UPDATED Below
In these days of action for democracy in Egypt, Canada once again finds itself on the wrong side of humanity’s hope for freedom, thanks to His Harperness’ failure to condemn the brutal totalitarian regime of Hosni Mubarak. In that context, I hope everyone watches this:
UPDATE:
And just to clarify that the bone I’m picking is with the state of Israel and not all of Israel’s people, watch this too:
rabble.ca columnist Murray Dobbin details the harm Prime Minister Stephen Harper is doing to the political and social fabric of Canada in a new essay commissioned by The Council of Canadians. The complete series will constitute 10 parts published between March and April 2010.
UPDATED BELOW
Marci McDonald’s 2006 article in The Walrus, Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons, gave us the first systematic analysis of the hidden Christian fundamentalist agenda of Stephen Harper’s goals for Canada – the establishment of the conditions necessary for the Second Coming of you-know-who. Who knows if Harper is such a fantastical fool that he really believes in all that anti-evolutionary, anti-woman, anti-gay, pro-Israel STFUness. What matters is that a bunch of nutbars has such power in the corridors of Canadian political power.
Harper has cemented a partnership with people who have become astonishingly powerful in the US and whose religious ideology nicely parallels social conservatism. Harper is known to be a fiscal conservative, but has needed the support of old-style Progressive Conservatives who haven’t necessarily had the ability to attract the support of the far right wing – if they had, they wouldn’t have lost their Party. Each time Harper throws an anti-gay, anti-choice, pro-Israel, law and order dog biscuit to this crowd he wins votes that would not necessarily fall into his lap via fiscal conservatism alone.
Is all this becoming more clear to Canadians?
Antonia Zerbisias’ interview with McDonald, now the author of a book on these issues – The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada – provides us with a startling (to some people) collection of issues that have come to the fore of late that certainly substantiate the writer’s painstaking research, from the cancellation of Paul Martin’s national daycare programme to the introduction of private members’ bills that would limit women’s free reproductive choice to Harper and company’s otherwise inexplicably over-the-top support of Israeli policy towards Palestine and general opposition to same-sex marriage.
That’s a cartload of issues and each one deserves it’s own discussion. I’m going to have a brief look at how acceptance of the Fundy Formula effects women or, for the sake of the almost alliteration – teh girls – and how “liberals” have failed to appreciate the significance of CON policy and legislation.
From the outset women and women’s advocacy groups have had no difficulty apprehending HarperCON’s anti-woman agenda. As McDonald points out, he began with the cancellation of a national daycare programme, moved on to a systematic assault on women’s equality-seeking groups and from there to defunding NGOs with specific focusses on providing reproductive services to women in developing countries and anti-violence initiatives. He has also engaged in a vicious public assault on his former Minister for the Status of Women, Helena Guergis, whose portfolio had been all but disabled anyway.
These issues share many common characteristics and some that are not so obvious. For instance, though most of us here understand quite well that the lack of a national daycare programme hurts not only the children of Canada but also women who are still their primary caretakers, we were probably less aware that, as McDonald points out, Harper “was also pandering to social conservatives who don’t believe that the government should have any role in child-rearing, who believe that mothers should be at home bringing up their children or who send their children to religious daycares and schools.”
Speaking for myself, I got the “women at home” aspect but missed the part about the children of working mothers placed in religious daycares and schools and the concomitant threat to public education. As McDonald concludes:
It was one of those policies that cut across both of his constituencies, economic and social. That would characterize most of his policies.
But McDonald misses something – that the struggle for a national daycare programme is something that not even Liberals will take to the wall – making it much too easy for Harper to hand out gifts to his social conservative base. Maybe libs and lefties will take daycare if they can get it but it’s certainly nothing to bring down a minority government over. Few issues that are perceived to be or actually are those that effect primarily teh girls are that important. Or none. In fact, when these issues are raised what I hear most often from the libs and even the left, such as it is, is that these issues are “distractions”, diversions from primary purposes, that they might be worth a few jabs in question period and an opportunistic media punchline here or there, but they are really window-dressing issues, dog bones thrown out or removed with little political, social or economic meaning beyond the moment.
