ELECTION 2011 POST-MORTEM

[Oscar]

ELECTION 2011 POST-MORTEM


Maude Barlow on the election results

http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7780
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

Friends,

The 2011 federal election was historic in many ways and most of us are still trying to process the outcome. It is crucial that we pause to reflect on its meaning and think carefully about the next steps we must take.

While it is true that the remarkable surge in support for the NDP means a more dependable progressive voice in the House of Commons than we have had for years, it is equally true that the most socially and economically right-wing government perhaps in Canadian history has just won a substantial majority in the House and - along with their control of the Senate - is now free to implement its agenda even if every member of every other party votes against it.

The Harper Conservatives are now free to:

cut corporate taxes and transfer payments;

go after public services, public sector workers and public pensions;

allow the growth of private health services to undermine Medicare in the lead-up to the expiry of the Canada Health Accord in 2014;

vigorously promote more unregulated free trade agreements like the Canada–European Union CETA, that will drastically curtail the democratic rights of local governments to promote local economic development, local resource sovereignty, or local food production;

kill the Canadian Wheat Board;

fast track the security perimeter deal with the United States that will violate the civil liberties of Canadians and give away crucial pieces of our sovereignty;

kill the long-gun registry;

continue to decimate environmental regulations, under fund source water protection, promote dirty energy projects such as the tar sands, gas fracking and Arctic oil and gas drilling, while ignoring the rights of nature;

and spend our money on military equipment and prisons we don’t need and don’t want.

This means we at the Council of Canadians and civil society in general have our work cut out for us as never before.

However, there are important signs of hope. The Harper Conservatives do not have the support of the majority of Canadians. Almost 40% of eligible Canadian voters did not cast a ballot in the election and of those who did, fully 60% voted for parties other than the Conservatives. This means that over two-thirds of Canadians who were eligible to vote did not cast a vote for the Harper agenda.

As well, the presence of an opposition with a clear progressive agenda on trade, social and environmental justice and public services will create the opportunity for unparalleled (until now) collaboration between Members of Parliament and progressive civil society. While we have had good working relationships with some Liberal MPs on some issues, how frustrating it was to see the Liberals side with the Conservatives on signing trade deals with corrupt and criminal regimes in Peru and Colombia. Further, the election of the first Green Party member, Elizabeth May, will open the door for an environmental debate and dialogue too long missing from the House of Commons.

And, as Council of Canadians trade campaigner Stuart Trew reminds us, we have fought battles against both majority and minority governments before and won. Unfair deals such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and the Security and Prosperity Partnership were defeated by popular protest. Unfair trade deals are fought and won outside Parliament, in the court of public opinion, he points out. It was also public pressure that stopped Canadian troops from being sent to Iraq. Similarly, no matter how much Stephen Harper dislikes public health care (and is on record in his preference for private health services), he can go only so far in his dismantling of Medicare, so deeply loved and fiercely protected is this most important of Canadian social programs. And let Harper try to open the doors for commercial export of our water and see how far he gets!

In other words, this country and its values still belongs to the people. As our director of development, Jamian Logue, says, “Neither our democratic responsibilities nor our democratic opportunities ended on May 2. Democracy is a 24/7 pursuit. We have the right and responsibility to act beyond the ballot box.”

What is needed now is a coming together of progressive forces in civil society and the labour movement as never before in our country’s history. Social and trade justice groups, First Nations people, labour unions, women, environmentalists, faith-based organizations, the cultural community, farmers, public health care coalitions, front line public sector workers, and many others must come together to protect and promote the values that the majority of Canadians hold dear. And we must work with, and demand the active representation of, the opposition forces in the House of Commons. In particular, the NDP must oppose the Harper agenda with the full weight of its new power and the Liberals must redeem themselves by working alongside the NDP in defending the interests of the people of Canada.

As the old union saying goes, “Don’t mourn – organize!”. The Harper majority is unfortunately really due to our “first past the post” system. (An American friend writes that he and his colleagues are having trouble understanding how Stephen Harper is Prime Minister with way less than half the votes in Canada. This reminds us of the urgency to promote proportional representation.)

