Gawd. I should have remembered I'm living in Harperland, not Wonderland.
I should have realized why that damm cat was laughing at me eh?
I should have known you can't trust those two old Con artists, Steve and Jimbo, no matter what they say.
I should have known it was all a scam.
First they set us up by making it sound like Steve was peeved by the shortage of skilled labour.
Then Jimbo produced a budget to make it look like they were serious about training Canadian workers. When all he is trying to do is conceal their dirty little secret.
The federal government says it is serious about job-training. It is not. If it were, it would not make it so easy for business to hire cheap workers from abroad. This is the dirty little secret about job-training in Canada. Employers don’t train workers because most don’t have to.
Business isn't really interested in training Canadians, when they have a plentiful supply of cheap foreign workers.
If companies knew they couldn’t import, say, skilled pipefitters from Europe, they might put more effort into training domestic workers to meet their needs. But employers know they don’t have to train. Instead, they need only wait until the last minute and then complain of labour shortages.
And the Cons aren't either, because foreign workers help drive down wages, and bust unions. So they can't bring in enough of them, or exploit them enough...
Over the last decade, as my friends at the Globe and Mail have reported, the number of temporary workers admitted to Canada has more than tripled, from 101,000 to 338,000. This in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s.
But because there are now so many foreign workers, the Cons have to look as if they are doing something, when in fact they are not. Business doesn't want to pay to train Canadians, the provinces can't afford to train their residents to work in Alberta. And the Con plan is just another fraudulent Porky Action Plan production, just another Con scam.
Brought to you by those who would make you think they are securing our borders with productions like this one. Make their dumb base think they are tough on immigration. Even as they bring in armies of foreign workers.
And even as all over country hundreds of thousands of unemployed Canadians are living in despair, worrying about their families, fighting to get or keep EI benefits, being made to feel useless, or too lazy or stupid to work in their own country.
Oh boy. It's depressing, and I have to admit that these days sometimes I can't help feeling discouraged by the grubby reality of Harperland. Where the Big Lie rules, all is cheap politics, and hope goes to die.
Especially since a year ago the Quebec student movement was blooming, and there was so much hope in the air...
People were talking about social inequality, about fighting the corporate agenda, and about building a more equal and human world.
But the movement has faded. When some tried to hold a peaceful march yesterday they were jumped by the police.
Montreal police arrested 294 people during a protest to underline the anniversary of a massive rally that marked a turning point in last year's Quebec student crisis.
Even the gentle Anarchopanda was kettled...
And most Quebecers and Canadians just shrugged their shoulders, or yawned, or cheered the police on.
Which is also depressing and discouraging for someone like me, who wants to see more not less resistance to the Harper regime and it's foul corporate agenda. Or as my friends would no doubt say, is always looking for the proverbial pony in the mountain of manure.
Until I remember that history is on our side. The Con regime is running out of time.
And that by forcing their harsh ideology on Canadians, the Cons are only forcing them to decide what kind of country they really want to live in. Our beautiful Canada or Harper's ugly nightmare. One or the other.
Which can only make it easier to defeat them. For most Canadians don't want to go to the savage place they would take us. They cannot fool us forever. They cannot raise our hopes only to shatter them. They will not steal our future, and torch our planet.
Steve and Jimbo will be exposed as the Con artists they are...
The Cons will be defeated.
And like we did a year ago.
We shall rise again...
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6 comments:
Today's editorial cartoon in the Toronto Star about sums it up. Jimbo should get another job.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorial_cartoon.html
Problem is that he's too pugnacious even for that.
CSIS warned about, the huge inroads China was making into Canada. BC was specifically mentioned. Gordon Campbell sold BC to Red China long ago. He shipped BC mills to China, along with the raw logs. This put many BC mill people out of jobs.
China owns mines in BC. Campbell had China send their people to school, to learn 100 English words, so they could take the BC mining jobs. BC citizens tried in vain to warn, Harper was a snake in the grass. However, no-one would listen to us. We saw this coming way back, during Campbell's reign of terror. People just refused to wake-up.
What kind of a BC Liberal Premier gives mills to China, cheating his own people, out of jobs? What sort of a Premier gives his own peoples mining jobs, to a Communist country?
What kind of a Liberal Premier works for a so called, Conservative P.M? What kind of a BC Liberal Premier and a Conservative P.M... plots the HST onto BC people behind their backs, while in a deep recession?
Why did the Conservative P.M. reward ex BC Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell, the post of High Commissioner to England? Could it be, Campbell did Harper's dirty work for him?
I posted a long time ago. There was a Chinese buying up duplexes and repossessed houses. They are crammed full of, hotplates and bare furnishings. These houses are for Chinese coming to learn English. He ships them in, ships them out, and gets ready for the next swarm of Chinese coming over. China's skilled trades persons, need to speak some English, to take Canadian jobs.
Canadians are well known, to sleep through absolutely everything. Harper knows that and counts on it.
hi Rick...yes that cartoon does sum the situation up nicely. The Cons really are trying to turn Canada into a giant Walmart. Although having Jimbo dress up as a Walmart employee is a little far fetched. For surely nobody in their right mind would buy ANYTHING from him... ;)
hi anonymous...it's important to remember that these foreign workers are not just coming from China. They are also coming from all kinds of other countries all over the world. The Cons are opening the barn door wide open, and if you will work for less than a Canadian then you're their kind of worker. I should also point out that these foreign workers are also being exploited, and can be sent home if they dare complain about anything.
I don't want to be xenophobic, I just want more jobs, with decent wages, for Canadians...
Well all that you say is true, Simon; cheap foreign workers do drive down wages and bust unions, which is the prime motive of the Cons, although they hide that in their political bafflegab. It also cuts costs for employers, because they don't have to spend on job training. This is the cute little bribe they get from HarperLand, and in return they pour money into Con election coffers. Harper happily listens to the company bosses (while they rail against 'union bosses’) but he refuses to listen to our workers. He refuses to sit down with the Premiers and we get more and more austerity all for the sake of giving to Con corporate buddies. Flaherty's last budget should have been in 2006. The bozo clown has had 8 deficit budgets in a row. You cannot spell failure any clearer than that. You've got people out there for example, Canadians, looking for work with solid science backgrounds and degrees, that can't find a job to save their lives. The amount of government funding that has been cut from science and then Harper says there are shortages of manpower in science? Well that sure doesn't fucken add up, does it? Nor does it take an economic helmsman genius to figure out the solution. Increase revenue from your corporate pals and put that revenue into education and job training. It's not like this is an issue that just showed up today and is exclusive only to Canada. The only problem is that the obvious solutions go against their shit-can Con core ideologically driven policies.
Do you really believe that we will be getting rid of the idiot in the next election. He got voted in after he lied to the country, prorouged parliament, lied through his eye teeth, and yet he got back in. The big question is "HOW". By the time the polls are closed where I live he was already voted in, goes to show you the mentality of the people East of where I live. I don't think Toronto or Ottawa has enough seats to vote him in. I think it is up to the people in the east coast to set an example and vote him out before they get to TO or Ottawa. Come on people, it's time to wake up and get rid of this Pro Con(Professional Con Artists)party.
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