LAWRENCE MARTIN
The ‘freedom’ show on the Rideau
Lawrence Martin | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 2:00AM EST
296 comments Email 18Print Decrease text size
Increase text size Conservatism has contradictory impulses. The pursuit of freedom and the pursuit of order run at cross-purposes.
Moderates push neither button too strongly. But in both Canada and the United States, the conservative parties are now controlled by virulent wings that are prepared go to aggressive lengths to achieve their ambitions. The danger is that in the name of freedom, they bring forth the contrary.
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•Mulcair leads, but alliances are the wild card
•The myth of Tory economic performance
•Eisenhower, the great forgotten Republican
Photos
Fun in Tehran In this country, the Conservative government has a nationalist bent, evident in its elevation of military values, populist anti-intellectualism, moral certitude on foreign policy, law-and-order fixation and message-control mania. This kind of nationalism requires state-driven conformity, not liberty.
And so, while Conservatives are supposed to cherish government that is off the backs of the people, what we have is something closer to the opposite. The government is also oversized in spending, another conservative no-no.
The Conservatives’ in-your-face proclivities from the minority years have been well documented. But a majority has brought no let-up. On the freedom front, the government likes to boast of encouraging provincial autonomy and of shutting down the gun registry, the long-form census, the Wheat Board. But, by way of contrast, it’s instructive to look at what has transpired in our land of liberty recently. It might make you wonder about the kind of Canada that’s emerging.
Last week, the Conservatives were planning to go ahead with a system of national online surveillance. But a national outcry against the plan (originally advocated by the Liberals) will likely force amendments. The government also reaffirmed its plan for mandatory minimum sentencing, although an Ontario Superior Court judge lambasted the policy and critics say it will reduce the right to a fair trial.
Earlier in the month, from a government that took no umbrage at Guantanamo-style justice, came the decision to accept information derived from torture from foreign governments, in some cases. The Conservatives, we recall, have also vowed to bring back long-expired post-9/11 antiterrorism powers that allow Canadians to be locked up without charges.
On the matter of political freedom, another debate – the one on the controversial copyright bill – has been moved behind closed doors. The Tories are increasingly resorting to this secretive in-camera approach. Despite having a majority, they have been cutting off democratic debate with near record-breaking usage of time limits and closure in Parliament.
Freedom of expression has also been in the news. Last week, disgusted representatives from the Canadian science community sent an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for him to stop muzzling federal researchers. Under the government’s extensive vetting system, civil servants and diplomats are less free to voice their views than they have ever been. Also recently, opponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline were pilloried as foreign-financed radicals and, according to one sworn affidavit, as enemies of the state. And during last fall’s Durban summit on climate change, the Conservatives denied opposition members their usual right to accreditation.
The Harperian high command takes a draconian stance against even soft drug use. It has taken a hard line against organized labour and a more exclusionary course on immigration. It will no longer allow Canadians imprisoned abroad to serve out their sentences at home.
The many victims of Tory smear campaigns have been well documented, a most recent target being Montreal MP Irwin Cotler.
On Thursday, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Elections Canada and the RCMP are investigating a fraudulent robo-call phone operation apparently designed to suppress the Liberal vote in Guelph, Ont., during last year’s election. Calls misdirecting voters in many other ridings have been reported. The NDP linked the operation to the Conservatives, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied any wrongdoing by his party.
The accumulation of dirty tricks is beginning to sound like something out of Nixonland. The last election, we recall, was the one where citizens were hauled out of Conservative campaign rallies for the sin of having marginal ties to other parties.
This is just a small sampling from the march of audacities in respect to our freedoms and liberties. It’s the new Canada. Enjoy.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Harper's List of Sins February 2012
This was a comment posted after another great Larry Martin column.
ibn batuta
6:24 AM on February 24, 2012
Baggage check for Mr. Harper. Hasn't time to savour the triumphs!