But support for the Harper agenda is paper-thin, as most Canadians do not share the values of this agenda. This then is our task: to work hard over the next four years to protect the laws, rights and services that generations of Canadians have fought for from being dismantled; fight the corporate-friendly, anti-environmental, security obsessed agenda that will come at us; and prepare the way for the kind of government in four years that does in fact, express the will of the people – one with an agenda of justice and respect, of care for the earth, of the more equitable sharing of our incredible bounty.

This will be hard work and will take a great deal of courage and commitment. But really, what more important thing do we have to do?

Maude Barlow
Chairperson
The Council of Canadians

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Congratulations, Preston Manning

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/05/03/ManningWins/

It's your country now, with adversaries defunded, in disarray, or both.

By Mark Leiren-Young, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca

And the big winner last night… Preston Manning. When Preston created the Reform Party in a Vancouver hotel in 1987, he set out to remake Canada, and to challenge a Progressive Conservative party he felt was more progressive than conservative. But even though he crafted Reform's commandments, like Moses he was never going to be able to enter the Promised Land. Last night Stephen Harper led Manning's baby into the world of milk and honey or, since we're talking about Alberta here, oil and money -- an unrestrained majority government that owes nothing to Quebec.

Harper's the only person in the county happier about the NDP's showing than Jack Layton because the NDP did to the Liberals exactly what Reformers and Alliance members used to do to the Tories. And thanks to the realities of parliamentary democracy, Layton has performed a surrealistic electoral magic trick –- he keeps gaining more seats and less power. In 2004 he had 19 seats, but held the balance of power in a Liberal minority government. Today his seats are in triple digits and the only real power he's going to have in Ottawa when parliament resumes is the ability to order pizza at Stornoway.

When Harper was ruling with a minority, he was found in contempt of parliament, and now he's supposed to be sweating about the possibility of Jack Layton asking… the same questions Harper ignored when he had a minority?

Money's cut off, can we bunk together?

Harper also has to be thrilled for Elizabeth May who adds another option for anti-Tory voters in 2015. But May may have won her seat, but lost her party. The corks were still in the champagne at Tory HQ when CBC reported that the per-vote subsidy is dead. And with the subsidy gone who's going to cut big enough cheques for the Greens to be able to do much more than keep May's seat? [ . . . ]

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And the answer is . . . . .

Are we going to reward contempt of Parliament?

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/
decision-canada/going+reward+contempt+Parliament/4565800/story.html


By Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen April 6, 2011

The man who wrote Two Cheers for Minority Government doesn't cheer the prospect of yet another Harper minority.

"The status quo is just not tenable, for anybody," says Peter Russell, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and one of the country's most respected political scientists. But a Conservative majority would be worse. "It would send a bad message about Parliamentary democracy if a government brought down for contempt, very serious contempt, on the finding of a Speaker, is rewarded with a majority. I think it would encourage Mr. Harper and maybe those after him to be contemptuous of Parliament. And then I think we're in real trouble."

Ah, yes. The small matter of contempt.

It's easy to forget that, in the mad rush of events leading up to the election call and the noise that followed, Stephen Harper's government was formally found to be in contempt of Parliament -by vote in the House of Commons -for refusing to disclose the cost of several items on its agenda. It was what formally brought down the government. You might say it's what this election is about. [ . . . ]

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SIGN TODAY!!! Declaration of Voters' Rights

http://www.fairvote.ca/en/civicrm/profi ... =7&reset=1

We the undersigned Canadian citizens demand the following basic democratic rights:

to cast an equal and effective vote and to be represented fairly in Parliament, regardless of political belief or place of residence.

to be governed by a fairly elected Parliament where the share of seats held by each political party closely reflects the popular vote.

to live under legitimate laws approved by a majority of elected Parliamentarians representing a majority of voters.

The current winner-take-all voting system is absolutely inconsistent with these fundamental democratic rights. As a result, Canada is faced with a spiralling democratic deficit. The need for reform is urgent. We need a Parliament that represents the political and social diversity of Canada.

