Let’s Not Lose Democracy
While Conservative Boss Stephen Harper travels the globe at taxpayers’ expense extolling the virtues of democracy, his gang back in Ottawa are busy attempting to destroy democracy in our own country.
Ever since the beginning of Harper’s majority government in 2011, we have witnessed an unprecedented attack on our democratic institutions, the like of which we have never seen before. In only three years, Harper has: eliminated party financing to silence the voice of opposition parties, cut funding to every organization that isn’t onside with the Conservatives, hid efforts to dismantle democracy in what is normally a budget bill, limited discussion on those efforts, and attacked the right of workers to join a union.
Harper’s most recent attack on Canadian democracy is the deeply flawed Bill C-23, otherwise known as the Fair Elections Act. The bill – more aptly titled the UnFair Elections Act - is an unprecedented attempt to stack the deck in favour of the Conservatives. Not only will it restrict the powers of Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer and increase the power of big money during elections, the bill aims to disenfranchise students, the disabled, Aboriginal voters and low-income Canadians – in other words, people who traditionally do not support the Conservatives.