Thursday, December 31, 2009

Stephen Harper and My Horrible Year














Golly. It's the last day of 2009, the day I usually spend looking back at the year that was. But this year I can't do that because it was too HORRIBLE.

What with that ghastly cloud still hanging over our heads, and the twisted evil man who would be our dictator closing down Parliament. Again.

And for what according to this pollster?

"He's really kind of thrown down the gauntlet to the Liberals, saying, 'If it's true that I prorogued last year because I was a bit afraid of the growing power of the opposition parties, this year I am doing it because of the exact opposite, fundamentally. I'm not afraid of them ... and if you don't like what I am doing, I challenge you to call an election.'"

Right. From the miserable Con who claims Canada can't afford an election. But really wants one before the torture monsters and his own demons catch up with him. So he can play his dirty political games, continue to rape our values, torch the planet, and shame us in the eyes of the world.

And the depressing part is that so many Canadians still support him, even after all the foul things he has done. What is wrong with our country? And does it really have a hole in its centre?

We have reason to be proud of our ability to live peacefully together, but, as a marker of national identity, multiculturalism is like a lovely shoe with a pebble inside. New immigrants maintain their traditions, but without being asked to adopt an overarching idea of Canada. What this means now, at a time of crisis, is that there is no hard centre to sustain us.

Could we really have forgotten what once made us great? The time when for a while we were the quiet, decent, peacekeepers and problem solvers of this world. The kind of Canada Stephen Harper hates so much, and is trying so hard to destroy.

Could many Canadians really be too old and tired?

Here’s what we need in 2010 — the youth to take over. Everybody is sick and tired, or at least they should be, of the eternal grip on power of the post-war baby boomer cohort.

These people are old, intellectually worn out, shorn of idealism and duller than the Manitoba tundra.

So here's what I think. Everybody relax. We badly need new ideas and a new/old idealism. But however old we are, our country is still young, so we can make some dreadful mistakes, and it can still come back stronger and more beautiful than ever.

Because it is beautiful eh?











And luckily there are more Canadians who love this country, and its strong but gentle values, than there are Cons who are trying to turn us into a mini version of Ugly Amerika.

So if young and old work TOGETHER we can defeat Harper and his political thugs.

The older ones can provide some wise advice and regain some of their youthful idealism. And the younger ones can teach them some new tricks, and provide some badly needed happy energy.

Like the kids at the Université du Québec à Montréal did, with one of my favourite videos of the year...




So can we save our beautiful country? Let's do it. Do it. Do it.

Of course we can. And we WILL.

To all my readers out there thank you for reading my little blog, and for all your encouragement.

Happy New Year everyone !!!!!!!!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Simon,

Loved the video!

Enjoyed reading your thoughts throughout the year. Keep up the great work.

Found you through progressivebloggers.ca

paul2port

double nickel said...

I agree with most of what you say, but for Christ's sake don't go down the road of blaming the baby boomers for the fuck-up currently posing as a Prime Minister.

WILLY said...

Chill DN, The yellow boomer bashing part was a quote from the linked article. I think Simon respects his elders, at least the progressive ones.

Happy new year

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your writing.
I am one of the old and tired and sooooo happy to read your message!
I feel very sad about what is happening in Canada. I live in BC and we also see similar behavior from our provincial govt.
Looking back at this year has been disheartening and I am very glad to read your words - fight smart:)
Thanks again!!!

Simon said...

hi Paul...I'm glad you liked the video. Wasn't it awesome? They shot it in just over two hours, and it's had almost four million views on YouTube.
Just more proof eh? In Canada if we work together and keep a happy heart we can do ANYTHING. :)
Happy New Year !!!

Simon said...

hi double nickel...ha ha ha don't worry. I wouldn'y blame any generation for Stephen Harper. I can't even imagine him as a boomer. Oh wait I can. I see a school gym...and everybody is dancing to one of those groovy 60s tunes. And there is Harper in the corner, with the other nerd from the Conservative Club, dressed in a dark suit and looking miserable.
He suffered THEN. We're all paying for that NOW. :)
Happy New Year !!!

