"A Citizen"s Eye View"

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Link Between Mike Harris's Common Sense De-Evolution and the Harper Regime

Mike Harris, author of the
Common Sense De-evolution
Those of us living in Ontario remember well the Mike Harris "Common Sense Revolution". It came hard on the heals of the Bob Rae years.

 Rae was Ontario's first and only NDP Premier and is remembered only for his wildly unpopular "Rae Days" which forced thousands of public sector workers to take unpaid days off in an effort to attack the Ontario deficit. Rae was soundly criticized by his power-base- organized labour- and the millions of Ontarians who were effected by this restriction in services. I myself have terribly painful memories of it's impact when my then pregnant wife was experiencing complications and needed to get an emergency ultra-sound and couldn't because all the technicians were on a "Rae Day". But while Rae became unpopular for this move, it saved many public service jobs, in contrast to the Federal Conservatives slash and burn strategy regarding public servants. 

So when Mike Harris came along, waving his blue book that seemed to contain all of the answers to all of our problems, the majority of Ontario voters were quick to jump on board. Harris presented himself as a grass-roots kind of guy with a down to earth kind of logic that backed his 'revolution". He was the "anti-Rae", the antithesis of what was commonly believed to be the usual "entitled" political elite. (not unlike Toronto's Rob Ford today). 

But Harris's "Common Sense" approach was to attack the public services in a way that was down right blood-thirsty. He slashed Welfare and bade recipients purchase dented 69 cent cans of tuna. He cut health care, closed hospitals and John Snobelen's  "useful" artificially created crisis in Education resulted in two teacher's strikes. And Harris closed his ears, stayed his disastrous course and refused to acknowledge the growing criticism and upheaval in Ontario. He had an agenda and he intended to see it through. The horrendous impact these policies had on the province are still being felt today, ten tears after Harris has left the political stage. Despite his so-called grass-roots common sense, Harris was no friend of the common man. 


But there is a direct connection between Mike Harris's "Rule-By-Sledgehammer" government and Stephen Harper's "Shock and Awe" reign of terror. The most obvious connection occurs when we take a peek inside the Harper Cabinet. 


Flaherty's Budgets
 are "Killers"
Right off the top, there is Jim Flaherty who was Harris's Minister of Finance. Flaherty has been Harper's one and only Minister of finance during his six years as Prime Minister. It was under Flaherty's watch and as a result of Flaherty's attacks on the public service that seven people died in Walkerton of an outbreak of E-Coli. Under his guidance as the Federal Finance Minister, there has been similar out breaks of E-Coli and Listeriosis at Canadian meat packing plants. Coincidence?


Tony "The Gazebo
Under Mike Harris, Tony Clement was the Minister of Health as hospitals were being closed and  people were dying in Walkerton. With Stephen Harper, Clement took on the same cabinet position which he held until he became known as "Tony Gazebo" due to siphoning off  millions of dollars of Tax-payers money for the beautification of his riding in anticipation of a scheduled G7 summit. Clement has since become the President of the Treasury Board and is Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page's chief adversary in the PBO's quest for Government accountability and transparency. 


Bombastic Baird never learned
to use his "indoor voice"
Then there's "Bull-Dog" John Baird, perhaps one of the biggest blow-hards in the history of Canadian Politics. Baird is well known for his rabid partisan "attack-dog" style in Parliament and having never mastered the art of the "indoor voice". Baird has held several different portfolios in the Harper Government and has left bloody fingerprints on each one. But Bellicose Baird was also a "Harrisite", serving in various cabinet positions in Ontario as well, most notably as Minister of Children, Community and Social Services which saw a vicious attack on Ontario's poorest and most vulnerable citizens. 


Bob Runciman
The personification of all
that is wrong with the Senate.
Another ex-Harris accomplice  Bob Runciman, who was the Ontario Minister of Justice, couldn't win a seat in his federal riding so Harper tossed him into the Senate. He has since become a hyper-partisan "Rah-Rah" Harpercondriac in what is supposed to be the house of sober second thought. He has done little since then to advance the cause of the Red Chamber's continued existence and has in fact, been the personification of all that is wrong with the Senate. 

Another little known connection between the two regimes, is that from 1997 to 2002, which was the majority of the Harris years, Stephen Harper was president of the uber-right leaning and highly secretive National Citizens Coalition. The Ontario arm of the NCC, Ontarians for Responsible Government were major backers of the Common Sense Revolution. But due to their highly secretive nature, it is impossible to know to what extent Harper and his connections had in funding and influencing Harris's agenda. 


