Harper believes flouting democracy deserves Cdns' support

[Oscar]

Canada's Choice 2015: Harper believes flouting democracy deserves Canadians' support

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January 8, 2015 | By Karl Nerenberg

Elections are not sporting matches; voters are not mere spectators. Voters are participants and must make real choices. Today, we examine the Conservative choice in this multi-part series.

EXCERPT:

Conservative record of flouting democracy

Let's start with Stephen Harper and his Conservatives.

They have a record, accumulated over more than eight years in power.

It includes gutting environmental oversight of mega projects, balking at any serious policy options to deal with climate change, turning their back on refugees, and flouting parliamentary democracy with omnibus legislation, while weakening electoral democracy with the oxymoronically named Fair Elections Act.

And that is just a small part of it.

The Conservatives also pushed forward the age at which Canadians can receive Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement; forced harsh minimum sentences on the provinces which, for the most part, run the criminal justice system; abolished the long gun registry; and imposed political imperatives on science in a manner that reminds folks familiar with them of Communist regimes of the Cold War era.

With the election looming, though, Harper's Conservatives don't talk much about their record.

Now, Harper wants his story to be Mr. Nice Guy, not Mr. Tough Guy.

He got rid of the abrasive Julian Fantino in Veterans Affairs and replaced him with a much friendlier face; met face-to-face with Ontario's Premier Wynne; and, on Wednesday, his Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander, announced that Canada will take in 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years.

Until that announcement, the government had been playing its habitual passive-aggressive game on the Syrian refugee issue.