Showing posts with label #CPC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #CPC. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 October 2020

A Clear and Present Threat to Canada

 Today I have a new guest blogger who has kindly granted permission to use their words here. I present @RogueChimp and their insight into Canadian politics:

Dear. Canada,
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is part of our Constitution, is on the precipice of destruction as we know it. > #cdnpoli #abpoli #onpoli 
For the first time since enactment of the 1984 Charter, Conservatives see a path to remake Canada in their image. There are enough conservative premiers in place right now that if CPC win the next election, they will have the votes to enshrine their power, remake judiciary. 
The amending formula of Canada’s Constitution requires approval of 7 out of 10 provinces representing at least 50% of the population. With an election win of federal conservatives, they will have that. solon.org/Constitutions/…
Conservatives in Canada are so desperate for federal power as it’s their one chance to change the Charter - the whole drive of Stephen Harper.

It’s been a wet dream of Conservatives to rewrite the Charter since Mulroney failed to deliver it. 
Conservatives have never forgiven Pierre Trudeau for reaching consensus needed to bring home the Charter Conservatives failed to. Many Tories backed the Charter which divided Conservatives along social Conservative, anti-Quebec lines, eventually leading to the Reform Party. 
Conservatives seek to attack the rights enshrined in the Charter to favour what it considers its founding Judeo-Christian religion to legitimize its favourite biblical patriarchal powers that call homosexuality a sin and women subservient. It will also attack bilingualism. 
Make no mistake, the CPC and Consv premiers are in step on this. They are all using the same political playbook that foreshadows the kind of Canada they envision. There has been a shift away from their traditional Toryism inherited from Great Britain to American style liberalism. 
There are “open borders” between the GOP, far right media and Canada’s conservatives. The Canadian playbook is modeled after US white Christo-social conservative liberalism. 
Our current Conservatives will stop at nothing and will use any means to an end to win the next election. This is why they’ve embarked on the extremely divisive politics and intense smear campaigns and disinformation. 
Stephen Harper had goals and he put some of the things in place to make this happen now. His big success was to change the media landscape in favour of remaking Canada in his image.
Sun News Network:
Interesting article:
Jason Kenney in Alberta is working hand in glove w Harper. Kenney represents the Conservative vision of Canada: no union protections for workers, business before people, private schools, private health care, Jude-Christian dominance... Alberta is the dry run for Harper’s Canada. 

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Early Provincial Elections.... What are the Conservatives up to?

 So, Ontario is going to go to the polls early. Following New Brunswick's lead. Will Manitoba and PEI and Alberta follow? Saskatchewan has an election coming in November... 

What would move premiers to call an election, several years ahead of schedule, during a pandemic? Ford has until 2022. So does Legault. Kenney and Pallister both have until 2023. It seems unlikely Kenney will call an election. Albertans aren't as sweet on him any more 
Higgs had until 2022, but he called it early. What, indeed, would move these conservative premiers to call an election with years left on their mandates? During a pandemic, no less?  
I'm sure there are a lot of possible reasons. But, could it be that they don't know when the next federal election might be? It could be as far off as 2023.  
Look up the magic formula for re-opening the constitution and tinkering with it, and our charter of rights and freedoms. You will find there must be agreement from 2/3 of the provinces, representing > 50% of the population, plus the feds, plus the senate.  
Could it be that the conservatives really believe that they will win the next federal election? Could conservative premiers be doing the advance work of shoring up their mandates to make sure those 7 provinces are online and ready? 
"Why would they even want to do that?" you may ask. Well, because gutting the constitution and the charter is sort of the raison d'etre of the Reform Party, aka the Conservative Party of Canada. What did you think they wanted to reform? 
Harper hates the charter and the constitution. He hates it for several reasons.
1) A Trudeau created it,
2) It gives people of whom he does not approve equal rights to "Old Stock Canadians"
3) Constitutional challenges overturned almost all his nasty legislation.

