We can’t trust Stephen Harper

January 9, 2006

Take a deep breath everyone - it’s not over til it’s over....But Harper remains a serious threat right now and it is very important to remind people who he is and what has always stood for.

This is an expanded version of the last letter - if you didn’t write last time., please write this time.

The message:

“It would be tempting to vote for Stephen Harper if the only factor in deciding were a list of policy pronouncements. But we have to balance what Harper has said in the last month with what he has said and done over a period of 17 years. I just don’t trust this man. He has given no explanation for his complete about-turn on a dozen policy areas.”

Pick ONE OF THE FOLLOWING to draft a short letter - all we need to accomplish is to remind people of why they should be scared of this man and his still secret agenda..

• For fifteen years Stephen Harper attacked medicare and even worked for the National Citizens’ Coalition which was founded to fight public medicare.
  
  In October 2002, Harper was quoted in the Toronto Star as saying, "We also support the exploration of alternative ways to deliver health care. Moving toward alternatives, including those provided by the private sector, is a natural development of our health care system."
  
  For him to now say he opposes the privatization of medicare is simply not credible. In the absence of any explanation of this dramatic about-face, we shouldn’t accept it. It’s too fishy/suspicious/self-serving/much to ask...
  
  
• How can we possibly accept that Stephen Harper is suddenly concerned about Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic - he wants patrols to keep an eye on US submarines - when for his whole political life he has worshipped all things American.
  
  In a May, 2003, speech to the Institute for Research on Public Policy, Harper said:
  
  "The time has come to recognize that the US will continue to exercise unprecedented power in a world where international rules are still unreliable and where security and advancing of the free democratic order still depend significantly on the possession and use of military might."
  
  
• In a speech to US right wing audience he declared Canada would never have the same strong identity the US has. He doesn’t think Canada really has a culture. When asked in a 1997 CBC interview if Canada had a culture, he replied:
  
  "Yes, in a very loose sense. It consists of regional cultures within Canada, regional cultures that cross borders with the U.S. We're part of a worldwide Anglo-American culture. And there is a continental culture."
  
  
• In Winnipeg on May 18, 2005, Mr. Harper spoke specifically of “commercializing” the CBC . He stated “I think when you look at things like main English-language television and probably to a lesser degree Radio Two, you could look there at putting those on a commercial basis." That’s the first step in outright privatization.
  
  
• So Stephen Harper is suddenly pro-Canadian. In 1997 Stephen Harper left politics to join the virulently right-wing National Citizens Coalition because, he said, there he was free to speak his mind. He told the National Post (Dec. 8 2000) that “Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status…”

When and why did he change his mind? Or did he?

• In 1997 Stephen Harper left politics to join the virulently right-wing National Citizens Coalition because, he said, there he was free to speak his mind. He told BC Report News magazine, on January 11, 1999, that "Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society…It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff." Does he still believe this? If not, what changed his mind?
  
  
• Stephen Harper’s child care program is consistent with what he said some years ago about universal social programs. He boasted in 1994 about the Reform Party’s influence in Parliament: "Universality has been severely reduced: it is virtually dead as a concept in most areas of public policy…These achievements are due in part to the Reform Party…” (Speech to the Colin Brown Memorial Dinner, National Citizens Coalition, 1994)
  
  That is why he wants to simply give money to parents to spend on child care - attempting to bribe people with their own money but avoiding a universal, high quality, national child care system.
  
  
• Mr Harper now claims he wants to keep “big money” out of elections and limit individual party donations to $1000. But he spent fifteen years fighting such limits. When he worked for the National Citizens Coalition, he attacked a Manitoba law which capped individual contributions at $3,000 - three times the limit Harper is now promising. Mr. Harper attacked Manitoba’s law, calling it "..the most dangerous and oppressive gag law in Canadian history.."and accusing NDP premier Gary Doer of "waging a war against freedom."
  
  
• Remember the Red Book of broken promises drafted by Paul Martin for the 1993 election? It sounded wonderful - and people voted for it. Then Martin through it out. Now we have the equivalent from Stephen Harper. The Conservatives and Liberals will say and do anything to get power.