We demand that the House of Commons immediately undertake a public consultation to amend the Canada Elections Act to incorporate these vital democratic rights. The House, after this consultation, should quickly implement a suitable form of proportional representation

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Canadians cheated again by voting system says Fair Vote Canada

http://www.fairvote.ca/en/Canadians-che ... ing-system

For immediate release May 3, 2011

Tue, 2011-05-03 06:21 - Author: Wayne Smith

Canada’s national citizens’ movement for voting reform has released analysis of Tuesday’s federal election results showing that the outcome does not accurately reflect the way Canadians voted.

“The Conservative party increased their vote percentage by less than two points,” says Fair Vote Canada (FVC) President Bronwen Bruch, “but this allowed them to win 24 more seats than in 2008, when they were already over-represented. Stephen Harper calls this a ‘decisive endorsement’, but we call it a rip-off.”

At the time of writing, these were the actual seats won and leading for each party:

CON 167, NDP 102, LIB 34, BQ 4, GREEN 1
If the seats were won in proportion to the votes that were cast, the numbers would look like this:

CON 122, NDP 95, LIB 59, BQ 19, GREEN 13
According to these results, the Conservatives have won 54.22% of the seats with only 39.62% of the votes, one of the least legitimate majorities in Canadian history.

“This is a classic phony majority,” said Bruch, “and leaves us with a government that is completely unaccountable to Parliament. As long as they maintain rigid party discipline, nothing bad can happen to them for four years.”

The FVC analysis shows that the NDP, historically under-represented by Canada’s winner-take-all voting system, is now over-represented by seven seats, thanks to the “orange wave” that vaulted them into second place.

The Liberal Party, on the other hand, traditionally over-represented to the degree that they were regarded as Canada’s “natural governing party”, is now the chief victim of the voting system. While their vote percentage fell by less than 8%, they lost more than half their seats.

The Bloc Québècois, which has always previously been over-represented because their votes are concentrated in one region, has been decimated. Although their vote percentage has collapsed, they should still be entitled to 19 seats, but they are winning or leading in only four seats.

The Green Party is ecstatic to have finally won a single seat, but they actually received enough votes across the country to win 13 seats.

“Across the country,” added Fair Vote Canada Executive Director Wayne Smith, “vote splits between the Liberals and NDP allowed the Conservatives to steal seats. Once again, our antiquated voting system has given us the wrong government, a government that most of us voted against.

“It is truly time to change our voting system. If we want politics to be different, we need a vote that makes a difference.” -30-

Contact:
Wayne Smith
Executive Director
416-407-7009
Wayne.Smith@FairVote.Ca

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U.S. on Harper: “combative”, “unapologetic”, “sometimes vindictive pettiness”

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=7811&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 03 May 2011 10:31 PM PDT

Canadians are about to find out what up to five years of majority government are like with Stephen Harper as Prime Minister. We all have our own opinions of the Prime Minister, of course, but for a foreign view it is well worth reading the U.S. State Department’s analysis (or the analysis of one of [...]

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Harper credits Toronto-area Tories for coveted majority

http://www.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article/985200

May 3, 2011 21:05:00 Tonda MacCharles and Robert Benzie Staff Reporters

CALGARY—Prime Minister Stephen Harper popped a bottle of bubbly on election night and the morning after was still revelling in a sweeping majority win he acknowledged was delivered by Toronto-area voters.

EXCERPT:

“Harper will honour a campaign promise to increase health spending by 6 per cent once the current funding scheme runs out in 2014. Negotiations will begin “sooner than later.”

However, provinces will be allowed to continue experiments “with private delivery within that model of public health insurance, which is very different than privatization of the system,” he said. “I think everyone wants to see it perform better.”
But, he added, “I am not seeking to wave fingers at the provinces.” “

“Because the majority has a cushion of a dozen MPs, the source said the government is not beholden “to some radical right-wingers who want to ban abortion and outlaw same-sex marriage.””

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Ignatieff challenges Harper’s health-care stance

http://ipolitics.ca/2011/04/20/
ignatieff-challenges-harpers-health-care-stance/

Posted on Wed, Apr 20, 2011, 1:19 pm by Mike De Souza, Postmedia News

SAINT JOHN, N.B. – Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is urging his Conservative rival to retract previous criticism of Canada’s health-care system and guarantee support for universal access to public health-care services.