For instance. When the cabal reconvened after prorogation, Harper threw one of his bright shiny things into the Throne Speech, promising to make our national anthem “gender neutral”. Quite apart from the discussions about what that would take and the general hue and cry about history and national treasures, what interested me was the response from the centre and the left along the lines that language doesn’t matter, sons are “generic” and Harper is just trying to trick you stupid broads into accepting this bright shiny thing as if it’s something real. Down the toilet went the respectable and now historical feminist argument that yes, language does matter and under the bus, ground into the ruts, went teh girls. Of course Harper had no trouble dumping the proposal and looked like he was responding to the outrage from social conservatives and liberals all in one fell swoop. How nice for him.
I’m beginning to see a similar modus in operation with respect to Helena Guergis. She’s a young, childless woman married to a brown man in political difficulty (even though he’s no longer in office) who “managed” a portfolio that men, conservative and otherwise, don’t care much about. She wasn’t and isn’t worth much to anybody it seems. Any attempt to point out the rampant sexism of the attack on Guergis result in shouts from the left that Guergis is a loose cannon, mythically and powerfully destructive and possibly a blondly stupid disaster with whom we should not concern ourselves one teensy bit. STFU girls.
I was never a Guergis supporter. But did she ever have any supporters? And is there a liberal or left dude that gives an elderberry fart about what happens to women in politics?
It’s also been clear in the past that the abolition of Canada’s long-gun registry is an issue used as a political football by left, right and centre in attempts to prevent the alienation of “rural voters”, all of whom are assumed to be men. Both Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton failed to whip their parties before the vote on the abolition bill in the last session of Parliament, resulting in an easy “yea” result for the legislation. It remains mighty unclear that anything has changed this time ’round, despite Ignatieff’s attempts to revise the legislation. Will Jack Layton whip? Who the hell knows. So it’s not only girls under the bus on this one, it’s dead girls under the bus.
As for the progressive defunding of women’s equality-seeking groups and NGOs, Ignatieff is perfectly content to use this issue as a political chip – but where the f**k has he been for the last four years while it was happening? Where was he in December 2009 and early 2010 when a Liberal/NDP coalition would have brought down this anti-democratic, anti-woman, homophobic, pro-Israel and the Rapture government and, for instance, its attempted assault on pay equity? As for the Libs failed attempt to underscore the reproductive rights of women with their Parliamentary motion? I actually will stfu on that one.
Women have allowed themselves to be used thus for too long, hoping to get bigger prizes in the end. Or perhaps any prize at all. I’m beginning to hear heartening rumbles from girlfriend-land that none of these hopeless pols ought to rest comfortably in the beds their wives and girlfriends have made for so long, and so patiently.
The Theocons so well described by Marci McDonald are the focus of renewed realizations, discussions and organizing among awakening and already fully conscious women – and a few pro-feminist men. Take care liberal and left doodz. Move out of the crosshairs of that metaphorical but very well-aimed long-gun.
UPDATE:
HarperCON whines:
“Last night’s dominant CBC story … featured an attack on the religious affiliation of some government members and supporters,” the Tory missive says. “Apparently, the CBC thinks it newsworthy that some Conservative Ministers and MPs practice their faith. Even more scandalous, some members of the Prime Minister’s Office go to church!”
Pale is peeved.
And on the Helena Guergis story, there’s this from the PI who started it all:
“I have nothing — I have no evidence, or no information, with respect to the conduct of Ms. Guergis in my possession or knowledge,” he stated.
Instead, he said the mere threat of bad optics, coming after a string of embarrassing gaffes by Guergis, may have been enough to force Harper’s hand.
“This is an issue of optics,” Snowdy said.
In his 2008 article “Facism Anyone?”, Laurence W. Britt enumerated the key elements of facism under well-known historical regimes such as Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia. Number 5 on Britt’s list:
Rampant sexism. Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses.
