GET THEE TO A NUNNERY!

My next planned entry was supposed to be about Proportional Representation as a way to increase the interest of Canadians in voting. If many Canadians feel they have no voice because their votes don't result in parliamentary representation, PR could be a way to motivate them to exercise their political responsibility. But, that's been overtaken by the current goings-on in Ottawa.

I didn't believe Stephen Harper when he promised during the election campaign that the next parliament would be more civil and would get things done. Why didn't I believe him? Because of his record ever since he first arrived in Ottawa on the tails of Preston Manning in the last century, particularly since he became the leader of the Neo-Conservative Party. As Prime Minister, he has broken most of the promises he's made, and every time he opens his political mouth out come lies and bile and character assassination. How can anyone trust such a person?

The so-called Economic Update was no such thing, of course. It contained nothing of the kind of economic stimulus required and provided by other industrialized countries. Instead, it was a document full of neo-Conservative cant designed to restrict the rights of women and unions, and to cripple opposition parties by removing their financial base (public support was the basis of political funding reform decided on by Parliament only a few years ago). In other words, it looked like a way to maintain himself in autocratic power without the bother of having to deal with dissent. Speak of Canada on the way to becoming a banana republic!

Since the Neo-Conservatives are in a minority position, under our parliamentary system the opposition has a perfect right to form a coalition to defeat the government, and, forced into a corner by Harper, they had no choice but to react or roll over and play dead. So, the current turmoil is no one's fault but Harper's alone.

The real problem Canada is now faced with is that Harper is turning what is a constitutional question into a political campaign designed to destroy not only the other political parties, but also the office of Governor-General. This is being done in the same way that Harper used during the recent election campaign, through a deliberate policy of lies and distortions of what's going on to confuse and influence unsophisticated people who were never educated in the way our constitution works.

In this, he's helped by all the media, who are adding to the confusion in the same way they added to the world financial crisis by bleating 24/7 "THE SKY IS FALLING". If you create hysteria, of course you'll get it!

All I can say to all this is to use a beautiful Shakespearean phrase (and isn't this just like a Shakespeare drama - with bad English). Stephen Harper, GET THEE TO A NUNNERY, and don't wait for spring, DO IT NOW!