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.