The Tories’ Dirty Tricks Catalogue
29 Feb 2012
The Conservatives have been caught up in many shady activities since coming to power. The revelation that they may have been behind a robocall operation to suppress voting for opposition parties would rank, if proven, among the more serious offences… To the misfortune of Team Harper, its record on duplicitous activities is hardly one to inspire confidence that its hand are clean. There follows a list — is Harperland becoming Nixonland? — of dirty tricks, black ops and hardball tactics from the Conservatives’ years in power.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights
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The ‘freedom’ show on the Rideau
Feb. 24, 2012
Conservatism has contradictory impulses. The pursuit of freedom and the pursuit of order run at cross-purposes… the Conservative government has a nationalist bent, evident in its elevation of military values, populist anti-intellectualism, moral certitude on foreign policy, law-and-order fixation and message-control mania. This kind of nationalism requires state-driven conformity, not liberty. And so, while Conservatives are supposed to cherish government that is off the backs of the people, what we have is something closer to the opposite.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
A banner year for the new conservative agenda
Dec. 27, 2011
It was a year in which a country built by moderate Liberals and moderate Tories saw the forces of moderation shrink… it was a big year for ideological advances. They came in such areas as crime and punishment, in foreign policy – where Canada has become one of the hawks of the Western world – on the gun registry, on citizenship and immigration, on the military, on the Wheat Board and on the environment… With his authoritarian, l’état c’est moi approach, Mr. Harper is starting to make Mr. Chrétien look like Twinkletoes.
Tags: ideology
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Under this PM, the state is everywhere
Nov. 29, 2011
Conservatism, as defined by Ronald Reagan, was about getting government off the backs of the people. Conservatism, as practised by team Harper, is more akin to an Orwellian opposite. State controls are now at a highpoint in our modern history…. The propaganda machine has become mammoth and unrelenting. The parliamentary newspaper The Hill Times recently found there are now no fewer than 1,500 communications staffers on the governing payroll… State surveillance, the rationale being security, is being taken to new levels.
Tags: ideology, participation
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The weirdo PM who showed the way
Nov. 08, 2011
His exemplary displays of centrist brokerage politics, his placing of national unity at the forefront and his securing of Quebec were pillars that endured for decades. But the fracturing began under Mr. Trudeau and was accelerated by Mr. Turner, who clashed with both Mr. Trudeau and Jean Chrétien. The party took sides, dividing into long-lasting Trudeau/Chrétien and Turner/Paul Martin blocs.
Tags: ideology
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Higher taxation is back on the table
Oct. 25, 2011
Social justice is not a phrase to which modern-day Conservatives are winsomely attracted. But they might do well to pay heed. Both here and abroad, the climate is changing… The Milton Friedman foundation, from which the past three decades of economics have taken their cue, is on shaky ground… the long run of wreckage being witnessed now may result in another great turn… Canadians have a history, until recently at least, of accepting higher taxation levels as the price for a more just and egalitarian society.
Tags: featured, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Smoke, mirrors and a Harper majority
Mar. 29, 2011
Truth, as we know, is a moving target. Facts need not matter. In politics, it’s about who brings the most megaphones to the table. Whatever gets repeated the most is the reality. With more ads, with more media support, with more resources, the Conservatives drown out their opponents. Their fictional universe overshadows those of the other parties.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology
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On the road to the Harper government’s tipping point
Mar. 08, 2011
In keeping with its obsession with secrecy and control, we recall the PMO’s muzzling of the public service and the diplomatic corps, its suppression of research containing data countering its ideology, and its efforts to impede the functioning of the access-to-information system… The government’s arc of duplicity is remarkable to behold. And there are more revelations to come. It may not happen in the next election, but there will be a tipping point and the PM and his ministers will pay the price.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
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Majority! Who cares?
Jan. 11, 2011
Viewing the degree of authority, command and control that this Prime Minister has been able to effect with a minority, he should have no regrets over its limitations. To achieve his paramountcy, Mr. Harper has resorted in dozens of instances to overreach and to abuse of power. But democratic standards in this country have declined over the years and – to date, at least – he’s been able to get away with it. The story of his first five years has been less in policymaking than in taking over control of the infrastructure of power…
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
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When guilt by association wasn’t the Canadian way
October 12, 2010
Guilt by association. It’s a hallmark of the modus operandi, a cheap instrument of attack politics that tarnishes the image of all Conservatives. The Progressive Conservatives of old would not have put up with it. Those Tories always had a right-wing cabal that manifested a prejudice and narrow-mindedness, like some U.S. Republicans. But that faction was always very much in the minority… the merger of the two conservative parties in 2004, more a Canadian Alliance takeover than a merger, gave them the prominence of place they enjoy today.
Tags: ideology
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
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