In an open letter to Stephen Harper, released Tuesday, Ignatieff pressed the Conservative leader about his views regarding the system.

“Unlike you, I do not believe that public-health care makes Canada ‘a second-tier socialistic country,’ ” said Ignatieff. “Furthermore, I believe that our system is not ‘killing people,’ as you have said, but is, in fact saving thousands of lives every year.”

Ignatieff released the letter after a meet-and-greet event with supporters at a local pub in which he urged disappointed Conservative voters to throw their support behind the Liberals to improve fiscal management of the country.

In the letter, he also accused Harper of showing “hostility” toward public health care by refusing to convene a federal-provincial summit on long-term funding.

Ignatieff has pledged to hold such a summit with premiers in the first two months of forming a government, noting that new strategies are needed to improve home care and drug insurance coverage.

“Quite simply, the $11 billion of unexplained cuts in your platform and your proposed spending spree on F-35 fighter jets, U.S.-style mega-prisons, corporate tax cuts and income-splitting for the wealthy will ensure that there are not sufficient resources to sustain our health-care system moving forward,” Ignatieff wrote.

“We believe this is a deliberate strategy on your part — to starve a system you have never believed in and never hesitated to attack and belittle.”

He also urged Harper to denounce a report released Monday by a free-market think-tank, the Fraser Institute, which called for the federal government to stop enforcing the Canada Health Act for a period of five years to allow the provinces to “experiment” with new ways to finance the system, such as direct patient payments and private insurance.

“I know you do not like answering questions,” he wrote. “But Canadians have a right to answers on this fundamental issue.”

“I believe that a Canadian prime minister should champion public health care, not deride it.”

He also urged Harper to consider Liberal proposals to reform and improve health care as well as their policies to improve overall Canadian health. [ . . . ]

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And, then there's CETA!!!

Biggest Free Trade Deal Since NAFTA, Ghost Issue of 2011 Election


(***See CETA Tour details below….)


http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/04/28/TradeDealGhostIssue/

Canada is on verge of pact with Europe affecting farmers, local industries. It's invisible on campaign trail.
By Katie Hyslop and Colleen Kimmett, Today, TheTyee.ca
Most Canadians don't know it, but our country is currently negotiating the biggest free trade contract since the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal that could significantly increase drug prices, privatize our water, and outsource jobs easily done by Canadians to foreign multinational corporations. And none of the parties are talking about it.
The Conservative government has been involved in private negotiations with the European Union over the Canada-European Union Enhanced Trade Agreement (CETA) since 2009, with the most recent round of talks taking place earlier this month -- during the campaign.
There's been little coverage of the deal, with only Parliamentary reports from last fall and leaked reports from private negotiations to go on. Yet Stephen Harper says he hopes to wrap up negotiations by the end of 2012.
"The first thing to know about CETA is really it's not mainly about trade: genuine trade barriers between Canada and the European Union are already very low," says Scott Sinclair, a senior research fellow for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and a former senior trade policy advisor with the B.C. government.
"My concern is that the agreement's more about limiting democratic policy options and enhancing corporate power, really, than enhancing trade."

EXCERPT:

"Specter of driven up drug prices
Medicare and the state of the country's health system is a talking point during this election, but according to Moist the biggest cost driver of our health system is the cost of drugs, and thanks to extensive demands on intellectual property rights, CETA will only increase the costs of generic drugs.
"Drug costs will sky rocket according to evidence we have because of the demands of Europe on the intellectual property side of the equation. They want to extend patent protection," he says.
"A study by two of Canada's top academics on pharmaceutical policy concluded that Canadian payers such as the federal government, provincial governments, businesses and patients would face substantially higher drug costs, with the annual increase in costs likely to be approximately $2.8 billion per year.""