Simon said...

hi FFIB NAMOL...yes I do respect my elders. And for good reason. I read a recent poll that showed that some of the most progressive and socially conscious citizens, are older Canadians.
And besides, as I've mentioned before, I just LOVE Boomer music. :)
Happy New Year !!!!

Simon said...

hi anonymous...thank YOU for your kind words.You mean you are one of the old ....and the wise ;)
The main thing is that young and old can learn from each other, and we must not be discouraged by the awful period we are going through.
We'll go through it together and come out VICTORIOUS.
Happy New Year !!!!

CK said...

Happy New Year, Friend!

Do continue the good work. Now, with this proroguation, it is more important for us to make as much noise as possible, because, lord knows Today's corporatist media won't.

We (Canadians in general) have become too compliant and that is part of the problem. Part of the reason why ol' Stevie remains withing majority grasp.

Oh yes, he is hoping things like torturegate will go away as well as other unpleasantness so he can go to election.

What a time to do so indeed, because, at this time, I think Iggy is on the way out. We don't hear from him or see him anymore. Whatever Liberal voice is being heard nowadays is Bob Rae's. With the Liberals without a leader right now and no visible plans to merge or at least form some kind of collaboration with the NDP, this is Stevie's chance.

We must somehow make enough noise to keep his demons alive and well throughout the Olympics.

I am working a a piece on this subject.

I am back to my blogging. Hiatus is over now. Sister Sage's Musings new home is at www.sistersagesmusings.ca now with a whole new look.

I hope you stop by.

Anonymous said...

Damn.. I haven't been this depressed since Iggy shot down the coalition and then voted for C-15.

The really depressing thing is that most people don't care what the cons are doing to our country, and won't care unless it makes them make less money. I used to be proud to be Canadian, but after the way my fellow citizens just let this guy do whatever he wants, (and the fact that violating Geneva conventions against torture doesn't lower the cons' popularity at all), I'm really starting to loathe my country.

Maybe it's time to burn my Canadian flag.

Omar said...

"What is wrong with our country?"

I don't think anything is wrong, I just have to wonder if our nation is as progressive as we progressives like to believe it is. I am currently reading John English's second volume on Trudeau and so far the book is rife with references to Trudeau the moral conservative not exactly relishing the changes he made to our Criminal Code. He only did so in his firm belief that the state had no right to limit individual behaviour. "Sins they may be, but crimes they are not" etc, etc. While many of these legislative changes were popular with Canadians, divorce and abortion reforms for example, the new legislation dealing with homosexuality and capital punishment were not. As a matter of fact, according to polling at the time, the latter two mentioned were extremely unpopular at the time. Now, while we progressives applaud the brave initiatives politicians like Trudeau implemented back in the day, for me it is easier to understand the conservative backlash to them. This reared, ugly head of morally conservative indignation has been fermenting for over a generation and now they have tasted power. I believe these people are wrong of course, but that is a little beside the point. Can we save our beautiful country? Sure we can. Do we have the balls to do so? That, I'm not so sure of.

Happy 2010, Simon. Keep on, keeping on.

Love, Omar

Oemissions said...

Seniors and Youth need to form an alliance.
Last election Baird hung out at Senior Centres. They still think of John Diefenbaker and the old Progressive Conservatives.
So the Cons convince them they are the same.

Simon said...

hi CK...Happy New Year to you too !!! :)
And yes we are a pretty passive lot aren't we? A nation of spectators rather than citizens. I mean I know it's cold out there, but this is ridiculous. In any European country if their Parliament was shutdown there would be tens of thousands of people in the streets.
My fondest hope is that we can keep the pressure on Harper so that when he goes for his Nuremberg moment at the Olympics all he gets is a deafening chorus of BOOS. For that alone the Olympics would be worth it.
As for your blog's new look...I LOVE it. How you were able to work wonders with HTML...after quitting smoking...is absolutely AWESOME... :)

Simon said...

