And a plea from me ...

People in democracies, particularly here in Canada, live with the myth that our process is secure.  Governments come and go but do not affect our day to day lives.  We think that those running our country are just like us; doing their jobs, maybe incompetently but never with malice.  We are not equipped to recognize the sociopaths that move up the ladder.

Canada is moving quickly toward the American polarization we see being played out south of our borders.  Is this really what people want for our country?

We used to have good myths ... myths that we were polite, caring, tolerant people.  Are those myths not worth fighting for?

Harper and his elites will not listen to the Canadian people but there are members of parliament who are still just like us.  They need to hear from Canadians.  They need to know they are not alone and they have the support of the Canadian people ... if not their party's elite.

Write to your own politicians.  Write to the politicians that are fighting their own party's destructive path.  Never let it be written in future history books that the Canadian people were silent on the things that really mattered to them.

I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.
     John Diefenbaker, Prime Minister and Progressive Conservative
     From the Canadian Bill of Rights, July 1, 1960

That's a very thought-provoking article, LBmuskoka.  Thanks for posting.

For some of the reasons above, I continue to support the Council of Canadians - a group that Harper is trying to suppress.

Do you think Harper is taking us towards the One World Government?  Many people believe in this theory.

http://www.trueconspiracies.com/

http://www.infowars.com/cass-sunstein-advances-one-world-government-nort...

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8632069635967998175&hl=en#

Police departments across the US have begun to amass 'battlefield-grade arsenals' thanks to a new federal program which provides excess military equipment to state and local civilian law enforcement agencies, the Danger Room reported Tuesday.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/26-9

This is nothing new. American (and Canadian) police services have always aquired surplus military equipment, from Kiowa or Jetranger helicopters to V-100 Armoured cars. The RCMP, for example, have several ex-CF M-113 APC's. Tactical units are armed with C-7 rifles. If the State Police got M-1 tanks, I'd be concerned.

Nothing new, Usual alarmist fuddle.

I can't fathom why anyone with kids, grand kids, & great-grand kids would support the current government in this slash and burn of their future - knowingly. I can see those who are genuinely Progressive Conservatives in the traditional, fiscal sense have been hoodwinked into believing that Harper has their interests in mind while suffocating democracy. You don't want the Canada this corporatist will be leaving behind.
God help you if you also are in any way vulnerable. Can you guarantee you will never get old, sick or poor?
I wish everyone knew that The old PC party was handed over to the reformers after the PCs lost so many seats (using whatever name they chose as not to scare anyone), by Pete McKay -- after promising Canadians he wouldn't.
I despair that the less politically-engaged Conservatives and the Don Cherrys will vote to destroy so much that is wonderful here.
Just scan 2 or 3 papers once a week and take in different POVs. You don't need to be some lefty to feel something is terribly wrong.
Please read some conservative papers too. Avoid believing the spin. We are NOT going to be better off. Corporations are going to take over and privatize everything essential to us. Don't beilve in the "trickle down" effect - it has never worked that way.
If you are doing well now, you won't be much longer.

There's nothing alarmist about the reports. The only alarming part all this is that we're not hearing more about it. Ini fact, the acquisition of military weaponry by US police forces has increased at a rapid pace in the last few years. An M1 tank in a domestic riot would be of very little use compared to the weapons that are being acquired. Don't look for tanks. Look for APCs. Look for rifles shooting small calibre bullets that create enormous shock and blood loss. Look for US combat troops that are now, for the first time in modern history, being stationed permanently in the US. Ask yourself why whose troops just last week carried out war exercises in the streets of an american city.

Here is another example.  I won't repost the entire article but I do recommend reading it.  The gutting of an universally acclaimed scientific programme that has done more to clean up our environment than any other is nothing short of criminal.

Harper hurts science – again

Excerpts

Muzzling Speech

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How far has the government been prepared to go to smother the facts surrounding the ELA? For starters, DFO declined all requests from the media to speak with scientists. Being an equal lack-of-opportunity employer, DFO also turned down all requests from its scientists to speak about their work to Canadians. Remember, these are the same people who sent “minders” with scientists to a recent scientific conference in Montreal, lest they stray from the government line in public.

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Extortion

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You will be comforted to know that DFO extended the ban on ELA information to federal MPs. The department turned down NDP MP Bruce Hyer’s request to visit ELA with an ELA scientist. When an outraged university scientist conducting research there offered to take Hyer on a tour of the facility, DFO threatened to cancel his research privileges. Any wonder that acclaimed international scientist Ragnar Elmgren said that this was the kind of thing you would expect from the Taliban, not the government of a western democracy?

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Fiscal irresponsibility

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And here is a truly shameful number. How much do you think each of the four ELA/DFO scientists receives annually to cover their research expenses? Two thousand bucks. Bottom line. Canadians pay ten times more for the PM’s security detail than they do for this world class science facility. They paid ten times more for the celebration of the War of 1812. For the price of a single F-35, ELA’s operational budget could be financed for the next 150 years.

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and finally putting the fox in charge of the hen house

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Tim Burt is the chief executive officer of Cardinal Capital Management. He has written a letter to the heads of six oil companies asking that they assume the funding of the ELA previously provided by Ottawa. It turns out that he is also the riding association president for Winnipeg South Centre Conservative MP, one Joyce Bateman. Fortunately, Mr. Burt assures one and all that there is no political motive behind his suggestion.

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I leave you with one final quote.  This is what Canada is losing with this decision:  International respect and prestige.  All that will be left of a world class research facility will be a small reminder that once Canadians were leaders not destroyers of healthy environments.

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From investigating the role of nitrogen in promoting blue-green algae blooms to the environmental impacts of freshwater aquaculture, from the impacts of hydro reservoir development on greenhouse gases and mercury cycling, to the effects of artificial estrogen on fish populations, ELA has been there. Its scientists have been in the vanguard of original research that has benefitted companies, this country, and the world time after time after time. You don’t get the First Stockholm Water Prize and the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering for goofing off.

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They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.
       Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Nadeau (leader of Classe) gave a speech which raises similar themes, while focusing on the commercialisation of knowledge and education.

It is very good.