In And Out, Bernier Lost NATO Documents, Income Trusts, Security Leaks, Funding Cuts For Women's Rights, Cadman Affair, Strangling Of Budget Officer Kevin Page, Personal Attack Ads With No-Context Facts, Taxes Used To Promote Conservative Party, Homophobia, Unregistered Firearms, Kyoto Accord, Kelowna Accord, Lisa Raitt Dissing Health Minister, Listeria Outbreak, Astronomical Deficit, Enlarging Fort PMO, Pit Bull John Baird,Transparency Lies, Accountability Lies, Afghanistan Secrecy, CBC Funding Cuts, “Parliament Makes Markets Unstable”, Cultural Funding Cuts,, Mutant Fish, Taser Deaths, Religious Fundamentalists, Cuts To Arts, Governor General Told To Forego Paralympics, Internet Copyright Legislation, CRTC Meddling, Mulroney Affair, Canadian Nobel Winners Ignored, Atlantic Accord, Rona Ambrose Ineptness, Killing Off International Welfare, Militarization Of Arctic, Outsourcing Policy Research, Anti-Intellectualism, Fixed Election Date Broken, Ambassador's Reports On Human Rights Overseas Made Secret, Attempt To Stop Same Sex Marriage, Advertising Budget Doubled, Taxpayer’s Money Used To Diss Opposition And Promote Conservatives, Almost All Legislation Posed As Confidence Motion, Support For Biofuel, Insufficient Support Of Alternative Energy, Failure To Protect Canadians Abroad, Support For keeping Guantanamo, Child Soldier & Canadian Omar Khadr Still Not Repatriated to Canada, Wheat Board Muzzled, Caucus Muzzled, Ontario Ignored, Cancelled National Childcare, Fired Nuclear Watchdog Linda Keane, Fired Head of Military Police Inquiry, Fired Veteran’s Omsbudsman, Had Firearm Long Gun Mountie removed, Eviscerated Long Form Census To Keep Facts From The People, Climate Change Embarassment On World Stage, Trashed Diplomat Richard Colvin For Doing His Job. Prorogued Parliament Twice In A Year. Prorogued Parliament to Stop Inquiry Into Torture, Took Liberal Surplus And Ran it into 53 Billion Dollar Deficit, Screwed Up G8 and G20 Meetings.
ibn batuta
6:24 AM on February 24, 2012
Baggage check for Mr. Harper. Hasn't time to savour the triumphs!
In And Out, Bernier Lost NATO Documents, Income Trusts, Security Leaks, Funding Cuts For Women's Rights, Cadman Affair, Strangling Of Budget Officer Kevin Page, Personal Attack Ads With No-Context Facts, Taxes Used To Promote Conservative Party, Homophobia, Unregistered Firearms, Kyoto Accord, Kelowna Accord, Lisa Raitt Dissing Health Minister, Listeria Outbreak, Astronomical Deficit, Enlarging Fort PMO, Pit Bull John Baird,Transparency Lies, Accountability Lies, Afghanistan Secrecy, CBC Funding Cuts, “Parliament Makes Markets Unstable”, Cultural Funding Cuts,, Mutant Fish, Taser Deaths, Religious Fundamentalists, Cuts To Arts, Governor General Told To Forego Paralympics, Internet Copyright Legislation, CRTC Meddling, Mulroney Affair, Canadian Nobel Winners Ignored, Atlantic Accord, Rona Ambrose Ineptness, Killing Off International Welfare, Militarization Of Arctic, Outsourcing Policy Research, Anti-Intellectualism, Fixed Election Date Broken, Ambassador's Reports On Human Rights Overseas Made Secret, Attempt To Stop Same Sex Marriage, Advertising Budget Doubled, Taxpayer’s Money Used To Diss Opposition And Promote Conservatives, Almost All Legislation Posed As Confidence Motion, Support For Biofuel, Insufficient Support Of Alternative Energy, Failure To Protect Canadians Abroad, Support For keeping Guantanamo, Child Soldier & Canadian Omar Khadr Still Not Repatriated to Canada, Wheat Board Muzzled, Caucus Muzzled, Ontario Ignored, Cancelled National Childcare, Fired Nuclear Watchdog Linda Keane, Fired Head of Military Police Inquiry, Fired Veteran’s Omsbudsman, Had Firearm Long Gun Mountie removed, Eviscerated Long Form Census To Keep Facts From The People, Climate Change Embarassment On World Stage, Trashed Diplomat Richard Colvin For Doing His Job. Prorogued Parliament Twice In A Year. Prorogued Parliament to Stop Inquiry Into Torture, Took Liberal Surplus And Ran it into 53 Billion Dollar Deficit, Screwed Up G8 and G20 Meetings.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Myth of the Tory economic performance - Lawrence Martin 7 Feb 2012
LAWRENCE MARTIN
The myth of Tory economic performance
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2012 2:00AM EST
The extent to which the Conservatives’ propaganda machine will go was illustrated last week by the news, courtesy of The Canadian Press, of the staging of a Potemkin-village-style citizenship reaffirmation ceremony.
