| Martin Lukacs http://gu.com/p/4d8nv/stw
Continuing a Liberal legacy, Harper’s cuts to taxes – GST, corporate and
personal – have enriched corporations and denied the state a stunning
$45 billion a year in revenue. ..................
Certain other images of the Harper era are impossible to forget. A mountain of irreplaceable books from a scientific library discarded in a dumpster. Harper pantomiming empathy for a Syrian child washed onto Turkey’s shores, followed by news that he personally blocked
the processing of the most desperate refugees. Or when Manitoba First
Nations, stricken by the swine flu, appealed for medicine: Ottawa
instead sent
body bags. Images capturing the quality of a dark decade, the sneering
state-backed contempt for our highest aspirations to grasp our
ecological limits, to assist those abroad, and to protect the most
vulnerable among us.
Stephen Harper may have changed the character of the Canadian state.
He has not changed the character of its people. Stifled and suffering
under his policies, an overwhelming majority clearly want a new
direction. While reversing the damage he has inflicted will require
time, a reformed electoral system and the growth of popular movements,
it must start by the removal of his government. Vote strategically and above all with your conscience, but vote Harper out.
On 19 October, Canadians will have their chance to combat a
home-grown threat – a threat posed not by veiled women, but by the
dismembering of their country. When a regime so utterly ransacks its own
lands and people, can we stop describing it as the governing of a
nation? It is more akin to a barbarian invasion.
On twitter: @Martin_Lukacs
