For five long years Kevin Page was the Parliamentary Budget Officer, and in many ways the conscience of the Con regime. They hated the way he stood up for the truth, they hounded him, they made his life miserable. And two years ago they finally forced him out. But now Page is back with a new book, that tells the story of those nightmare years.
When you stare at the public face of Stephen Harper's sinister Con regime, what you see is horrifying enough. A tired, morally corrupt regime, that is willing to lie, muzzle people, or do anything to cling to power. But what most Canadians don't see, what is hidden from their view, is even more frightening.
As you know Jimbo Flaherty, the Con man now posing as a Finance Minister, really hates Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer. And for all the right reasons. For proving him wrong over and over again, and making him look like he doesn't know what he's doing.
It's an inspiring sight, and a chilling one. Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget officer standing up for the right to know the truth, in a country where the Big Lie rules.
As the Cons try to smear him and muzzle him as they have so many others. They have attacked him for a long time. Jim Flaherty has called him "unbelievable" "unreliable" and "incredible."
I wanted to write about so many things tonight. I wanted to write about Rémy Beauregard, the decent human rights campaigner who died after being bullied by some Con appointees. And how the theocons in the PMO are conducting a secret war against humanitarian organizations to please their rabid base. I wanted to write about Kevin Page, who despite being bullied by the Con thugs, keeps exposing them as incompetent ideologues and liars. And how Stephen Harper knew all along that there would be a big deficit because he's planning to use that deficit to achieve his dream of cutting government to the bloody bone. But in the end I had to write about Haiti.
Not just because I feel so sorry for those poorest of people. Three hurricanes in 2008, a tropical storm, and now this horror. But also because the tragedy has gutted my companion Sébastien who has done several stints in a clinic near Port-au-Prince. He loves those humble Haitians with all his heart. And the terrible images of horribly injured people lying in the street are making him feel so helpless and crushed. And then there's additional worry of wondering whether some of his friends and colleagues are lying in the rubble next to the people they were trying to help. Oh well. Four different stories with something in common. All of the above are my kind of heroes. The people who fight for human rights. The decent servants of the people who defy the bullies to tell the truth. The doctors, nurses and other medical personnel who believe that health care is a right not a privilege. The men and women who risk their lives to feed the hungry and provide clean drinking water. And at the other end of the human scale, the foul bully Cons. The rabid ideologues who would rape our values, degrade our Parliament, drag us into the gutter, and devastate our future. The good news? Now we're fighting back. The Cons are running SCARED. We WILL defeat them, because we are better than them. And for the poor suffering people of Haiti tonight. And my beautiful companion who is suffering with them. Help is on the way. Out of the darkness comes the light. One world. One love...
P.S. I don't usually ask people to support any particular organization, because there are so many good ones. But if you can contribute please consider this one.
