Gord, Gord, Gord. I continue to be amazed at the new lows to which both your government and your political associate Prime Minister Harper will sink! And Gord, at the same time, the new heights of arrogance achieved by both you and Mr Harper astonish me. Brings a whole new meaning to “up and down like a toilet seat at a mixed (political) party.”
You and Mr Harper must assume that the voters in this country are either all suffering from some version of collective political Alzheimer’s, or are simply too stupid or too apathetic to see what both of your governments are doing to our society.
A few weeks ago, your government attempted to slide out the information about some enormous salary increases to your senior civil appointees late on a Friday afternoon during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing games. This was done on August 8 even though the salary increases were effective August 1/08. One of these increases was actually over 101,000 bucks. An increase of 43%.
Dear God Gord!! Have you no shame or no awareness of how this will be perceived by those of us for whom $101,000 could well represent five years worth of salary or, if on BC’s minimum wage, over six years wages? You sanction this, having one of your trained ministers barking out some moronic rationale that this must be done to attract the best and the brightest! This logic is unbelievably duplicitous and astonishingly arrogant - plus it doesn’t seem to have worked so far. (What’s next, throw some more money around and see if the collective IQ of your caucus rises a bit?) It also confirms that you and your merry band of neo-liberals are absolutely out of touch with the reality of life in BC and should seriously consider what kind of jobs you’d all like after the election next May. To sanction this, and to continue to refuse to increase the minimum wage in this province leaves me firmly believing that a gaggle of proctologists would have to be involved in order for your band of political cohorts to give your collective heads a shake!
And your political accomplice, Mr Harper, running around like Rocky 2 cruising for a fight. “Fish or cut bait.” I can just see the posters for the big fight: “Stephen vs Stephane in the Battle of the Backroom Boys for the Hearts and Souls of the Canadian Electorate.” Hopefully, while these two are busy playing power politics with Gilles Duceppe as referee, Elizabeth May and Jack Layton will call a press conference and thank the Canadian people for electing the new Green/NDP party to form the next government of Canada. Now that would be sweet!
Mr. Harper and his increasingly regressive government have been busy sending out pre-election pamphlets that expose a strategy so profoundly negative, juvenile and basely manipulative that it actually takes all the “fun” out of fundamental and exposes the 16th century belief system of these guys. What has surprised me is that they haven’t yet introduced a bill to outlaw witchcraft or quietly tried to clone a contemporary Savonarola to ensure that all the books and research they don’t like are burned in the public square.
And now, Mr. Harper is breaking another one of his own promises, and proceeding to an election in spite of his own legislation designed to ensure a set date for federal elections.
Little things like the negative ads, the bullying techniques, the archaic, alchemical approach to science and medicine, the newly minted TV ads praising Mr. Harper as a warm and fuzzy supporter of law and order and good economy, and these pathetic mail outs actually reveal the true intent of the Harper government. Seems to me these guys are doing everything they can get away with to shore up their version of Canada as a fundamentalist satellite of the Bush regime, in spite of the fact that Dubbya, Dick, and Condeleeza are currently skipping down the last stretch of the yellow brick road in their own perverse version of the Wizard of Od. When Bush does finally slither off the world stage, I do wonder who Mr. Harper’s next best friend will be.
Ah for the heady days of Mackenzie King. At least the worst thing he did was talk to his dead dog!
Steve O’Neill