hi anonymous...I know exactly how you feel. It is depressing to see our beautiful country being dragged through the moral mud by that foul gang of political thugs.
But don't burn your Canadian flag yet..because there are still many more Canadians who voted for other parties than did for them.
So if we get our act together we can get rid of these Cons.
Think of it as a challenge, with a humungous reward... :)

Simon said...

hi Omar...interesting comment, and although I hate to admit it, I'm afraid you may be right. And certainly the stuff about Trudeau is true. I worship his memory, but he was a millionaire who never escaped his Jesuit roots, and if he didn't have many gay friends who knows what might have happened.
And of course he was responsible for the War Measures Act...
Still, although we may never have been as cool as we thought we were, we did fool the world for one brief and shining period, and never have we fallen so low as we are now.
It's an interesting discussion, and I think I'll write a post on it soon.
Thanks for the idea eh? :)
Happy New Year brother...

ck said...

Well, a noisy Olympics is a start; getting folks around to boo whenever Steve is around.

I have also heard ramblings about Opposition party members showing up for Question Period at it's regularly scheduled time. Sounds like a good idea; I hope they go through with it.

Here is the web site to find your MP in your riding: I suggest that we all write to our MPs expressing our dismay and to call them to take action.

As to the layout on my blog, thanks, I wanted a grayscale retro theme and I done it. But, to be honest, I had help from an application called Artisteer. But I am still learning code as I need to customize certain things.

But the Header was done by scratch through photoshop, as is the pattern on some of the denim backgrounds.

ck said...

Omar,
"...This reared, ugly head of morally conservative indignation has been fermenting for over a generation and now they have tasted power."

Hang on, we did have 2 successive Tory majorities, more than Steve ever had; although, it was under the Progressive Conservative banner and now looking back, I guess we can consider Mulroney more of a centrist, when we now compare him to the Harpercons.

Unlike Steve, Mulroney actually believed the environment had some kind of importance, he didn't seek to recriminalize abortion, nor did he attempt to completely dismantle the Canada Health act (although, when negotiating NAFTA, it is argued that our health care system wasn't grandfathered enough), which is largely in part why enterprises like the Cleveland clinic made it's way to TO.

Say what we will about Mulroney, but he was successful and not nearly as Dangerous as Steve.

Whatever the case, I was a teen-ager when Mulroney first came to power, but I don't recall reading or hearing about the conservative love fest as we are today. That is during the 80s; decade of excess and self-centeredness.

All that said, Omar, another reason for this Conservative love fest is due to today's corporatist media which is very much slanted to the right; they hide under the large networks. Some examples would be Redneck Ryan Doyle of CFRB in TO, Chuckles Adler who I believe is syndicated nowadays; without those pesky rules of the CRTC, I clearly believe that Chuckles and Redneck Ryan would be exactly like Rush Limbaugh.

A family member works for Montreal's CJAD and he says that it's far different today than it was back then; he said it was more impartial back in those days.

My folks told me that newspapers way back when were more balanced with the reporting.

As a result of the changes, I think we lost the best writers and are replaced by such useless hacks.


There is also National Posties and Grope & Fail; hacks like L Ian MacDonald, Norman Spector, Jane Taber, and of course, Blathering Blatchford.

These hacks outnumber more of the progressives or centrist writers like Jim Travers of the To star and they're spoon feeding the Canadian population to believe only Steve alone can take care of Canada, in spite of his quotes in the past that prove the opposite:
"A northern European welfare state of the worst kind.."?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure media outlets were far more balanced than they are today.

Maybe we are the silent complacent majority; if so, it's up to us to make a whole lotta noise.

If it's about getting those
so called 'small c' conservatives and other 'centrists' to our side, then we're going to have to persuade them that Stevie is not the redeemed centrist he likes all to believe; but rather the reform, and NCC agenda is alive and well and will be put into action if unleashed with a majority. Remember MP Gerry Ritz saying that when they come in with a majority, "All bets are off".

ck said...

Oops! Forgot to leave that web site for finding your MP:

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC