There are certain political principles that most of our citizens stand by: that using the facts is central to good public policy making; that Canada is more than the sum of its parts; that a strong central government is important to our country; that the people we democratically elect to Parliament must be able to exercise the will of their constituents; and that Canadians effectively engage the government of the day and make their wishes known. Yet, all of these principles have been deeply undermined by our “new Conservative government”.

Over the last year, Prime Minister Harper has eliminated the Officer of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, the Environment Commissioner and a host of other public servants that have historically provided effective input into the public policy machinery of government. Equally disturbing is the marginalization of the Public Service. Public servants now live in fear of making any interventions that are seen to be different from the views of the government.

Most disturbing is how the Prime Minister’s Office undermines the freedom of the press by calling up reporters to threaten them with not having access to information or Ministers when they write articles that displease them. The Conservative government only grants interviews to reporters that will give them a favourable story, regardless of the facts. Others are denied access to Ministers and information, the lifeblood of the media trade. This blackmail is a violation of a central pillar of our democracy: a free press.

The “new Conservative government” came in with a $13 billion surplus two years ago and has now whittled this down to only $1.3 billion, which is less than 0.2% of the spending of the federal government. They have done this through senseless economic manoeuvres such as reducing the GST two percentage points which is very expensive, (it costs $12 billion) rather than reducing personal income taxes for the poor and middle class. The latter puts money in the hands of the individual, enabling them to choose what they want to do with it.

This recent shrinking of the surplus has had two effects. First, it has put us on the knife edge of a deficit, a completely irresponsible situation given the U.S. recession and our current economic downturn. Second, this fits with Mr. Harper’s ideology to shrivel Ottawa’s powers by shrinking its spending power. Mr. Harper wants strong provincial governments and a runt of a national government in Ottawa. He believes we are only the sum of our parts. I fundamentally disagree with this. I believe that our magnificent nation is greater than the sum of its parts. I also believe that we are Canadians first, regardless of where we live, and provincial creatures second. If a citizen moves from one province to another he/she should be able to access similar benefits, e.g. health care and education. Mr. Harper’s move is very much supported by Quebec separatists for obvious reasons and it fits in with his desire to gain more seats in that province. He is buying his electoral success at the expense of the integrity of our nation.

Our government is run by the Prime Minister and a handful of unelected people in his office. He has marginalized his own elected MPs, who he basically ignores, and he only listens to the opposition when forced to do so. Finally, non-governmental organizations in our country that often represent large groups of Canadians have also been utterly excluded from having input into government and are even threatened to have their funding cut off or significantly reduced if they stand for something the government disagrees with.

In short, our “new Conservative government” is assaulting our fundamental democratic freedoms through blackmail and bullying. It is ignoring facts in favour of ideology when making public policies and it is neutralizing the ability of Canadians to influence the discussions that affect them. Eliminating the vibrant to and fro of ideas, which is the lifeblood of innovation, makes our nation much less than it has the potential to be.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under Democracy, In Ottawa, Jobs and the Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.