So if I understand the theories and details correctly, we've all been "had" once again by the Harper-Cons and by Harpernomics.
Whether one believes that the great world-wide financial crisis of 2008 was real or manufactured , it was very timely for Stephen Harper. It served to shift the national debate away from the environment (where it rightfully belonged and where the Government of Harper was woefully inadequate) to saving Canada from financial Armageddon. And even though in his first two years in office, Harper effectively squandered the $16 billion surplus he inherited from Paul Martin, he was able to show himself to be the only REAL leader to guide us out of the darkness, having effectively neutered Stephan Dion in the minds of most Canadians through the use of vicious attack ads.
So Harper had his crisis, real or imagined and he positioned himself to be the only person to be able to deal with it. So what did he do? He spent! He spent like a drunken sailor in a whore-house! He bailed out the Canadian branches of American automobile manufacturers. He spent on infrastructure that, while it put a few people to work, it put billions of dollars into the pockets of private enterprise. And most of the money was spent in Conservative ridings, not spread evenly throughout the country.
So in the mean time, despite a plethora of ethical and undemocratic indiscretions, Harper continued to look like the "Candy Man". And he wanted the citizens of Canada to know about it through the posting of mammoth "Canadian Economic Action Plan" signs all around the country. And then,low and behold, Harper managed to ride the waves of the economic Tsunami, with himself portrayed as our Savior, into a majority government. To this day, I believe Harper wanted the election in May of 2011. He probably wanted it earlier as he needed to continue to capitalize on the economic crisis, but he couldn't cajole the opposition into a vote of non confidence any sooner.
As an aside here, I also believe that Harper wanted the 2008 election when he did. If you'll remember, he made, and then unfathomably broke, his own fixed-date election law. He likely had a sense of the coming economic crises, the "perfect capitalist storm" and had to position himself to be able to capitalize on it's effect.
But back to the beginning here. We now have an enemy within our midst, the monster known as the "debt". The huge unwieldy national debt that "had" to be assumed in order to save the country from economic collapse. And now, Harper armed with his unchallengeable majority government has begun the gutting of the Canadian social structure through cuts to programs and the laying off of thousands upon thousands of Government employees. And leave us not forget, these laid off employees will not be injecting money back into the economy. And as illustrated by his unprecedented back to work legislation of Canada Post, Harper means to break the back of Canadian unions. I say the legislation was unprecedented not because it was passed into law,but because Harper dictated the level of salary to be paid to the employees, a rate lower then was previously offered by Canada Post.
So again, if I understand the theories correctly, The first phase of the Mass Corporate Privatization of Canada was Harper using the economic crisis to catapult himself to victory. The second phase was the massive spending spree that created the huge national debt, and the third phase is now the austerity measures and is meant to punish us all for the economic crisis that was a result (again, artificial or not) of huge corporate multinational manipulation. And ironically, Harper is rewarding these huge corporate entities with further tax breaks here in Canada.
The fourth phase should be a period of high unemployment, high inflation rates, increased poverty and a near if not complete collapse of our social safety net. The fifth and final phase (and if all goes according to Harper's plan, should arrive in time for him to ride the wave to a second majority government) should be the government funded replacement of these social services by privatized services such as the private mega health-center that is being built adjacent to the new hospital in Julian Fantino's Vaughn riding.
As Harper promised in 2006, we won't know Canada by the time he's done changing it. Our Government will be much smaller, meaning there will be fewer eyes to watch the banks and businesses in Canada. The power of unions will be in serious decline, our social services will be farmed out to private entities, there will be less and less government regulation of banks and businesses and we will have a tax free trade zone with both Europe and the United states that will mean the whole-sale sell off of our natural resources and our national assets.
And to go hand in hand with this shift to a more pure "Free Market Wild West", the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will be regarded as antiquated relics from the age of Liberal rhetoric. And look for the mass politicization of the Supreme Court into a more Conservative-friendly legal entity. All of these things have to occur so that individual citizens will have fewer rights and Corporate Canada will have a virtual carte-blanch to assume, consume, control and capitalize on all Canada has to offer.