Stephen Harper began his CON regime by cutting funding to the Ministry of the Status of Women and to countless women’s groups across the country, including the highly successful Court Challenges Programme which LEAF had used effectively to challenge government actions and legislation that it believed breached the Charter rights of women. Of course, Harper also gave us the charming Helena Guergis to perform as his talking doll in the Ministry, though she has proven less than charming.
But let’s have a look at more recent HarperCON activities that fit into the “blatant sexism” category.
Let’s begin with the federal budget for 2010. Most commentators said it was the “do nothing” budget but of course, all budgets do something, even if by neglect. Professor Kathleen Lahey from Queen’s University Law School did the math. Here’s her over-all assessment:
The big picture: Women are half the population in Canada and nearly half the official labour force – but still do 62% of all unpaid work, and receive only 40% of after-tax incomes.
This Budget: The government claims that it is providing one last $19 billion ‘stimulus’ package this year, shorn of new tax cuts or spending items. This is highly misleading. New corporate tax cuts and continued huge PIT and GST cuts bring the total to $41.9 billion for 2010/11.
Gender gaps: This $41.9 billion is being delivered in forms that will benefit far more in Budget 2010: men than women, widen gender gaps even further, and continue to drive up poverty rates among women and single parents.
Of course, women were unattended to in the “Stimulus Budget” as well:
Budget 2009 not only fails to target the most vulnerable, but it seems to have been carefully crafted to exclude women from as much of the $64 billion in new deficit-financed spending and tax cuts as possible … [see how]
Then there’s the issue of child care. HarperCON carefully eliminated the 5 billion dollar daycare agreement that the Paul Martin government had reached with the provinces before it lost the 2006 election and replaced it with a $100 per month per child benefit that Jim Flaherty said was meant to emphasize “choice” for families with daycare aged children – in terms of social policy conservatives have always insisted that individuals be responsible for the full costs of reproduction and the tiny benefit they extended did little to ameliorate those costs for working families or single parent families, most of which are headed by women. In his most recent budget Flaherty added $100 per month per child under the age of six. I don’t think there’s anybody who believes that will be truly helpful.
In addition, the money Flaherty is extending is counted as taxable income in the hands of lower income parents so its true value is actually less than its face value:
Because the child care allowance will increase their income, families will pay more federal and provincial/territorial income taxes, while at the same time receiving less from geared-to-income benefits such as the federal Canada Child Tax Benefit and GST credit as well as provincial/territorial child benefits and tax credits. Thus the true value of the child care scheme will be considerably less than its $1,200 a year face value – significantly less in the case of many working poor and modest-income families, who will get a smaller after-tax benefit than middle- and upper-income families. One-earner families with a parent who stays home will do better than lone-parent and two-earner families. But even for one-earner couples with children, those who earn the most would get to keep more of the proposed benefit. [here]
The women of Canada thank you for that cool “choice” Jim. Helena Guergis seems to have another solution, though she won’t give details:
Then why did status of women minister Helena Guergis tell Canadian delegates at the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women this month that Israel has such “strong family values there that they don’t need a national daycare plan! Wouldn’t it be great to figure out how they’re doing that?”
On Monday, at the most heavily covered Status of Women Committee meeting ever, Liberal status of women critic Anita Neville tried to pin the beleaguered Guergis down on what she meant by “family values.” [more]
Onward then. Over the course of the prorogation HarperCON’s mouthpiece, Bev Oda (he sure knows how to get women to work for
him) announced that her government would work to promote maternal health by targetting foreign aid for this purpose. What could be wrong with that? Well, in the first place, Flaherty’s budget will freeze foreign aid next year and that just can’t help. On top of that, both Oda and Lawrence Cannon have now made it clear that “maternal health care” does NOT include contraception and access to safe abortion. Cannon says the government’s initiative on maternal health care is mean to save lives, not provide birth control.
