Evidence will not change Brown’s mind on Harper: reader

November 11, 2015 · 0 Comments

This is response to your article last about Lois Brown. I accept the fact that Ms. Brown was, at the local level, an excellent MP, but her willingness to accept the dogma of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) without question makes one wonder. She feels that Mr. Harper was the bee’s knees, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Here are a few factoids.

1. Contempt for Parliament. On March 25, 2011, the Harper administration was found to be in contempt of Canadian parliament.
2. When Harper was president of the National Citizens Coalition, founded in 1967, he supported US-style bank deregulation. He had planned to do this when the events of 2008 suggested that this might not be a good idea. Nevertheless, since the 2008 Financial Crisis, he has been taking credit for the relative strength of our financial sector, based on a system he inherited, but did not support.
3. Unwilling to look at changes to CPP. The Harper government was laying the groundwork to replace Canada’s well-run, cost-effective, and stable CPP with a private, more expensive pension scheme – the Pooled Registered Pension Plan (PRPP), run by the bank, mutual fund, and insurance industries. This would have made money for those working on Bay Street
4. Over 750 million of our tax dollars spent on partisan advertisements touting the Economic Action Plan.
5. Wasteful spending on the G20 meetings in 2010, in excess of $1 Billion, including $50 million spent in Tony Clement’s riding.
6. Eliminating the long-form census that provided very useful statistical data.
7. Tough on crime legislation when the crime rate in Canada was at its lowest level in more than three decades.
8. Too much in bed with “big oil.” Harper cut $1.2 billion from the establishment of national childcare, but failed to keep his promise of cutting the $1.4 billion in tax breaks he gives to oil companies, which continue to see record profits.
9. Stupid re-branding: The “Government of Canada” to “The Harper Government”. All the Government of Canada web pages were re-jigged to CPC “blue”. The once red and white flag of Canada was no longer red and white.
10. Disdain for evidence-based decisions.

I could go on but I am not sure that any of the above will change Ms. Brown’s mind.

Geoffrey Smith
Aurora