, even though there is no evidence of such thing.
And another one, also from last year from the equally intellectual Mary T: I will link to my commentary (rather than the original site where Mary made the comment originally, but the link to that site is there and you can click from there) as it has a video you should watch; from 2009 by-election; Harpercon Placard slogan in riding of Hochelaga. Here’s Mary T:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but that sounds like Ms Mary has been dreaming of a Totalitarian regime for some time. Like I said, watch the video; Look at the sign. In French, but the language is pretty simple.
Sixth Estate Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 7:38 PM
Thanks for all the extra, uncomforting reading.
I get the feeling that in a short while the entire progressive movement is going to have to start over from scratch, ca. 1830.
ck Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 7:55 PM
I’m glad it was uncomforting. I’d be worried if it was. I wish more would wake up to this growing trend.
There wsa a reason I said to all back during Martin’s last fight that it was less corrosive to democratic values and institutions to leave Martin in power/charge despite the Sponsorship Scandal and the clear fatigue within the Liberal government/party than to allow Harper even a minority because of how much he would abuse power in ways never before considered in this country. That the worst money scandals in our history would pale in comparison in terms of danger, destruction and total contempt for Canadian democratic values and institutions to the abuse of power scandals we would see from a Harper government. For my trouble I was treated with contempt, branded a paid Liberal party operative or a hysteric, and got as much respect generally from other progressives (especially Dippers, something I have been bitter about, because if ever there was a time for the NDP to be the last defender of progressive values on the federal stage this was the time, yet instead Layton looked to electoral gains in his quest to supplant the Libs instead of blocking the greatest not to mention most obvious threat ever to progressive Canadian values from gaining the power of the PMO) as did Cassandra.
While there may be in some things a sense of satisfaction of being able to say I told you all so when being proven as correct as I have been in this, this topic is not one in which that is true. I would have been far happier to be proven to be the hysteric I was labeled as, I truly would have been. I knew how I sounded when I wrote those things back then, but I felt they needed to be said because they were what I saw coming, especially since unlike most people I had watched Harper since he first came on my awareness back in the late 80s as a part of the Reform party.
I knew of his inherent contempt for democracy, indeed his biggest clash with Manning was over Manning’s belief in grassroots participatory democracy having a say in the policy decisions and makeup of the Reform party and he walked away from Manning and Reform because of it. Mind you it took the Grewal recording fraud committed by or at the very minimum clearly overlooked knowingly for partisan gain by Harper and his LOO (they did after all authenticate and state that it was complete and unedited, something Harper personally guaranteed to be the case when the recordings were first released) to show that Harper was not an honest ideologue, that he would say and do anything to gain and hold power regardless of whether it broke laws or not. The fact that he was able to bury the reality that the Grewal recordings were edited substantively and in such a blatantly obvious manner that it was noticed by bloggers and some journalists immediately upon release (despite three weeks examination and “authentication” by the LOO) doesn’t change the reality that he did something I would not have believed of any party leader not even him until I saw it done, and that made what I knew to be his agenda politically and on the process side even more terrifying to me than it already was. Bad enough an honest ideologue gains power, but a say anything do anything for power ideologue who believes his way is the one proper way regardless of anything including basic laws who also believes in the noble lie, well that is something that makes the honest ideologue look almost benign by comparison.
So hearing this latest from Harper’s lackeys is no surprise, they have shown their willingness to hold not just custom and precedent in contempt but the law itself in contempt whenever it gets in their way, and since a if not the cornerstone of any democracy is respect for the rule of law applying to all equally…*shrug* there you go.
I am going to try to come back especially if another election is triggered, hopefully people are fnally starting to understand why I was always so freaked out by Harper and so adamant about trying to get people to understand that this time the maxim Liberal Tory same old story simply had no basis in reality, that this time the “tory” (not a word I will use to describe Harper and his gang, I respect real Canadian Torys and their history, unlike them) is unlike anything we have ever seen in this country and is the greatest threat to the long term survivability of this nation, not excluding the Separatists in Quebec, something pre-Harper government I never thought I’d ever be saying.
ck Reply:
March 12th, 2011 at 1:26 AM
Thanks so much for writing, Scotian. You’re not alone. I agree with you 100%. I’ve known Stevie was a PM like none other we’ve seen in history. People are going to have to start shaping up and fast, or we will have that dictatorship.
Here is something about the NDP written by James Laxer following the 2006 election I think you may find interesting. As we approach a probable election, I think Prof Laxer’s article bares dusting off.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2006.05-politics-jack-layton-ndp-fake-left-go-right/
I have a feeling we just may see a repeat performance.
I will say something you may not like though…if Harper does get that majority, I will be joining the separatists, pushing for sovereignty as it will be our only way out from under Master Steve.