How does a person react when every day they hear and see some new abomination that our federal government is perpetrating against its own people?
Before I can write to Prime Minister Harper about an action I want to protest, another pops up until I become overwhelmed with issues I feel an urgent need to take action against. I know that long, rambling letters of protest are thrown aside as the work of a crank.
Never have I seen so many outraged people. Rarely have I seen such arrogant and mean-spirited behaviour on the part of our government.
One of the first things Harper did after the election was to begin to break the unions. This isn’t too surprising as he said he would do that. But, unions consist of working people who are trying their hardest to keep themselves together enough to maintain a household. So who are they breaking? Families.
The Harper government forced the postal workers back to work with less pay than Canada Post offered them. That is unprecedented and shows clearly which side he supports. Then, when the Air Canada employees attempted to strike, the Harper government struck first and forced them back to work. Air Canada, in spite of its name, is privately owned and the government interfered before any negotiations had begun.
We all knew this government was going to gut the gun controls. But when I heard that all the data that was collected after spending all that money was going to be destroyed I was flabbergasted. Why would they do that?
When the Tories were in opposition I heard every day practically how their party members disrupted committee meetings, even having a handbook on how to do it. Since they won a majority (with only 40 per cent of the vote) this behaviour has become much worse. Why? They are going to get their way anyway. There are many big bills on the table now, and at every turn this government is using closure to shut down dialogue. This is not democracy.
We see in the news right now that one of our Canadian communities in the north has had to declare a state of emergency. The weather is getting cold and some of them will not survive it. They live on rich land. The Lubicon in Alberta’s north are another example. Shouldn’t we be responding as if it were a disaster in any other country?
I have lived long enough to see our country slowly eroding and it is speeding up under this government. Being an economist, it seems that Harper cannot even see the plight of many Canadians. If it doesn’t fit into the budget it isn’t there. Everything comes down to money now. The economy is this government’s mantra. It’s time for Mr. Harper to take off his blinkers and look around his own country instead of flying all over the globe making trade deals that may or may not have our best interests in mind — and we have proof that mostly they don’t.
I think the only way to protest to Mr. Harper is to bombard his email every day with one-liners: I protest the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board; I protest the pipeline going through our Rocky Mountains and down our dangerous coast in big tankers; I protest…
That’s the only alternative I can see to avoid biting my nails off. Gnats of the world unite.
Donna Stocker
Cawston