These are actually contradictory policies. The best way to reduce the abortion rate is to provide sex education and contraception. That much seems obvious. Perhaps less obvious (to men) is the fact that when women get pregnant and don’t want to continue their pregnancies, they have always and always will find ways to terminate them. Unfortunately, in countries where abortion isn’t legal or accessible, this leads to unsafe abortions and the deaths of approximately 68,000 women worldwide, per year. When mothers die their children have an increased risk of dying within a few years. The government has also failed to extend funding to the International Planned Parenthood Federation through CIDA. So the question for HarperCON is, do pregnant women have a right to live? Just to cite an obvious recent example, what about the women of Haiti?
A lack of education, limited access to reproductive health care, and the rape and violence that Haitian women face have led to a country with a staggeringly poor set of vital statistics. These include a high maternal and infant mortality rate and a high illiteracy rate, with only half the population able to read and write. Because of the high birth rate and abject poverty, hundreds of thousands of children are given up to over-burdened orphanages. Before the quake, an estimated 380,000 children had been placed in just 167 orphanages and care centers; that number of orphans, observers say, may have doubled as a result of the quake and could now be as many as one million!
HarperCON isn’t offering real help to boost maternal health in its foreign aid policy. What about the health of Canadian women and infants? Well, unsurprisingly, the money isn’t forthcoming here either. The Canada Prenatal Nutrition Programme, for instance, has been effective in helping women who suffer from extremes of poverty, isolation, abuse and addiction to improve outcomes for their newborns. But the Programme hasn’t had a funding boost since 1999. As Dean Beeby reports,
After a decade of inflation, that represents an effective cut of $4 million, without accounting for population growth. And spending in 2008-09 was down by $200,000 from the previous year, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, which runs the program.
Add to that the fact that neither the government nor the media has had anything to say about a recent report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that fetal and infant mortality rates are 2.7% higher among Inuit women than elsewhere in the country and you should get some sense of the depth of HarperCON’s commitment to the health of mothers and their infants in this country.
Another way of helping women in developing countries to stay alive would be an effective strategy for combatting violence against women. HarperCON seems aware that they should have such a commitment, they just don’t take it seriously. Through CIDA, Canada has invested $15 million dollars into a campaign against sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo:
An internal Canadian government report obtained by The Globe and Mail concluded that Canada was spending too much money on T-shirts, vests, caps, cardboard folders and gaudy posters while failing to make progress on the bigger issues of prevention and justice. Ms. Bihamba chuckled grimly as she described the foreign- aid projects. The simple problem with the campaign, she said, is that most perpetrators of sexual violence are illiterate – they can’t read the printed messages.
This despite the fact that gender violence blocks progress in every major development target.
… violence–from rape during armed conflicts to domestic violence–is a leading cause of death and disability among women of all ages, and costs nations billions of dollars as it drains public resources and lowers economic productivity.
In his own country, PM Harper indicated in the Speech from the Throne that his government intends to support a Private Member’s Bill to abolish the long-gun registry – one small measure that has actually had some impact in preventing and intervening in domestic violence against women. And there’s little doubt that he will re-introduce the crime legislation that includes increased and extended mandatory minimum jail sentences for certain crimes including small-time drug offences. That will mean more Aboriginal and African Canadian women in jail for longer periods of time (men too) and discrimination against other vulnerable groups as well. [link to Facebook Note]
The women of Canada have no reason to be grateful to HarperCON and every reason to protest its actions while it remains the government of this country. Even more reason to be active and stay active in every movement they can find that wants to oust the creep and his coterie in the next election – according to some pundits, not far off.
Women Unite, Defeat the Right!
In 1869 British MP John Stuart Mill was the first person in Parliament to call for women’s right to vote. On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. Women in other countries did not enjoy this equality and campaigned for justice for many years.
In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin’s suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women’s Day was the result.
