Why the Ugly Record of the Harper Cons Must Not Be Forgotten or Denied

It was just another traffic accident in downtown Toronto, where everyone is always in a hurry, and time is money, and sometimes bloody.

And Godzilla knows I've seen enough of them.

But as I watched them try to figure out what happened, and who was to blame?

I couldn't help thinking those are exactly the same questions we need to ask about the catastrophic disaster, and the years of democratic darkness, that Stephen Harper and his monstrous Cons inflicted on this country.



For he was monstrous. 

His long list of crimes against Canada, it's democracy,  and its values, does need to be investigated.

Or as Cathie from Canada points out, we will repeat the mistakes of others.

The United States has seen a determined effort to wipe everyone's memory about what happened during the eight Bush years, to the point that the US media was shocked, SHOCKED, this week when Donald Trump reminded everyone that Bush was actually in charge of the American government when America experienced 9/11. 

But at least America had 9/11 as an excuse for going mad. What's Canada's excuse?

Our FPTP electoral system? That a few people were mad at the Wheat Board, the CTRC, and the long-form census?

We will fail to explain the madness that gripped this country. 

And Stephen Harper and his Con stooges will get away with murder...



And what is the excuse for years and years of craven, cowardly behaviour on the part of dozens and dozens of elected MPs -- all those Con MPs who spent years forelock-tugging, knuckling under, kowtowing to everything that the Hitler Youth in Harper's office told them to do?

I don't expect the new Liberal government will want an inquiry into those kind of questions. It would be too divisive at a time when Justin Trudeau is trying to bring Canadians together, and move the country out of the darkness and into the light.

And we know we can't count on the MSM because it would rather not dwell on the past, lest it remind Canadians of how they failed to warn us about how dangerous Stephen Harper was.

Even though it should have been obvious years ago, that there was something not quite right about him. 

You could see the madness in his cold dead eyes...



And they should have realized that if he was not stopped he would lead this country to a very dark place.

So it will have to be up to us, to make sure those haunting questions are asked, that those nightmare years are not buried, and what happened during the campaign is never forgotten or denied.

Almost overnight, the perception shifted from the bellicose, stand-your-ground Canada of Stephen Harper back to the polite and apologetic people with an unexpectedly cool and tattooed new leader.

But what of the cynicism? What of the divisive politics and the fear mongering that marked weeks of the 78-day campaign? What about all the noise around the niqab, an issue that had been brewing for some time?

If indeed it was anathema to all, and so essentially un-Canadian, why was this debate not shut down faster? And how do you explain the Conservative seat gains and NDP losses to the Conservatives and BQ in Quebec?

Today's sudden denial that it factored in seems, in hindsight, wishful, or worse: a willful denial of what makes us ugly at times.

So something so horrible can never happen again. So the many victims of that foul regime are never forgotten.

And neither is the proud spirit of Catherine Finn... 



And her last request.

‘In lieu of donations,” the mid-July obituary read, “Catherine would want you to do everything you can to drive Stephen Harper from office, right out of the country, and into the deep blue sea if possible.”

Who I'm pretty sure had she lived to see the Day of Liberation, would have wanted to see Stephen Harper be held accountable for what he had done to her beloved Canada. 

“Canada, to her, was a place where people cared about each other,” Patrick Finn says. “It was a place that welcomed others, where people debated openly and compromised. She felt that was being lost and it was important to her to get it back.”

Even as she celebrated his downfall.

“It was a celebratory moment,” Jonathan Finn says. One that Catherine Finn, had she lived to see it happen, would have marked with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

So yes, let's move forward out of the darkness and into the light...



Let's take time to savour our victory, and recover from that long and exhausting journey to freedom.

And then do what we can to keep Stephen Harper's foul legacy alive in the court of public opinion.

So hopefully one day him and his Cons can be judged in a court of law and properly punished.

Or as Catherine Finn would have wanted.

Driven into the deep blue sea...



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