Glimmer Of Hope?

The opinion poll tide is turning in Canada and more and more Canadians are turning their backs on the Conservative Party.

Can this be true? Is it sustainable? Do I dare to hope?

The Globe & Mail published this story today, asking if Canadians will "throw the bums out" if a Spring election was called. Polls show that Conservative support is in a remarkable slide, while Liberal fortunes are on the rise.

Why now? After all the bullying, American-style leadership, right-wing, evangelical, and plain evil that Harper has been bringing us for four years, what has caused people to finally say they've had enough? Proroguing Parliament. Again.

The second time Harper decided to prorogue to stem the loss of political points, he thought that if anyone cared at all, that they'd be on his side. I'll admit that as much as I care and opposed it (the first and second time) I thought the same thing as Steve - if the masses were on his side the first time, eating up lies about how our Parliamentary system works, why would it be any different the second time? I'm as surprised as he is over the public's reaction. And it appears that no amount of politicking around Haiti has reduced the prorogation ire.

I think I will allow myself a sliver of hope that Canadians will sustain their disgust, and will reject another round of Conservative leadership. I do so not only for the good of Parliament, but because I want to believe that Canadians don't hold the same views and perspectives on the world that Harper does.

Besides, I would find it endlessly amusing if Harper's decision to prorogue, a unilateral move he hoped would save his dictatorship, proves to be his undoing.

Three Months

It's been three months since my last post. I have been an absentee landlord to my Letters.

Today I try to get back to the habit with a report from a top bureaucrat named Kevin Page. He's a current hero because he's a current thorn in the side of the folks who thought that rampant spending paired with broad tax cuts would bring us prosperity. Well, we have debt. Lots of it. More than Canadians are accustomed to, since normally we have surpluses, and it's more than we can recover from any time soon.

For many months, our Prime Minister and Minster of Finance have been going on at length about how the economy is doing just fine, that the deficit is short-term and temporary, that their stimulus plans will save the day, and that any talk to contrary is an attack on our troops - their usual go-to defence for any attacks on their incompetence and failings.

In order to avoid any further discussion on their aforementioned incompetence, (we can look away from the economy, randomly point in other directions, and find plenty of other issues: torture in the Middle East, or funding cuts to museums and education for example), over the December holiday season Harper decided to prorogue parliament until after Vancouver's Olympic Games (another disaster I won't get into) to allow his MPs to have favourable photo-ops at the Games.

Which brings me back to Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer in Ottawa. Harper knew that proroguing Parliament would cause all current work in the capital to cease - which means no reports released, no committees meeting, no transparency, etc. But one report did find it's way out of the mess, and that's because Kevin Page wouldn't let it die in prorogument. He has released his budget report showing that the Conservatives, with policies pushed by Harper and Flaherty, have sunk us into an $18.9 billion structural deficit. $18.9 billion. From yearly surpluses to a structural deficit in just a few short years of Harper's reign.

And to stymie any thoughts about this being some kind of Liberal/NDP attack, let's remember that the Parliamentary Budget Officer is a public servant working in a non-partisan office that was created by the Conservatives.

This budget mess is only one of a thousand bad decisions Harper and his Conservatives have made, but it's the one that has, at last, managed to grab a lot of attention and animosity. I hope, with all that Harper has done to damage Canadians here and abroad, our reputation, our government, and even the land itself, that the voting public will finally say we've had enough. Speak with your ballot and to your elected representatives - and do it before it's too late. We're already teetering over the brink.