The very first International Women’s Day was launched the following year by Clara Zetkin on 19 March (not 8 March). The date was chosen because on 19 March in the year of the 1848 revolution, the Prussian king recognized for the first time the strength of the armed people and gave way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many promise he made, which he later failed to keep, was the introduction of votes for women. [here]
So even then it was about promises broken and the work of (mostly) women to force equitable, if not revolutionary, change. If women today wonder why Susan B. Anthony would point to the bicycle as a liberator of women, we need only think back to the extreme limitations on women’s mobility that she had seen go by the wayside in her lifetime. The bicycle and its female riders once evoked extreme anxiety in folk worried about women’s sexual innocence and purity. Seems like the sight of women astride a bike with those saddles between their legs could only mean one thing to some peope – women feelin’ happy, Oh my pearls!
The problem was exacerbated if women leaned forward, rode fast or did not maintain an upright posture when riding. Special ‘hygienic’ saddles with no inner core that could rub against a woman’s ‘delicate parts’ were offered by manufacturers to circumnavigate this problem. [here]
Even so, women achieved their right to ride bikes partly as a result of their willingness to ride sitting bolt upright.
The growing numbers of middle class women riding bikes in awkward, long flowing skirts eventually resulted in a revolution in clothing. In Britain, dress reform was advocated and, to some extent, won – by the mid 1890s women were wearing bicycle trousers and culottes. When your clothes get out of the way, many things are possible beyond bike riding.
Riding a bike and wearing pants can make a difference. I wonder what difference changing the words of Canada’s national anthem might have made. It was a strange, HarperCON kind of offer from Canada’s government and not one they took seriously themselves – apparently Harper cabinet ministers had not been consulted and they made short work of clearing up any possible confusion: no way were they supporting it. Peter MacKay and Tony Clement said so publicly and Jim Flaherty, asked about the change in an interview with Peter Mansbridge on the budget, could not possibly have been less enthused. When you make a proposal like this you have to explain, justify and sell it. Instead, the CONs sold it out.
Did the howls of outrage from “redneck” members of the CON base scuttle the deal?
“My guess is that while Stephen was out swanning around Vancouver for the Olympics and a lot of women were doing great there and winning a lot of medals and probably some feminist got to him and said, ‘We ought to revise the national anthem,”‘ Flanagan said in an interview.
“He’s always looking for things that can reach out to other constituencies without alienating the Conservative base. So I’m not surprised that he might have seen it in that light, say(ing), ‘Well, here’s something we can do to show that we’re open toward women, particularly women who vote.’
“And maybe he didn’t think through or forsee the reaction that would draw from rednecks like me.”
Flanagan applauded the about-face. He said national symbols, like the anthem and flag, should “arouse a sense of awe and mystery” and that stems from the fact that they are enduring symbols for the ages. [here]
Of course it would be “sons” and other “enduring” things that arouse that “awe and mystery” – daughters apparently don’t have the same symbolic power. It can’t be the issue of change itself that provoked the outcry because the words to the anthem have changed several times and can hardly be called lasting – it’s only a 30 year-long tradition in its present form. I think the CONs are averse to anything that even sounds politically correct and I think they’re averse to women in pants on bicycles too.
The CONs weren’t the ones who concerned me this time ’round. I heard more than enough howls of protest in a place that’s been a bit of a safe haunt for me since late December – Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (CAPP). There were regular knee-jerk comments about the change being merely symbolic (merely?) and a trivial issue and an attempt to win women’s votes by fooling us into thinking the CON’s care. Women, of course, could not be relied upon to notice that HarperCON really doesn’t give a crappie about women’s equality – even though many of the women CAPPers are also members of an anti-Harper group called “Proud to Be a Member of That Left-Wing Fringe Group Women” and have been working equally hard and for longer than members of CAPP to point out the effects of Harper’s fiscal and social conservatism on women, minority groups, Aboriginal people, children, the disAbled, members of LGBTTQI communities, poor people and just generally groups whose rights are guaranteed by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We were not about to be bought off by an offer of a bright and shiny thing but it appeared to me that teh menz – and too many womenz – thought our heads could be turned by the promise of a pretty geegaw. How’s that for respect?
