Harper is not a Conservative, and the Conservative Party of Canada is not the party it was 10 years ago.
The party that evolved with the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative party does not represent Canadian democratic, social and environmental values.
The newly minted party adopted a constitution that paved the way for Harper to transfer the nation’s legislative powers into the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Conservative Party is harbouring a leader and prime minister who regularly and openly demonstrates he has nothing but contempt for the people who elected him, and the institutions he has sworn to protect.
Using party discipline, Harper has crushed the democratic process in our federal House of Commons.
He has effectively destroyed credibility in the Senate, and has over the last eight years managed to turn the Prime Minister’s Office into a political control center.
Harper does not play by the rules and, having attained absolute power, he has abused that power to the maximum:
• Proroguing Parliament and bundling legislation is now common practice.
• Gutting Canada’s health-care budget, while creating a ministry to spend 20 million dollars on religion.
• Signing dozens of trade agreements, while foreign investors are challenging our sovereignty, seeking billions of dollars in damages for ‘infractions’.
For Harper, this election is nothing less than a desperate and personal obsession to protect his ‘made in Canada’ dictator style of government.
On October 19th, we have to make sure that does not happen.
Andy Thomsen