Harris the Fraser Fellow
Since leaving politics, Harris, along with former Harper accomplice Preston Manning, have both become Senior Fellows at the Fraser Institute, the right-leaning think-tank that has major influence on current federal Government policy. So Harris might be gone from Government, but he is still influencing events in our country. 

Harper won his recent Majority on the strength of heavy campaigning in key Ontario swing ridings. In 2015, he will likely duplicate this strategy. He needs Ontario to win.  So when Canada goes to the polls in the next federal election, Ontarians would do well to remember the painful legacy of Mike Harris because he and Stephen Harper are not only cut from the same cloth, they are also well connected and Stephen the Terrible is merely duplicating Harris's agenda only on a national level. 


Yes, and little "Timmy the Terrible"
was also there.

Harper and Harris. 
A 2008 meeting of the 
criminal minds.



5 comments:

  1. I'd rather have one Rae Day than another four years of Harper. I would take a thousand corrupt Liberals over one HarperCON. The damage HarperCON is doing to Canada is hair-raising every. single. day. I have not slept properly in three years since I noticed his rampage on Canadians. I never took notice of politics before Hair Harper.

    ……………………….

    It's a one-sided rant, that fails to mention before the balloons starting losing air on election night, the right-wing noise machine sprung into action. Another reaction to an NDP victory.

    Gerald Caplan wrote an excellent piece for the Globe in October of 2010, in which he says:

    snip snip: Mr. Rae's provincial NDP government faced an unrelenting, brutal four-year onslaught that was unprecedented in Canadian history. The attacks came from all sides.

    It is no exaggeration to say hysterical fear-mongering and sabotage was the order of the day. Launched within the very first year of the new government, the attackers included every manner of business big and small, both Canadian and American-owned, almost all private media, the police (especially in Toronto), landlords and lobbying/government relations firms. Their goal was clear, and they had the money and power to achieve it.

    They were determined to undermine the government every step of the way, to frustrate the implementation of its plans and to assure its ultimate defeat. In all three goals they were successful. The considerable achievements of the government – often forgotten or dismissed –were wrought in the face of a deep recession and ferocious obstruction.

    http://pushedleft.blogspot.com/2011/09/fresh-merger-talks-raise-question-is-it.html





    Reflecting this reality, within months Mr. Rae's government faced an unrelenting, brutal four-year onslaught that was unprecedented in Canadian history.

    The attacks came from all sides. It is no exaggeration to say hysterical fear-mongering and sabotage was the order of the day. Launched within the very first year of the new government, the attackers included every manner of business big and small, both Canadian and American-owned, almost all private media, the police (especially in Toronto), landlords and lobbying/government relations firms. Their goal was clear, and they had the money and power to achieve it.

    They were determined to undermine the government every step of the way, to frustrate the implementation of its plans and to assure its ultimate defeat. In all three goals they were successful. The considerable achievements of the government – often forgotten or dismissed –were wrought in the face of a deep recession and ferocious obstruction.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-hidden-history-of-bob-raes-government-in-ontario/article1749515/


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  2. Labour, despite Rae’s successful efforts in saving thousands of jobs at Algoma, de Havilland and other large troubled firms, never forgave him for the Social Contract and the Rae Days resulting in cutbacks in work days for public servants — relatively minor compared to the wage and benefits freeze announced in Ontario’s recent budget. Nor was he credited with reforms to the Labor Relations Act, substantially enhancing union organizing rights, soon to be reversed by the successor Harris government.

    Other noteworthy achievements included the Jobs Ontario program; incentives to employers to hire people on welfare; the expanded child-care program; the new Trillium Drug Plan giving affordable access to those in need of therapeutic drugs; renewed emphasis on aboriginal affairs; and a deep commitment to the success of our federal system, leading to an affirmative vote in Ontario on the national referendum on the Charlottetown accord.

    What am I missing? If I’m right, has the media failed to fairly analyze the record and instead succumbed to the erroneous, revisionist history of Bob Rae’s detractors?

    http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1161479--bob-rae-s-failed-premiership-is-a-myth?bn=1

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  3. Our Prime Minister Stealin’ HarperCon was behind Ford's appointment.

