Eric C. Bow

Stephen Harper  is asking Ontarians to remember the Bob Rae years. Fair enough. But Ontarian’s should also remember the Harris years of cuts to  social programs and labour unrest. This is particularly important when Harper is talking about cutting $11 billion in government expenditure over the next few years.  Key members of the Harper cabinet including his finance minister, are ex Harris cabinet  ministers.

Harris cut social assistance rates by 22%. The Ontario Conservatives stated that too many people were taking advantage of the program, and that it acted as a disincentive for seeking employment; no matter that the cuts increased the hardship of Ontario’s poorest residents. Harris also introduced “Ontario Works,” frequently referred to as ” workfare” a program that required able-bodied welfare recipients to participate in either training or job placements.

The Harris government laid off several hundred nurses to cut costs in the health sector and  implemented a series of hospital closures on the recommendations of a Harris appointed Health Services Restructuring Commission. He cut health spending to record levels and introduced a Fair Share Health Levy (tax) that applied to high-income earners to help pay for mounting health care costs

The Harris government cut funding of major urban infrastructure projects and municipal services. These cuts resulted in Walkerton. In the name of municipal government efficiency Harris eliminated many smaller communities by amalgamating them into larger units.

Harris was responsible for major changes to Ontario’s educational system which reduced the quality of education in Ontario. He eliminated the fifth year of high school in Ontario (known as the OAC  year). He reduced the powers of school boards.

The results of all these cuts: the Ontario deficit rocketed an additional $20 Billion.

Ontarians, before you vote Monday please think about what the Harris Conservatives did to Ontario.

My Canada’s government is called “the Government of Canada,” not “the Harper Government”. It is government of the people, for the people and by the people. Harper needs to be reminded that Canada’s Government is of all the people, not just of those who vote for the Conservative Party of Canada. The people have the ultimate right to make the decisions. That means Parliament is supreme and the Government and prime minister are responsible to it. The government of Canada is for all the people of Canada and  will do things that are beneficial to all, rather than just the things that are good for those who voted CPC.

Harper was so contemptuous of Parliament that he prorogued Parliament rather than face a vote of confidence. He invoked national security and cabinet privilege to deny Parliament access to information it needed for its deliberations. His party was found guilty of contempt of Parliament. The CPC is making light of this, saying this election is about the budget.  Yet their budget did not come to a vote.

The CPC was defeated because it lost the confidence of the House, the ultimate authority in our parliamentary system. MPs representing nearly 60% of the people of Canada found Harper and his CPC in contempt of Parliament. This is very serious, yet the CPC is trying to say it is only a matter of procedure and the people don’t care about procedural issues. It is not just procedure, it is an attack on our parliamentary democracy.  Our democracy is definitely not safe in Harper’s hands.

The CPC/Harper campaign lacks integrity. The campaign ads misrepresent the truth, taking things out of context – and, as Gilles Duceppe says, Harper lies. The CPC campaign is one big disinformation campaign, not unlike the disinformation campaigns run by the U.S. during the Cold War.  It was Paul Martin and Ralph Goodale, not Harper, who got our economy in shape so it could weather the recession. Harper’s contribution is the largest deficit in over a decade. Harper and the CPC obviously believe if you repeat a lie over and over, voters will come to believe it is the truth.

Economists and the statistics show that the CPC tax cuts to our wealthiest corporations are not working to create jobs or to get them to innovate.  The corporations are banking the tax savings. While there are jobs – one corporation, as the NDP pointed out, used its tax cuts to create jobs in Memphis – they are often part-time, at lower wages, with fewer benefits and less job security. Harper has no respect for parliamentary democracy, for the voters or  for his opponents. In fact, he wants to destroy the Liberals utterly.

Harper has nothing but disdain for Canada outside of Alberta. Voters in eastern Canada need reminding that in 2000 Harper co-signed a letter to Ralph Klein urging him to “build firewalls” around Alberta. It was Harper who accused the Maritimes of having a “culture of defeat” and said that Canada “appears content to become a second-tier socialist country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status.”

This is what he really thinks about Canada; this is Harper’s Canada.

Harper’s Canada is not my Canada.

Many Canadian cities plough their sidewalks as well as their roads; why not Kitchener? Maclean’s (March 21, 2011, “From the editors”), makes a very good case for all cities to plough their sidewalks.  Clear sidewalks should be a basic municipal service like drinkable water and street lights that work. As Maclean’s says, “No Canadian city would ever expect residents to keep the roads in front of their houses clear of snow and ice for the benefit of cars and buses.” If Kitchener is ever to become a pedestrian-friendly city it will have to make ploughing city sidewalks as high a priority as ploughing city roads; pedestrians needs must be at least as high a priority than the needs of cars and buses. Maclean’s points out that “many …Canadian cities, including Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Fredericton and the majority of Metro Toronto, manage to keep sidewalks clear as part of their routine duties.” The editors go on to point out that “Winnipeg, for example, manages to keep its sidewalks free from snow and ice for $2 million a year, or less than $7 per household.”

In Your Kitchener, the city announced that on Jan. 1, 2011, the City of Kitchener transferred stormwater management funding from the property taxes to a user-fee program. On the opposite page the city has a list of why stormwater management is important. Snow and ice can cause many of the same problems – especially risk to public safety and property damage. Snow and ice are storm water in a frozen form. It seems to me that the new stormwater user fee would be far more palatable if it included an additional amount for sidewalk snow and ice removal. Winnipeg’s $7 per household is a reasonable amount and, as Maclean’s states, a “great bargain of municipal governance.”

I completely agree with the statement that “In the interest of fairness and common sense, next winter all Canadians should demand their cities provide snow-free sidewalls. Exhausted shovellers unite.”  Particularly citizens of Kitchener: now is the time to start lobbying city council to include sidewalk snow and ice removal in Kitchener’s Stormwater Management Program.