There isn’t a woman/feminist I know who had it in her mind that the next issue we would tackle ought to be making our national anthem “gender neutral”. It’s not that some of us haven’t thought about it from time to time and certainly after having our ears assaulted by the tune for two weeks while the Olympics ran on. But as others have pointed out (repeatedly and ad nauseum) I don’t think it occurred to any of us that it was either that important an issue or a winnable proposition. Still, when something is offered that is only right and good, why should we not have accepted?
Symbols are important. The national anthem is supposed to include all Canadians and it specifically excludes women by mentioning “sons”. Language is important and gender inclusive language is important. Solidarity is important too and after being called a feminazi by a man of supposed liberal leanings, I’ve lost a bit of my new-found trust in the importance of “women’s issues” for some of my bro-friends.
But hey, it’s true. I’d rather have a bicycle and a pair of pants than one of Stephen Harpers flying sparkle ponies. So shut up!
On January 20th David Akin reported that a miserable 35 people turned up to dog PMS* when he showed up in Toronto and suggested they were all Liberal or NDP staffers and not members of CAPP, expressing doubt that the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament [CAPP]would be able to put their members out on the street on Saturday.
From David Akin on Saturday evening:
Based on initial reports, some from independent sources, some from partisan sources, it would be difficult to call this day of rallies a failed test. [more]
But he would if he could.
Before rally day, from John Moore who writes for, er, ahem:
Grassroots fury? Thousands of people in the streets, switchboard’s browning out with indignant calls and a tsunami of e-mails might be considered a grassroots fury. Facebook groups, on the other hand, amount to a kind of ephemeral eruption that usually passes like a hot flash or the urge to vote for the Green party.
And in response to a letter from freelance writer James DiFiore, Moore had this to say, in part:
I will absolutely eat my words if anything comes of the movement outside of the usual gang of professional protesters but if you honestly think that a bunch of people clicking a button and joining a Facebook group that they will never return to is political action then perhaps it’s the younguns these days who need a good lesson in media and action. Rosa Parks did not launch the civil rights movement by Twittering “this bus thing totally sucks”. Barack Obama was not elected by social networking. It was a means of connecting people so they could actually do the grunt work of old fashioned politics: door to door, meetings, and phone calls. Digital yakity yak is not action.
I’d recommend you take a quick look at today’s Toronto Star for an idea of how Facebook translates into action. 32 thousand signed up at Facebook to protest a possible strike by Ontario college teachers. One showed up for the protest. I know it’s a popular talking point that “old media” don’t get “new media” but as long as new media rings together a bunch of ernest do-nothings old media will continue to recognize it as a pooling of people who are all talk and no action.
Um, John? Old media doesn’t get new media. Really.
Yesterday, John tried to cover his ass with this post:
But as Rick Mercer has pointed out the push in the last ten days to actually deliver on the whole Facebook thing is drawing considerably upon the fact that it was originally shrugged off. So who is turning out to genuinely follow through on their button pushing and who is turning out to teach the crusty old media wretches a lesson? [some more]
Right John. Tens of thousands of people rallied across Canada to teach your crusty ass a lesson. I doubt that anyone cares if you figure it out or not honey. Come along for the ride, or don’t.
* PMS = Prime Minister Steve and he’s about as welcome to me as that.
UPDATE: Speaking of PMS, a P.S. to John Moore – Ain’t nuthin’ ephemeral about a hot flash buddy.
UPPER-DATE: Can’t leave out Michael Geist, who knew what was happening before the rallies –
The new year is less than three weeks old, but the Canadian Internet story of 2010 may have already taken place. Ridiculed by political parties and analysts, the growth of the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group, which now has more than 200,000 members, provides the clearest indicator yet of how poorly the Canadian political community understands social media and digital advocacy. [lots more]
UPPITY-DATE: As Antonia Zerbisias would say. And how could I leave this irrepressible activist, Toronto Star columnist and blogger out? The day before the rallies, Ms Zerbisias had this to say –
Still, Canadians will show up.
Trouble is, they will be spread out from Antigonish to Victoria to Yellowknife, mostly in towns abandoned by our corporate, concentrated media who plead poverty when it comes to local news, but can pony up millions and millions for U.S. series already piped in by cable.