FULL TEXT:

http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/04/28/TradeDealGhostIssue/

- - - - - -

CETA Tour

-Montreal - May 24 (with CUPE Secretary-Treasurer Claude Genereux)

-Toronto - May 26 (with CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn)

-Saskatoon - May 30

-Winnipeg - June 27

-Halifax - June 28

-St. John’s June 29

This tour will take place prior to the critical eighth round of CETA negotiations in Brussels this July 11-15, where offers on services are likely to take place. CUPE's Paul Moist told The Tyee, "I know from first-hand experience they're extremely interested in all water infrastructure in Canada: waste water treatment, water treatment, etc., because at the annual (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) convention (European corporations are) there in droves with their trade show materials."

Just this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was committed to proceeding ‘full-throttle’ on CETA and on having the deal signed by January 1, 2012.

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Now What for Canada's Left?
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168ABB6:6D244622054605D0A6D7721B1F3B853B8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Progressives must invest more thought, energy and, yes, money in their vision for this nation. By Murray Dobbin Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Enviro groups bracing for Harper majority
By Tyler Harbottle
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168ABBA:6D244622054605D0A6D7721B1F3B853B8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Conservatives poised to end Wheat Board monopoly
By Colleen Kimmett
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168ABBC:6D244622054605D0A6D7721B1F3B853B8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Tuesday, May 03, 2011


Voting system skews results, delivers phony majority: Fair Vote
By Andrew MacLeod
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168ABBD:6D244622054605D0A6D7721B1F3B853B8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Ignatieff says he'll step down as federal Liberal leader after historic defeat
By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168ABBE:6D244622054605D0A6D7721B1F3B853B8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Tuesday, May 03, 2011


Voter turnout less than hoped for
By Crawford Kilian
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168ABBF:6D244622054605D0A6D7721B1F3B853B8F7D795DAFB9E650&
Tuesday, May 03, 2011

============

Federal results cast shadow over coming provincial elections

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
federal-results-cast-shadow-over-coming-provincial-elections/article2008670/

KAREN HOWLETT Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, May. 03, 2011 4:57PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, May. 03, 2011 11:10PM EDT
The historic federal election that vaulted the Conservatives to a majority and the New Democrats to Official Opposition and pushed the Liberals to third place will test the resolve of three of Canada’s premiers, all of whom go to the polls in the near future.
The Liberals have virtually fallen off the map in British Columbia. Their foundation in Ontario has crumbled with the loss of seats held for decades. And in Quebec, the New Democrats all but wiped out the Bloc Québécois, reducing the voice of the sovereignty movement in Ottawa to just four seats. [ . . . ]

[Oscar]

KURTENBACH: The Harper Dynasty

May 6, 2011

To the Editor,

To say that many other Canadians, [and I] are disappointed with the May 2nd "right-wing" majority government for our country Canada, is putting it very mildly.

For the next term of the Harper government, we are assured of an ever-increasing highest national debt ever. This will be caused by the proposed greatly amplified military spending-- much to the delight of Canadian and, particularly the American, arms industry. There is also a determined desire by Prime Minister Harper for proposed tax breaks for corporations [some may even benefit transnationals] and also tax breaks for the wealthy.

The preceding paragraph is part of the promised future political scenario, whereby 39.6 per cent of all May 2nd voters enabled Prime Minister Harper to form a majority government. However, 60.3 per cent of all other voters cast their ballots against the Harper Conservatives.
The latter had the support of 5,832,501 voters. The NDP garnered 4,408,474 votes. The difference in voting numbers, [1,323,927] gave the Harper Conservatives 65 extra seats in the House of Commons. In the 2008 election the Green Party received the support of nearly one million voters, but did not elect even one member of Parliament!

Obviously our Canadian voting system is fundamentally flawed and basically undemocratic in representing Canada's diverse politically-minded citizens.

One has to presume that approximately 40 per cent of Canadians supported Harper's promise of lower taxes, combined with a steady hand on the market economy, which would and did give him a majority. This despite the belief of many Canadians that wealthy and powerful corporations across the continent control the economy. It would appear that for some Canadians, the market economy should take preference over national and global social justice issues and the fact that Canada was once held in high repute by other nations as a country of peace keepers.

This has led me to the disturbing conclusion that had Jesus Christ been the leader of any one of the other political parties on May 2nd, He [Jesus] would not have become the Prime Minister of Canada!

Leo Kurtenbach,
Saskatoon, Sask., S7M 0M7
Phone--652 5129