"What does Harper have to do with any of this?" you may ask. Well, the CPC is his party. He created it. He molded the minds of his caucus, many of whom are still in their seats to this day. He surrounded himself with sycophants, none of whom could challenge his leadership. 
In his mind, he was supposed to be PM forever. Pesky Canadians toppled his dreams in 2015. But he hasn't gone away. He's employed as advisor to the governments of Alberta & Saskachewan, & he seems to be still running the CPC from behind the scenes. 
We can see his fingerprints all over what Jason Kenney is doing to Alberta. We could almost see his hand up Andrew Scheer's back. O'Toole seems to be another ventriquial figure. L'Actualite published this in an article awhile ago: 
You see, he did no succession planning because he never meant to stop being leader. So the party has no one with the skill-set to really run it without deferring to The Boss. 
And, just like a passionate entrepreneur, he is not ready, will probably never be ready, to turn over his creation entirely to anyone else. Certainly not before he sees his vision of Canada realised. 
What is his vision for Canada? Look south. Private health care, private education, gun proliferation, small government (very limited social programs), draconian laws, closed borders except to "acceptable" people, bans on abortion, same-sex marriage, and MAID... 
Oh, and probably something like what Trump just did, to ensure kids are raised knowing nothing but "Conservatives are the only conceivable government" 
As head of the IDU, Harper has spent the past 5 years helping right-wing regimes gain power around the world. And there is a plan. Not a conspiracy theory, a carefully developed plan.  
The philosophy behind it comes from James McGill Buchanan, who believed that unbridled capitalism would sort everything out. 

If all restrictions were lifted from business, the hard-working would be rightly rewarded & those who failed or were unable to take responsibility for themselves would be punished. Survival of the fittest. Which is odd coming from a cohort which identifies with religion  
Nevertheless, this is the underlying motivation for the CPC, demonstrated through: cutting environmental protections (deprotecting lakes and waterways, ELA, etc), cutting health and safety regulations (Walkerton, Lac Megantic, Listeriosis), muzzling scientists, etc. 
All part of throwing the doors open wide for the brave new world of corporatocracy. You know, letting the invisible hand of the market sweep away all the undesirable elements: the lazy, the ill, the aged, the addicted, etc. 
The Koch brothers embraced Buchanan's vision & philosophy & it has been an integral part of their empire-building around the globe. It can be seen now, nearing full manifestation in our neighbour to the south. Remember, for many years now Koch Inc has been in Canada too. 
They fund many of the right-wing think-tanks like the Fraser Institute, they exert power over our news media. They employ psychological/propaganda ninjas who try to influence what we think, using big data platforms on social media. 

Sound like tin-foil hat stuff to you? It isn't. What is going on in our media right now is not normal. The way the conservatives are behaving is not normal, not compared with pre-2003 conservative parties. The way the NDP is behaving is way not normal. 
The game has changed and no one told us. And that is the point. Incremental shifting of things to a new normal where we aren't supposed to care about the less fortunate. Where life becomes so precarious that we can't spare the energy to look out for each other. 
Then they've won. 
Because together we have power. They don't want us to stand together. They want us all scrambling to look after ourselves, and screw everyone else. We can't let that happen to us. Watch what the premiers do. Let's keep the magic formula out of their hands. 

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CPC Strategy: How Can They Grow Their Base?

 The CPC have a problem. Lewis and Sloan together had more support than either O'Toole or MacKay. This means the social conservatives comprise a large segment of the party faithful. Then their support went to O'Toole, which means he is more SoCon than MacKay.  

The broader Canadian public will not accept an extreme social conservative agenda. But, if the CPC tries to move towards centre to broaden their support, they will alienate their far right "sure thing" voters. What will they do? 
I have a hunch. Probably the scariest thing I heard during the leadership thing, was the phrase "A lot of you are conservatives, you just don't know it yet". This says to me that they are going to do a lot of finely targeted campaigning... 
They are going to use whatever has replaced Cambridge Analytica, and data mine to figure out which buttons to push for sliver demographic segments. They are going to try to find issues that will rile up each small segment of society, and offer a conservative answer. 
They are going to use closely targeted ads to try to force some sort of "enlightenment" upon us, convince us that some small bias we might hold is a big enough deal to abandon all our progressive principles and vote CPC. 
They can't change who they are. So they are going to try to change us. We must be vigilant. We must hold fast against fake news, fake scandals, and propaganda. Always think critically. Always fact-check. Always remember who we are.  

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Wednesday, 19 August 2020

Do the Conservatives Have a Platform?

