Anybody But Stephen Harper

I usually try to avoid talking about politics on here, but today is the federal election day in Canada. It is the day Canadians get to decide whether we want to re-elect Stephen Harper (who has already been in power for 10 years) or whether it is time to kick his ass to the curb for all the horrible things he has done.

#1. Do you remember the swine flu epidemic? Well the image below demonstrates Stephen Harper's "love" for his fellow Canadians.

#2. In the last ten years Stephen Harper has run 6 deficits and boosted the Canadian national debt by $140 billion. That is a 20% increase of the Canadian national debt. Canada's population is only $35.16 million... so do the math, that is $3981.80 per person. The average Canadian will have to pay that off over time in taxes. And what does Stephen Harper have to show for squandering $140 billion?

236,200 more people are now unemployed compared to when Harper took office.

Well for starters Stephen Harper is now considered to be the worst economic leader in 70 years. The numbers on multiple economic factors show that Stephen Harper is either the worst or 2nd worst in a variety of economic factors. So basically Stephen Harper has botched the economy.

Whoever replaces Harper is going to have to fix a lot of the problems Harper created.

#3. The Rich Got Richer while the Middle Class got Poorer. One of the economic factors described above is the issue of the middle class in Canada. Harper lowered taxes for the rich - aka Reagonomics, the concept that if you lower taxes on the rich it will "trickle down" to the lower classes. Reagonomics has since been proven to only make the rich richer and everyone else poorer. Stephen Harper proved it during the last 10 years as prime minister.

Poverty in Canada is also up, making Stephen Harper one of very few PMs in the last 70 years to preside over record poverty rates.

Here's a little tip I picked up recently from a real estate website that talked about politics in Canada:

If you are rich and buy property by paying for the full amount in cash, then you should vote Conservative. The Conservatives will lower taxes on you, while ignoring the poor and middle class.

If you are middle class and buy property using a mortgage, then you should vote Liberal. The Liberals will lower taxes on the middle class, raise taxes on the rich, and increase spending to decrease poverty / improve the economy.

If you are poor and either renting or living in your parent's basement, then you should vote NDP. The NDP will increase taxes on the rich and the middle class, and they will dramatically increase spending to decrease poverty in Canada.

Basically they pointed out that Canada's three main political parties are all about class warfare and bickering over who should pay more taxes, and how much money should be spent trying to reduce poverty/boost the economy.

#4. Stephen Harper is actively promoting racism against Muslims in Canada. All the talk about "old stock Canadians", "barbaric cultural practices", and niqabs has just fueled racism on Canada's right wing. He is basically trying to feed into the hate some Canadians feel and then use that to get more votes from people who normally vote for the National Socialist Party. And oddly enough, to try and get more Jewish votes. Wow. Nazis and Jews both voting for the same party. That is really weird.

Take niqabs for example. 20 years ago niqabs wasn't even an issue in Canada. Nobody cared. But suddenly Stephen Harper has turned niqabs into a symbol of Muslim immigrants coming to Canada, and used that symbol to fuel hatred which has resulted in Muslim women being attacked on the streets across Canada.

Examples

Pregnant Muslim woman attacked in Montreal.

Toronto Muslim woman attacked for wearing a niqab.

Ottawa police urge Muslim women to report attacks after several incidents.

I should also note that promoting racism and spreading hate literature is a crime in Canada. Stephen Harper should actually be arrested for openly doing what the National Socialist Party does behind closed doors.

#5. Last but not least, Stephen Harper also did the following:

Shut down women's shelters across Canada.
Built more prisons while fear-mongering about crime in a country with a ridiculously low crime rate.
Invaded the privacy of Canadians.
Took away the right to privacy in the name of finding terrorists (more Canadians die from shark attacks each year than from terrorist attacks).
Removed vast amounts of publicly owned land from environmental protections so oil companies can drill there.
Gave the oil industry in Alberta a free ride while ignoring the rest of Canada's economy.
Completely ignored the plight of missing / murdered indigenous women.
Completely ignored the issue of clean drinking water in Canada's poorest communities.
Gutted laws that protected Canada's fish stocks,  because apparently free food and clean water is less important than oil.
Gutted the CBC's funding in an effort to control what they were saying about him.
Scrapped funding for arts and the film industry in Canada, industries that actually bring more money into Canada.

Basically pick any topic, and Stephen Harper did something bad during the last 10 years.

Want to learn more about things Harper did? Visit the website Shit Harper Did.