Only three bona fide new Canadians could be found for last October’s event, so at least six federal bureaucrats suited up as imposters for the PR show broadcast by Sun TV. In a control-freak kingdom, this one – “a full North Korean,” as one wag put it – is hard to top.
More related to this story
•Let’s debate OAS based on fact, not perception
•Truculent moralizing for a domestic audience
•Prime Minister Harper unveils grand plan to reshape Canada
Earlier discussion
Q&A: Why the Quebec Question still matters
Photos
Kenney's Oscar News of the charade came on the heels of Stephen Harper’s proclamations in Davos on the wonders of the Canadian economy as piloted by a Finance Minister who, he said, is the greatest on Earth. The Prime Minister’s musings on the need for pension reform were reasonable enough. But his ever-soaring estimations of his economic record are starting to be challenged by many observers, as well they might be.
From 2007 to 2011, Canada’s economic performance put us in the middle of the pack in GDP growth among 34 industrialized countries. Our unemployment rate is currently rising and nearing the U.S. level. It’s true that, comparatively speaking, we’re doing well on a number of other economic indices. But given the advantages the Conservatives enjoyed when they took office – the big surplus, the well-regulated financial sector, the natural-resource-laden riches – how much of an accomplishment is it? When you start a race a lap ahead of the field, how hard is it to be among the leaders?
To talk of the Tory economic record, we might first address the reddened state of our treasury that’s occasioning the cuts in the coming budget. A pertinent question is whether our deficit is the result of natural economic factors or whether it owes itself to vote-getting political expediency.
In this context, let’s recall a few things. Let’s recall the two-point GST cut that tore a giant hole in the revenue base, accounting for a good deal of the deficit. Let’s recall the prerecession spending – having inherited a $13-billion surplus, the Harper/Flaherty team spent so excessively that we were close to a deficit by the time the recession began. Let’s recall the slashing of corporate tax rates and the government’s easing of mortgage rules and backing of risky loans that further bled the treasury.
Put it all together and what it shows is that, with more prudent fiscal management from the same guy who lectured other countries on debt in Davos, we could have coped with the recession without driving our treasury into a large deficit hole.
Some other things should be recalled. In the fall of 2008, when the economic crisis hit, was the dynamic Harper/Flaherty duo on top of things? Or were they still saying that the budget would remain in balance and that there was no need for stimulus spending, and bringing in a foolhardy budget update that almost brought their government down?
With the opposition parties putting a gun to their head, they introduced a stimulus package that virtually every other country was doing. With the exception of Tory logos on cheques and Tony Clement’s G8 spending boondoggle, it was not badly administered.
Jim Flaherty has performed more ably in the past couple of years. But what’s in his record that makes him the greatest finance minister in the world?
