In the aftermath of the SARS crisis of 2003, the government created the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the position of Chief Public Health Officer to strengthen this country's medical defences.
After they were shown to be almost catastrophically inadequate.
But now Stephen Harper and his Cons are slashing the Public Health Agency's budget, and neutering the country's top doctor.
And to make matters even worse, they're not even listening to them. They're all but burying their reports.
OMG. In the darkness of Harperland I sometimes can't decide whether it's like living in Orwell's 1984, or on his Animal Farm.
Or both at the same time.
But what I do know is that it's a scary place.
Where the truth is what Big Brother says it is. The Big Pig from the grubby vote buying Porky Action Plan just had a baby.
And now its squealing message is coming at us from all directions...
I must admit that when I first saw this picture of Stephen Harper and his wife strolling in the deserted grounds of the Taj Mahal, my heart almost skipped a beat.
Because I'm such a romantic eh?
Until I found out that thousands of tourists and others were chased out of the place by whistle blowing guards, for either posing a threat to his life, or threatening to ruin his perfect photo-op.
And that he is apparently so scared of the Indian people, he packed his own tank.
I'm quite sure that when he was a callow youth Halloween was Stephen Harper's favourite holiday.
A day when he could bully and scare other kids to death, and get away with it.
Just like he now horrifies decent Canadians, every day of the year.
After disconnecting myself from the 24-hour news cycle for about a week, I decided to check out what Stephen Harper and his Cons had been up to in my absence.
Because as we all know, you can't take your eyes off that porky gang for a moment, in case you miss another scandal, another ethical malfunction, another democratic outrage, another court case.
Or the latest police intervention.
I was on my way to catch the ferry the other day, when I came across this seagull perched majestically on a pole, looking like it knew the answer to everything.
So I said "Seagull, explain me this; how can something as horrible as Harperland happen in a place as beautiful as Canada?"
And the wise old bird, with the beady yellow eyes, replied: "It's a long story, nobody cares, and I don't either." And flew off.
If anyone still thinks we have a Parliament, rather than a Con circus, what happened today in Question Period should disabuse them of that lunatic notion.
For you had to see it to believe it eh?
Stephen Harper rambling on like a maniac about how his carbon tax wasn't a carbon tax. Because he says it wasn't. Making a complete fool out of himself.
But still getting one standing ovation after the other from his squealing minions. It was frightening, it was madness, it was an absolute farce.
When the dark history of the Harper regime is finally written, historians will note that it took a very long time before many Canadians realized what was happening.
Before they finally understood into what monstrous pit of moral depravity the deranged leader of the Con cult was dragging them.
As he slowly turned Canada into a brutish prison state.
When I first started portraying Stephen Harper and his Con Regime as a sinister freak show, I took a bit of heat even from some of my friends.
The MSM was busy polishing Harper's ass, and calling him a political genius, so some of them thought I was exaggerating. Or said that people wouldn't take me seriously.
And sure enough some snooty progressives were appalled. One well-known blogger even accused me of suffering from what she called Harper Derangement Syndrome.
Sometimes it's the little stories that tell you so much about the way Stephen Harper's Con regime is slowly rotting from the head down.
Like the story of how our mad emperor tried to turn his government of Canada chuck wagon winged chariot into Air Con.
The thing that scares me the most about living in Harperland is how so many, who should know better, can't see the forest for the trees. Or the monsters who hide behind them.
So Nik Nanos can report that many Canadians have lost confidence in government.
Nik Nanos, the president of Nanos Research and the author behind the study, characterizes Canadians' views as a "bit of a limp handshake in terms of confidence" in government.
Without mentioning that's exactly what Stephen Harper wants. Because he doesn't want to improve government, he wants to DESTROY it.
OMG. Fan me with a chicken feather. I can understand why Stephen Harper must be wondering why he's laying one egg after the other.
His polls are tanking, his credibility is shot, his corrupt regime is imploding, and his dirty oil pipeline is now just a pipedream.
But after everything Harper has done to this country and its values, why does a journalist like Dan Gardner still not understand why so many Canadians hate him?
Unlike many people, I don't think the media hacks who cover politics in this country are part of a shadowy Con conspiracy.
I just think many of them are not too bright, they live in the inbred village of Ottawa, where reality rarely intrudes, and little is BIG.
They know most media organizations are in trouble, their jobs are on the line, their big bosses want corporate tax cuts, so who are they to rock the boat?
But holy Big Brother, surely this column by John Ibbitson is his master's voice.
Some days when I look at the horror of the Con regime, I find it hard to decide which of their ghastly actions disgusts me the most.
The absurd sight of Stephen Harper swaggering around the world telling political leaders that they should all follow his example. Because he's a model leader and Canada's back eh?
Even as he turns us into a backward petrostate, and sells us out and humiliates us like we've never been sold out or humiliated before.
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."
But surely this is the limit.
Sometimes when I stare at the horror of Harperland, like Simon in the Lord of the Flies stared at the head of the pig, I get a bit depressed eh?
I don't know how I'm going to make it to the next election. Three years seems such a long time.
And one really has to wonder whether there will even be an election the way things are going in Harper's Canada police state,
It was the Canadian Parliament's darkest day, and at the same time one of its finest.
Each new round of voting began with a round of applause from the New Democrat benches and ended with whoops and cheers from the Conservatives whose majority might means they’ve voted down every motion so far.
I tried to watch it on CPAC but I couldn't. It was too horrible. The sight of the Cons whooping it up like they were in a bar, or at a rodeo. The sight of Stephen Harper mocking the opposition by opening his mouth and showing his teeth...
Oh boy. It was such a beautiful day. I went for a long bike ride, and this evening from a distance Toronto never looked so pretty.
At least the parts I could see through the thick haze.
Because there was a smog alert eh?
But then I remembered I live in a city run by Rob Ford and his brother Doug.
“You never know. You get the wild ones — you say one thing, and all of a sudden you get 4,000 letters. So anyways, we’re going over to your place for some Polish sausage, I guess, and we’re all good.”
I've been writing about Stephen Harper for a long time, and every year the picture on the screen gets darker and more sinister.
Just as I always knew it would. For his lust for power knows no limit. And his ideological depravity knows no bottom.
But so dark is the picture now, that I am starting to wonder whether I am witnessing a silent coup.
I'm sad to see that so many GM workers are losing their jobs in Oshawa.
The Canadian Auto Workers union received official notice Friday that GM will begin shutting down its consolidated assembly line in the fourth quarter, which will wipe out 2,000 jobs, reducing the number of GM employees in Canada to about 8,000.
I feel sorry for their families, the latest victims of the Dutch Disease, and of the Con Master Plan to turn us into a low wage economy.
