POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN BY JEFFREY SIMPSON IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
"The NDP platform seldom gets a costed look. It’s a pastiche of guesses and conjectures."
Please, it is exactly the same for all parties, only in the case of Conservatives, we're not talking about election platform items, we're talking about actual policy.
We have no idea, and Parliament has no idea, of the cost of current Conservative policies and proposed legislation. None.
The complete lack of costing of government proposals and policies and campaign policies is one of the greatest flaws in our democracy - a hole big enough to drive a fleet of trucks through.
An ignorant vote is no vote at all.
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"Steal the election?"
Enough, please, of such complete ignorance. Reading this kind of line makes one think we live in Orwell's 1984.
Coalitions are, and always have been, a completely legitimate part of parliamentary government.
Just because Canada has not used the tool to any extent does not make it an inappropriate one.
Dozens of parliamentary democracies have been governed this way, including at this moment Britain and Israel.
The mindless repetition of Harper's thoughtless slogans about coalition sadly demonstrates the poor knowledge of a large part of our electorate.
An ignorant democracy really is not much of a democracy, but this kind of sad ignorance is at the very foundation of all Harper's efforts.
Indeed, Mr. Simpson, I think Harper's use of this slogan is more dangerous than anything else being said by anyone.
If he fails to get his majority, he is setting up people in the West for deep resentment about the East.
It reminds me quite sadly of Hitler's "stab in the back" line about why Germany lost World War I.
This kind of intellectual and ethical filth works.
But it works only at the peril of civil society and democratic values.
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Our democracy is in genuine trouble.
Mr. Ignatieff is an appointed leader in the 21st century.
Mr. Harper is a control-freak who feels free to bend every rule and tradition of Parliament to keep his place and promote his agenda.
No one seems to care and no one seems to be able to do anything about a man who stands in contempt of Parliament and a man who has abused democratic values in countless situations in committees and in appointments.
Everyone points to the Bloc in Quebec as being against our values when in fact the Bloc's existence and our tolerance of it represent the finest part of Canadian civil and ethical values.
Indeed, it is a sad thing to have to say, but Mr. Duceppe, in a number of ways, represents democratic values and statesmanship better than the current leaders of our two major parties.
This whole election is meaningless. Harper plays the tiresome and anti-democratic game of seeking out a limited number of "swing" ridings and in those ridings blasts his horn on narrow wedge issues of little interest to anyone else.
Nowhere, absolutely nowhere, does Mr. Harper offer us a set of cohesive policies around which we can unite as Canadians.
And Ignatieff is not much better, a man of surprisingly mediocre political talents considering his noted background.
And Harper spews the anti-democratic venom of "the stab in the back" if he doesn't get his way.
Harper represents the most poisonous individual ever to hold high office in Canada and he will leave a legacy of hateful ads, secrecy, no tolerance, poorly-considered comments, pandering to certain groups, and a whole lot more.
Texas-style hateful politics.
