Harper is not really a Canadian Conservative
| March 11, 2015The following are notes for a short talk rabble's Parliamentary Correspondent gave at an event in Ottawa, early in March 2015, sponsored by the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy, which is headed by Andrew Cardozo.
When I think of Stephen Harper I am not sure he is really a Conservative, or at least not a Conservative in the proud Canadian tradition.
Where Robert Borden and John Diefenbaker extended the franchise -- the former to women, the latter to First Nations people -- Harper is trying to limit it, with legislation he insultingly calls the 'Fair' Elections Act.
That legislation is so bad the Conservatives could get virtually nobody to appear before two parliamentary committees to speak in its favour.
In what may be a first for parliamentary democracy, over 90 per cent of the witnesses who spoke at committee opposed the Fair Elections Act.
That included the Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand. The Harper government did not, of course, consult Mayrand.
Instead it insulted him.
READ MORE: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-nerenberg/2015/03/harper-not-really-canadian-conservative
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