So a true measure will never be taken, at least not by the national media ministries of truth, especially not on a weekend when newsrooms are bare-bones operations.
But tune into Facebook and Twitter and you’ll see the big picture.
I plan to help paint it.
On that, you can count. [oh, there’s more – count on it!]
FINAL UPDATE: Finally, John Moore responds. Not worth the wait but here it is anyway –
Well it looks like I wont be eating crow for dinner after all. Dan Cook went through the numbers for me city by city and three thousand people in Ottawa and Toronto, 300 in Montreal, 250 in Edmonton and 2000 in Vancouver doesn’t really amount to much.
It’s a numbers game. That’s why politicians monitor e-mail, protests and phone calls. And three thousand people in the streets of Toronto just doesn’t do the trick. Is it fair? yes as a matter of fact. I covered federalist and separatist rallies and protests for years in Montreal and you knew when people were fighting mad. That’s when fifty to a hundred thousand hit the streets. When it was just another “We Hate Ottawa” or “God save Canada” gathering they would muster a few thousand and it didn’t mean a thing.
I’m not celebrating this outcome. My record on this PM is long and clear. But my method as a columnist and radio host has always been to try to offer as accurate a pulse on what people are saying and thinking at the moment. It doesn’t matter how much I don’t like Stephen Harper’s pettiness. What matters is whether or not a significant percentage of the population is fed up enough to do something about it.
Of course John’s not close to correct on the numbers. Even MacLean‘s doesn’t have it right, though they’re certainly closer. No matter how many Canadians had been on the street I think it’s a safe bet that Moore wouldn’t have eaten any crows – he made up his mind beforehand and forgot to leave himself a way out. As well his job is to create fake controversy so really his statement on the rallies is functional for him – it’s what he gets paid for. I guess.
But we can talk numbers forever; contary to what Moore says, there’s more going on here than what the tally does or does not say. Many many many people are involved in this protest on Facebook, on Twitter, on the group’s website and on so many blogs that collecting links is hard work. Large numbers of those people got themselves out onto the streets in cities, towns and communities across the country on Saturday and many of those people are committed to continue working to affect HarperCON policies or to defeat the government entirely. These people have dominated the national conversation for days and even weeks. If we never hear another peep from them collectively, a great deal has been learned and some people have taken an interest in their country’s politicians and political structure for the first time. That’s the least of what has been accomplished. Time will tell us a great deal more about what this movement of people has meant.
Hey John Moore, if it’s so unimportant, how come you can’t stop talking about it? Now, here’s your punishment. Keep your promise.
By Pale from A Creative Revolution
Murray Dobbin points out that the Harper Agenda on the economic front is likely even more important than the prorogation:
It is gratifying to see such widespread opposition to Harper’s assault on Parliament and democracy — from almost every major political columnist, newspaper editorials, over a hundred political scientists, and constitutional experts — including a significant number of unusual suspects. It is a clear sign that Harper has overreached yet again — a character flaw that has saved the country from disaster more than once. Harper now sits at 33 percent in the latest Ekos poll, and if the movement continues to grow, Harper’s plan to force an election over his March budget will have to be put on hold. That might have the effect of postponing the worst cuts.
But the sudden support for democracy by parts of the Canadian elite will not extend to defending the legacy of public services, wealth redistribution and government intervention in the economy. Those are the things that are in Stephen Harper’s crosshairs, and progressives will have to fight the campaign to stop him on their own. [more of this must read]
Amidst the excitement of the movement against Harper’s prorogation of Parliament, it’s not only important to keep this in mind, it’s important to strategize about effective responses. Progressives will likely be back on their own at that point.
In an interview with Business News Network, the Prime Minister flatly rejected the notion that proroguing Parliament has left the country open to criticism it is not a stable democracy.
In fact, it is Parliament in a minority situation that is perceived by markets as unstable, said Harper.
“The games begin when Parliament returns,” he explained. “The government can take our time now to do the important work to prepare the economic agenda ahead.