 I see people often say the CPC/UCP/etc have no policy, only attacks against the Liberals/NDP... I think this is inaccurate. They cannot present their policy to the public because Canadians would find their vision for Canada so unpalatable as to relegate their RW movement to the scrapheap of history. Some basic tenets upon which the current conservative movement is built:


1. Universal healthcare is an abomination to capitalism
A blog about the UCP in AB, but with the history explaining why the UCP think this way.

2. Public education is an abomination to capitalism, and the Church, as well as a hindrance to continual conservative rule.
Andrew Scheer had, as one of his platforms, the funding of religious private schools and home schooling. But this is just one part.

Premier Jason Kenney had the "public" removed from public schools within Alberta and cut funding to post-secondary institutions, except private religious colleges.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…
cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…
Furthermore, in Alberta, the UCP has introduced the idea of non-funded home schooling which does not have to meet the provincial curriculum. In other words, people can now teach their kids any damn thing they want.
If you read that previous article, you will have noticed a push towards vocational schools. And not just high school. Lets get those pre-teens learned up on pipe-fitting and mudlogging. Oh, and don't forget coal-mining. The UCP has paved the way for more open pit coal mines...
And created a lower minimum wage for those under 18. We can get those kids out to work faster than ever!
Jason Kenney has, over the years, expressed his concern that schools are indoctrinating kids in collectivist thinking (learning to share & co-operate, one might assume) and all manner of harmful ideas (science?) that detract from basic numeracy & literacy.
Basic numeracy and literacy are to be the focus of the new UCP curriculum, with annual standardised tests beginning in grade 1 to ensure that teachers do not stray from making their students memorize the times table.
This is the brand new Alberta school outcomes model. "Critical" as in "critical thinking" appears once, in high school. "Literature" does not appear at all. Literacy is treated as a career tool.
education.alberta.ca/media/3402192/…
Indeed, the UCP wants to go further, tying post-secondary academic programs to the speed with which graduates get high-paying jobs. Essentially, eliminating the arts and humanities and focusing on engineering and business.
So, education is strictly for preparing Alberta's children for jobs to boost the bottom line of big companies. And if they can get rid of these secular public schools, workers will again be taught obedience to the church as well as to their betters.
3. Social programs are an abomination to the supreme authority of the church.
Charity used to be the exclusive purview of the church. Assistance was distributed according to the recipients' level of obeisance. Government social safety nets mean just anyone can get help.
Even sinners, like addicts. I believe there is a vocal element within the UCP who would like to go back to the old way, where everyone went to church and tithed, then the churches looked after the poor and sick as they saw fit.
Besides, social programs rob the government coffers of money which should properly go to the capitalist overlords.
4. Canadians, outside of the inner circle of the conservative movement, are only human capital to be exploited for the increased wealth of the very rich.
The CPC, under the rule of Stephen Harper and the direction of Jason Kenney introduced the temporary foreign workers program. There is a generally held belief that Canadians expect too much. Especially too much pay. This is why manufacturing went overseas. And the CPC...
Brought in the TFW program so employers could hire the same sort of cheap labour in Canada. Not as low-paying as jobs in their home countries, but lower than what a Canadian minimum wage worker would have to be paid. This not only exploited these workers, but also...
Depressed wages for Canadian workers. Because the common good of Canadians is far outweighed by the good of the corporations in conservative political minds.
Another aspect of this view of citizens as human capital is a disregard for human rights, except insofar as it it the conservatives' own rights. Thus, draconian punishments which amuse the mob mentality, stripping of rights from "sinners" like the LGBTQ2+ community...
5. The CPC deserve to govern forever.
Democracy gets in the way of this. Clearly God favours them and they should win every election. Therefore it is ok to cheat, mislead the public, suppress the vote, etc. Because power is their destiny. Or some such rot.
6. The media should broadcast the CPC message and no other.
Which most of them do, of course. They believe strongly in state-controlled propaganda media and would like to see other media shuttered.

It all comes together in a tidy package. Low education levels, poor health for all but the wealthy, low wages and lowered worker rights, theological laws, control of the media, and the freedom to determine electoral outcomes. And no one able to stand up to them, because...
everyone is poor, sick, uneducated, in prison, or dead. So, it seems the CPC vision for Canada is sort of pre-Magna Carta feudalism meets Industrial Revolution. No wonder they don't make it public. Watch what they do, not what they say.

They follow the GOP playbook, with co-ordination assistance from the IDU...

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