When Stephen Harper first appeared on the Canadian political scene he appeared to have a vision for Canada that for many fit their view of what was wrong with the country.
Once he became Prime Minister in 2006 cracks in his vision began to appear. He refused to listen to or work with the opposition or to maintain a harmonious parliamentary atmosphere. When threated with revolt from the opposition Stephen Harper prorogued parliament to regroup in the hopes of hanging on to his position.
During the 2008 election campaign the World economy tanked. Both Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper campaigned on the premise that Canada would not be affected by a World economic collapse.
Fortunately for the two dummies the "previous government" as Harperites so ineptly like to refer to the Liberals, had left Canada's economy in a position to survive the impending "depression".
Again the ignorance and incompetence of the Harperites began to disrupt the democratic process in the House of Commons and Harper once again prorogued to reload rather than be pushed to an also ran position.
In the ensuing political campaign voter fatigue, apathy and residual anger at the Liberals allowed Harper to seize power through the back door.
The resulting majority government allowed the CPC to implement Harpers agenda, "Starve the Beast" and destroy the democratic process by either eliminating departments or cut their budget so they could not function.
In the process we have seen an unprecedented number of scandals and election fraud convictions of Harper associates and MP's as well as appointed Senators.
The Republican "Tea Party" economics of Harper's corporate tax cuts are beginning to take their toll on a variety of important departments within the public sector with bureaucrats telling news agencies that they don't have enough money to meet present day requirements. Services over the next year and for many years after will only get worse as departments, starved of financial resources, will cut personnel.
On the agenda is the privatization of Canada's medicare system and the CPP as Harper continues to slash and gut essential Federal programs.
These cuts and gutting of Federal programs are a part of the strategy to decentralize services and download them on the Provinces. That is all well and good, IF previous governments of Mulroney and Cretien had not already downloaded much of the services already. In doing so the provinces have deficits that they need to reduce before taking on more or they must raise taxes.
The province of Ontario is a good example of Flaherty's lack of vision and the trickle down effect of Harris's "Common Sense Revolution". Education and Hospitalization suffered as a result. Downloaded services in some cases was picked up by the various regional governments and by Municipality's, those services required money so taxes rose and deficits increased.
It is a vicious circle, as Harper downloads he smells better to the fools who think his policies are a good idea however costs for individual voters do not change as some other government must pick up the service voters demand.
There is a cost to downloading. If medicare goes to privatization fewer people will be able to afford the cost of a family policy. Fewer people purchasing means the private beast needs higher priced policy rates. A ceiling on the payouts and a refusal to cover other services. Like the US system an individual will be restricted to certain doctors who are approved by your "provider".
Some corporations may offer to pick up the cost of an employees " medical insurance" as a part of their employment "contract". That is all well and good, but it is not free. The company must recoup that cost, there are two ways of recouping that "overhead" investment... by tax deduction and by adding to the overhead cost of producing and marketing their product.
The Canadian economy was booming prior to Harper becoming PM and we had all these services the CPC are eliminating granted, the World economic collapse was not Harpers doing but the failed recovery, reduced corporate taxes and the catering to corporate America are his doing.
Nothing is free, either you pay for it in taxes or you pay for it at the Point Of Purchase. Don't be a dupe for Harper's Republican views and policies.
No comments:
Post a Comment