“That said, as soon as Parliament comes back . . . the first thing that happens is a vote of confidence and there’ll be votes of confidence and election speculation for every single week after that for the rest of the year. That’s the kind of instability markets are actually worried about.” [The Star]
The sad thing is, Stephen Harper is correct. He’s not right, but he’s correct. It’s about corporate capitalism stupid.
I’ve been waiting for so long for Canadians to wake up, pay attention, get pissed off, get politicized and boot Harper’s tush out of Ottawa. For what now seems like a very brief time in December of 2008 Canadians did wake up but the lack of leadership, primarily in the Liberal Party, and ignorance about the meaning of a coalition between the Liberals, New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois took the wind out of the sails all too soon.
Since then I’ve been watching and waiting. Not entirely passively. I watch the news, the blogs, the independent web reporting sites, the mags, online and off. I’ve alerted people to good material and hoped they read it. I expressed my outrage on Twitter, Facebook and occasionally on this blog. I wrote letters to newspapers, MPs, opposition leaders and the PM. But mostly I waited. Many of us waited. Sometimes I lost hope that anyone in this country was ever going to care. Care about the war on Gaza and Canada’s blind support of Israel. Care about Canada’s part in the war in Afghanistan. Care about the growing number of Canadians locked up in prisons for stupid reasons. Care about the arrogance and autocracy of Stephen Harper and his effect on our democratic institutions. Care about people like Omar Khader, Hassan Almrei, Suaad Hagi Mohamud, Abousfian Abdelrazik and others whose names and skin colour were not kindred to Stephen Harper. Care about the introduction of a mandatory minimum sentences bill that would put more Canadians in prison for more stupid reasons and the possible abolition of Canada’s long gun registry that actually seems to be making a difference in preventing or responding effectively to violence against women in domestic situations, the funding of the Status of Women, pay equity, the Court Challenges Programme . . . well, much more than all that believe it or not, but for now and most recently, the treatment of Canada’s Afghan detainees.
So many people lost faith that Canadians were ever going to care that when it began to appear that the frozen giant had awoken from its long slumber, when rumblings of revolt were heard on Facebook in the group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament – well, many were afraid to believe it. I wasn’t one of them. I don’t know why. But my intuition is that I spend so much time on the web reading, listening, learning, chatting and “networking” that I felt the pulse right away. If you’re not there you don’t know, you don’t feel it, you can’t see it. I was a member of that group early on and I sent links to the group to everyone I knew. I tweeted about the group over and over. I spread the news in other groups. I believed it was going to go. And it did. Lots of other people believed it too or it wouldn’t have happened.
What’s the difference between last year’s momentary excitement about the possibility of a coalition government that could topple the Conservatives and this year’s moment? Last year we were dependent upon the potential parties to the coalition to keep it going when Harper prorogued. The moment was easily brought to an end through a combination of Harper’s willingness to impose his will on Parliament and the country and the appalling and depressing weakness of the opposition. This year, Harper’s still there, behaving like an autocrat; the opposition has gained no strength. But the success of the awakening depends upon the people participating. Stephen Harper can’t shut it down. The opposition parties are barely able to respond well never mind take leadership roles in the movement. Its success depends solely upon the will of the people involved.
That might well be the only way it was ever going to work. Pass it on.
I am in agreement with Murray Dobbin, in full rah rah mode:
This may well be the best chance progressives have had in the four years of Harper government to deal him a decisive blow and frame him and his government as unfit to run the country. He has clearly been hurt by this but Harper will not go away quietly and if we do not take advantage of this moment and take the next two months to press the issue of democracy (and the Afghan detainee issue which prompted Harper’s move) we can count on Harper to recover – especially given the current weakness of both the Liberals and the NDP.
It’s Time to Join the Democracy Movement !
Write your MP and if you’ve already written your MP, write again. Write to the PM, to local newspapers cc’ed to national media and to leaders of the opposition. Demonstrate with members of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament on January 23rd. If we let up we’ll get the democracy we deserve.
mirabile dictu 