Editor, The Record:
I wish the uproar over the P3 controversy had not erupted during the federal election because the P3's importance locally far overshadows the run up to the May 2 vote.
Any private involvement in what must remain a public asset runs counter to everything I believe in for maintaining the public good and preserving our democracy, which is constantly being chipped away at by pro-business and pro free market lobby groups.
As important as the P3 proposal is, that issue can be debated at length and opposition galvanised in the fall should this short-term gain and long-term folly be put to a vote. But for right now, we only have a limited period of time in which to put forward our views on the federal election.
For what is truly at stake May 2 is the very nature of our country, which is under attack by the wedge politics of Stephen Harper. So far, Harper has been kept in check by his minority government status. Twice, over two-thirds of the country has rejected his extremists’ social, evangelical, and economic beliefs.
Yet why are people still having such a difficult time in connecting the dots? Wake up, people, before it’s too late to stop Harper from doing to our liberal democracy what George Bush did to the United States when he was elected, using the very same tactics that Harper is now employing with the same predictable results.
You think it can't happen here? It is already happening as the prime minister has been steadily chipping away at our parliamentary system and the social safety net while (just as Bush did which has bankrupted the American treasury) giving massive tax breaks to the wealthiest corporations.
Yet as frustrated as I am that people do not fully comprehend the dangers a majority Conservative government under Harper and his merry band of former Reform, Alliance, and evangelical Bible-thumpers will bring, I still see some hope. Even if older Canadians might not rally as quickly to the only slogan that truly matters in this election — Vote, but don't vote for Harper — the younger, and media-savvy generation is causing a tsunami of their own in social media by promoting just that very stance.
One site alone attracted over two million hits in just two days with its humour and serious message of what is at stake given the actions government has done in Harper's two minority governments and in opposition.
The use of the social media worked in Tunisia and Egypt, so I hope the control freaks in the Prime Minister's Office are feeling nervous about a media groundswell that they can neither control nor predict when it will next shred the carefully scripted message.
Robert T. Rock
Mission