Given the coming squeeze the Tories talk about on health care and Old Age Security, is it smart economic management to commit a staggering $30-billion to increasingly discredited F-35 warplanes? It’s nice that, on trade diversification, the government is waking up to China. But how many years did Ottawa ignore it?
I was talking to a plugged-in guy at the Finance Department the other day and asked him what the Tories have done that’s so wonderful. “The PR,” he responded.
Hard not to agree. It’s been a great shell game. Their propaganda has masked a middling economic performance.
977 comments
The myth of Tory economic performance
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2012 2:00AM EST
The extent to which the Conservatives’ propaganda machine will go was illustrated last week by the news, courtesy of The Canadian Press, of the staging of a Potemkin-village-style citizenship reaffirmation ceremony.
Only three bona fide new Canadians could be found for last October’s event, so at least six federal bureaucrats suited up as imposters for the PR show broadcast by Sun TV. In a control-freak kingdom, this one – “a full North Korean,” as one wag put it – is hard to top.
More related to this story
•Let’s debate OAS based on fact, not perception
•Truculent moralizing for a domestic audience
•Prime Minister Harper unveils grand plan to reshape Canada
Earlier discussion
Q&A: Why the Quebec Question still matters
Photos
Kenney's Oscar News of the charade came on the heels of Stephen Harper’s proclamations in Davos on the wonders of the Canadian economy as piloted by a Finance Minister who, he said, is the greatest on Earth. The Prime Minister’s musings on the need for pension reform were reasonable enough. But his ever-soaring estimations of his economic record are starting to be challenged by many observers, as well they might be.
From 2007 to 2011, Canada’s economic performance put us in the middle of the pack in GDP growth among 34 industrialized countries. Our unemployment rate is currently rising and nearing the U.S. level. It’s true that, comparatively speaking, we’re doing well on a number of other economic indices. But given the advantages the Conservatives enjoyed when they took office – the big surplus, the well-regulated financial sector, the natural-resource-laden riches – how much of an accomplishment is it? When you start a race a lap ahead of the field, how hard is it to be among the leaders?
To talk of the Tory economic record, we might first address the reddened state of our treasury that’s occasioning the cuts in the coming budget. A pertinent question is whether our deficit is the result of natural economic factors or whether it owes itself to vote-getting political expediency.
In this context, let’s recall a few things. Let’s recall the two-point GST cut that tore a giant hole in the revenue base, accounting for a good deal of the deficit. Let’s recall the prerecession spending – having inherited a $13-billion surplus, the Harper/Flaherty team spent so excessively that we were close to a deficit by the time the recession began. Let’s recall the slashing of corporate tax rates and the government’s easing of mortgage rules and backing of risky loans that further bled the treasury.
Put it all together and what it shows is that, with more prudent fiscal management from the same guy who lectured other countries on debt in Davos, we could have coped with the recession without driving our treasury into a large deficit hole.
Some other things should be recalled. In the fall of 2008, when the economic crisis hit, was the dynamic Harper/Flaherty duo on top of things? Or were they still saying that the budget would remain in balance and that there was no need for stimulus spending, and bringing in a foolhardy budget update that almost brought their government down?
With the opposition parties putting a gun to their head, they introduced a stimulus package that virtually every other country was doing. With the exception of Tory logos on cheques and Tony Clement’s G8 spending boondoggle, it was not badly administered.
Jim Flaherty has performed more ably in the past couple of years. But what’s in his record that makes him the greatest finance minister in the world?
Given the coming squeeze the Tories talk about on health care and Old Age Security, is it smart economic management to commit a staggering $30-billion to increasingly discredited F-35 warplanes? It’s nice that, on trade diversification, the government is waking up to China. But how many years did Ottawa ignore it?
I was talking to a plugged-in guy at the Finance Department the other day and asked him what the Tories have done that’s so wonderful. “The PR,” he responded.
Hard not to agree. It’s been a great shell game. Their propaganda has masked a middling economic performance.
977 comments
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