Stephen Harper and the New Racist Canada

The snow is finally melting on the waterfront. If I close my eyes and feel the warm sun on my face, I can almost dream that Spring is here at last.

Which is a good thing, because there isn't much else to celebrate in Canada these days.

Not when the country is as beached as the boat in that painting. Looking grubby and going nowhere. 

And not when its depraved leader Stephen Harper is using fear as a political weapon.

First we had Canada’s New Government. Then we had Strong and Stable Government. Now we have the Be Very Afraid Government. As even casual observers of the news will know, it’s all fear, all the time in Ottawa these days.

Or marketing it like a maniac...



The political premise is slightly disturbing — that terror and crime can be tackled as another marketing challenge, complete with labels, postcard surveys, and mind-numbing repetition of slogans. The potential payoff, presumably, is the re-election of the Conservative “brand.”

Not when so many Canadians are still buying it, according to this latest EKOS poll...



Especially out west.

And not when another EKOS poll suggests Canada is becoming more racist. 

Recent polling shows opposition to immigration has nearly doubled since 2005 and is threatening to crack the 53 per cent level we saw in 1993. Not only is opposition to immigration in general scaling heights not seen in twenty years but the number of Canadians saying we admit too many visible minorities has just cracked the 40-point ceiling for the first time ever.

It may not be particularly insidious but it is racial intolerance — and these numbers should alarm anyone who believes in an open and tolerant society. 

And yes it is all about the Great War on the Niqab...



Not all of those who agree with Harper on the niqab think we admit too many visible minorities — but virtually all of those who do think we admit too many visible minorities also support the ban.

Because not only has Great Bigot Leader been able to feed his rabid base a bloody bone. He has even been able to sucker some progressives into believing that absurd little issue should be THE issue of the campaign. 

So for a piece of cloth that some women wear on the heads, a country could be lost.

And get the leader it deserves...



And I must admit that after absorbing that thought, for the first time in a long time I felt really discouraged. Because that's not the Canada I know and love. 

And I would rather leave it, than watch it rot from the head down.

Until I remembered that all of this foulness is only being manufactured because Harper and his fear mongering Cons are desperate.

All they've got left is their Great War on the Niqab, and their porky politics of fear... 



And that this is also true:

Even seasoned marketers know that repetition has its limits. As far back as 1970, the University of Toronto’s Daniel Berlyne produced research showing that repeated exposure to novelty in advertising breeds familiarity at first, then boredom or contempt — the “two-factor” or “wear-in, wear-out” effect.

By marketing wisdom alone, then, this all-fear approach in the current political climate is a risky gambit. Sustaining the nation in a constant state of fear, all the way through an election months away, is a tall order for a government that may have its own wear-out concerns after nearly 10 years in office.

The fever will break. The fear will fade. The disastrous state of the economy will become THE issue.

And hopefully before the winter is over, reality will hit him in the face...



Hopefully more Canadians will realize to what dark place that diseased bigot would take us.

And yes, this Canada I still recognize...



It has been a long winter of the soul.

But the ice is finally melting. It almost feels like Spring. 

And better days ARE coming...

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