    And Mike Harris as well was behind Ford's campaign (Rob Ford’s dad used to work for Mike Harris). With help from Guy Giorno, who happens to be Harper's ex-Chief of Staff - and Guy Giorno used to be chief of staff to former Ontario premier Mike Harris. Guy Giorno was also the campaign manager in May 2011 during Harper’s infamous Robocall scanadal. Makes you go hmmmm.

    Are you starting to notice a neocon circle jerk going on here?

    http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/428557

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  4. And that's how Mike Harris amalgamation is now proved to be what it was, NOT REVENUE NEUTRAL and just a tax grab from Toronto. Thanks neocons, for destroying everything good about Canada.

    “The sole purpose of amalgamation was to download. (Premier Mike Harris) promised no more downloading and everything was going to be revenue-neutral.”

    Can never forget that word, revenue-neutral. Ontario got short changed by Ottawa to a tune off $23 billion.

    http://www.thestar.com/article/290199

    ...................

    The new City of Toronto was created on January 1, 1998. The amalgamated city was the result of legislation passed by the Province of Ontario merging seven municipal governments into one.

    With a population of 2.5 million people, the unified Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the fifth largest in North America.

    The municipal government's gross 2000 operating budget of $6.3 billion is larger than the budgets of the majority of Canadian provinces.

    http://www.toronto.ca/city_manager/amalgamation_3yearstatus.htm


    ..................

    The province's position was that huge savings would be exacted. That was a big lie by Harris.

    http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/290172

    Ten years later, it's virtually impossible to determine which of Toronto's problems are the result of amalgamation, of downloading, or simply inevitable in any case.

    The city talks of Queen's Park owing it $700 million to $1 billion. On the other hand, it got a $1 billion asset in Toronto Hydro, and the province took on $600 million in education costs.

    What is irrefutable is that the city was set on a path to fiscal failure. Amalgamation was supposed to deliver three main benefits: savings, greater equity and more clout.

    But as an experiment in local democracy, merger has been a huge failure. The megacity's continued survival is a testament mainly to the efforts of a great civic workforce. Its creation was too hurried. Too much was heaped on its head.

    ....................

    But the most punishing blow — the big bang, from a municipal revenue perspective — came in 1997, when the Harris government, having rammed amalgamation through, decided to relieve municipalities of the burden of funding education in exchange for “downloading” the costs of transit, public housing, and parts of welfare.

    Harris said the exercise would be “revenue neutral,” and for suburban municipalities with less transit and fewer social services, it was.

    But in Toronto, with its aging subway system and tens of thousands of crumbling public housing units, downloading proved disastrous.

    http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2011.11-society-how-toronto-lost-its-groove/2/


    Other factors have conspired to impair Toronto’s financial well-being. Amalgamation increased the city’s labour costs, as public sector unions merged and then negotiated higher wages.


    But experts in municipal finance such as Enid Slack, an economist at U of T, point out that many global cities rely on an array of alternative revenue sources: for example, sales taxes, hotel occupancy levies, and parking fees. In 2008, Mayor Miller introduced two such taxes, on vehicle registrations and land transfers, which generated roughly $300 million annually. But the newly elected Mayor Ford threw out the vehicle tax as soon as he took office, and he still threatens to eliminate the land transfer tax, which brings in $250 million a year. He also froze property taxes, even though residential property taxes are already lower than in the neighbouring 905 municipalities. Ford’s proposed spending cuts will only harm Toronto’s quality of life, and absent a more enduring solution the city could face a fiscal catastrophe of the same magnitude that nearly bankrupted New York in the late 1970s.

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  5. The Idle No More movement has raised more questions for me than answers.

    These questions range all over the map — some of them policy and governance oriented, and some very personal.

    The biggest and most troubling is: How do non natives have a relationship with a collective, or a group of people who set themselves apart as different?

    If I were the one setting them apart as different and acting on my perception of that difference, I strongly suspect I was would be labelled as racist.

    Yet, what I am hearing is there are several hundred thousand people across the country insisting they are different.

    I have a close friend who are status Native , east Indian, Polish, Russian and so on whose race, or mine, rarely comes up when we talk.

    There is no “us” versus “them” in our relationship.

    But everything I see from the Idle No More movement may create a huge divide between Native people and other Canadians, this is where we need to concentrate on education, understanding that every person is under attack by these special interest groups, The Governments (banking cartel) (UN) ( Trilateral ) and the (CIA) and so are not here for us, we all know this , Unified we can defeat them, We have no choice, but to understand we are all at threat from their agenda for New World Order. This is also planned for years

    ReplyDelete