So yes fellow citizens, it appears we have been sold a massive bill of goods and we, our children, our grandchildren and probably our great-grandchildren will be the ones paying for our being duped. Future generations will never know the kinder, gentler, all inclusive Canada that we have come to know and love. It will have all been sold off and the social "classes" will be even more distinct then ever before. By the time of our Grand Children, Canada may even have become part of a huge, unified economic zone that includes Mexico and has the United States as the driving force. Not like the North American Free Trade zone but more like the European Union. And all of this, will be to reduce and eliminate barriers and to create an environment for Free Market Capitalism to flourish at the expense of the majority and with the full support of Governments everywhere. And we will still have democracy, at least the illusion of democracy, But real power will be in the hands of corporate Canada, not in the hands of governments or the people anymore. We will effectively, be living in an Oligarchy
Whether one believes that the great world-wide financial crisis of 2008 was real or manufactured , it was very timely for Stephen Harper. It served to shift the national debate away from the environment (where it rightfully belonged and where the Government of Harper was woefully inadequate) to saving Canada from financial Armageddon. And even though in his first two years in office, Harper effectively squandered the $16 billion surplus he inherited from Paul Martin, he was able to show himself to be the only REAL leader to guide us out of the darkness, having effectively neutered Stephan Dion in the minds of most Canadians through the use of vicious attack ads.
So Harper had his crisis, real or imagined and he positioned himself to be the only person to be able to deal with it. So what did he do? He spent! He spent like a drunken sailor in a whore-house! He bailed out the Canadian branches of American automobile manufacturers. He spent on infrastructure that, while it put a few people to work, it put billions of dollars into the pockets of private enterprise. And most of the money was spent in Conservative ridings, not spread evenly throughout the country.
As an aside here, I also believe that Harper wanted the 2008 election when he did. If you'll remember, he made, and then unfathomably broke, his own fixed-date election law. He likely had a sense of the coming economic crises, the "perfect capitalist storm" and had to position himself to be able to capitalize on it's effect.
But back to the beginning here. We now have an enemy within our midst, the monster known as the "debt". The huge unwieldy national debt that "had" to be assumed in order to save the country from economic collapse. And now, Harper armed with his unchallengeable majority government has begun the gutting of the Canadian social structure through cuts to programs and the laying off of thousands upon thousands of Government employees. And leave us not forget, these laid off employees will not be injecting money back into the economy. And as illustrated by his unprecedented back to work legislation of Canada Post, Harper means to break the back of Canadian unions. I say the legislation was unprecedented not because it was passed into law,but because Harper dictated the level of salary to be paid to the employees, a rate lower then was previously offered by Canada Post.
So again, if I understand the theories correctly, The first phase of the Mass Corporate Privatization of Canada was Harper using the economic crisis to catapult himself to victory. The second phase was the massive spending spree that created the huge national debt, and the third phase is now the austerity measures and is meant to punish us all for the economic crisis that was a result (again, artificial or not) of huge corporate multinational manipulation. And ironically, Harper is rewarding these huge corporate entities with further tax breaks here in Canada.
As Harper promised in 2006, we won't know Canada by the time he's done changing it. Our Government will be much smaller, meaning there will be fewer eyes to watch the banks and businesses in Canada. The power of unions will be in serious decline, our social services will be farmed out to private entities, there will be less and less government regulation of banks and businesses and we will have a tax free trade zone with both Europe and the United states that will mean the whole-sale sell off of our natural resources and our national assets.
And to go hand in hand with this shift to a more pure "Free Market Wild West", the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will be regarded as antiquated relics from the age of Liberal rhetoric. And look for the mass politicization of the Supreme Court into a more Conservative-friendly legal entity. All of these things have to occur so that individual citizens will have fewer rights and Corporate Canada will have a virtual carte-blanch to assume, consume, control and capitalize on all Canada has to offer.
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