It’s mine! All mine!

In yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen, Amir Attaran, Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy called out the Harper Government on it’s mean and churlish attitude towards helping poorer nations fight the coming swine flu pandemic.

Here are a few excerpts from that piece. You can find the complete article here.

Last week, as Stephen Harper was tooling around Washington and talking up Canada's virtues, across town a more substantially moral leader, Barack Obama, announced a global plan to donate life-saving influenza vaccines to poor countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

…

Those donations are likely to be, for many countries, the only vaccine that they get. Heeding the World Health Organization's call, Australia, Britain, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland also went along with the donation plan.

Canada, however, declined.

…

With 50.4 million doses of vaccine in Canada's entitlement, and 32 million Canadians, perhaps only half of whom want to be vaccinated, PHAC officials are certainly correct that we have "more than enough for any Canadian that wants to receive it."

…

The Harper government must do better than continue its mean streak. In this, and much else to do with international aid, poorer foreigners notice Canada's new beggar-thy-neighbour attitude, and wonder how a country once known for its generosity has fallen so far. The usual preening about Canadian internationalism is nonsense, where WHO has justly called on Canada to share a life-saving resource, and we refuse.

Well said sir, well said.

We’re back all right – at the back of the pack.

Remember this from two short years ago?

"The news is spreading throughout the world: Canada's back," Harper told the crowd of about 35,000 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday.

"Canada's back as a vital player on the global stage ... Canadians are citizens of the world and we're making a positive contribution in every field of human endeavour."

Well we’re back all right – at the back of the pack. Here’s what the United Nations thinks about our relative position in the world when it comes to ‘green’ stimulus spending.

The Global Green New Deal update for the upcoming G20 summit in Pittsburgh revealed the Harper government was spending the equivalent of about $77 U.S. per person in green stimulus, putting it in ninth place out of 13 countries evaluated.

Yup, we’re right there at the bottom with Spain, South Africa and Mexico. Disgraceful.

Why do I want an election?

Because it will give the media something to talk about other than H1N1!

Just once I would like to open a newspaper, turn on the radio, or catch the TV news without being faced with yet another fear-mongering story about swine flu.

The media have taken what was, and is, a serious health issue and in full Chicken Little fashion have managed, through a constant barrage of inflammatory and sensationalist stories, to instil fear and near-panic in large segments of the population and raise everyone’s stress levels to the extent that we have so-called health “experts” shipping body bags off to First Nations reserves and regular folks with a head cold making funeral arrangements.

Can we not get a little perspective please?

Stephen Harper made me what I am today – a Liberal.

There’s no need to document Stephen Harper’s lies, divisive leadership style, political abuses, and general incompetence – that’s been more than adequately covered over the past 3 1/2 years by bloggers of all political stripes and the MSM – but what we don’t hear as much about is the damage that he has done to the Conservative brand.

In better times I would have described my political views as agnostic, not bound to any particular party’s ideology and willing to support whichever candidate and/or party offered what I considered to be the best vision for the future of my Canada at that point in time. If pressed, I might reluctantly have described myself as a red tory with a large dollop of libertarian thrown in – fiscally conservative, socially liberal, and of the view that people should be allowed to live their lives as unencumbered as possible by the nanny state in all its myriad shapes and forms. And except for the most rabid of tinfoil-party-hat-wearing partisans, I expect a very large number of Canadians, perhaps even a majority, would self-identify in a similar way.

But since Stephen Harper and his gang of Alberta and ex-Ontario Mike Harris Conservative sycophants came to power, I have had to get off the fence as it were and take a stand against their malevolent attacks on Canadian institutions, their laissez-faire attitude towards the meaning of Canadian citizenship, their fast and loose interpretation of transparency and accountability, their relentless destruction of Canada’s international image (everywhere except in the US administration that is), and their general disdain for the non-Conservative majority in this country.

That’s why I now financially support the party that I think is best able to get them all (or at least most of them) the hell out of Ottawa – and the sooner the better.

Stephen Harper has effectively destroyed the Conservative brand for many, many Canadians, and it will be a long, long time post-Harper before those non-aligned voters start trickling back to the Conservative Party, or what’s left of it when he’s done.

"It's the Liberals fault!" - Queen's Park version

Six Nations protesters and the OPP are facing off over a blockade in Caledonia. It's heating up and tensions are building. Then Ontario's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant steps in and helps defuse the situation, thus possibly avoiding a serious altercation that could conceivably have ended up with injuries or worse. Should be a good thing, right? Six Nations Chief Montour thought so, and sent Bryant a letter thanking him.

Oops - mistake. The provincial Tories got a copy of the letter and now claim that it's an "incriminating document" that contains "serious allegations" against the provincial Liberals. Conservative leader Runciman is now calling for an RCMP investigation into their claim of political interference in the OPP operation.

Stupid. Just stupid.

A eureka moment

I think I’ve figured out Harper’s communications strategy when it comes to dealing with all these scandals, mini-scandals, Liberal conspiracies, Elections Canada conspiracies, bureaucratic incompetencies, etc. You just pick the most inarticulate, inept member you can find and make them the spokesperson. Then whenever the subject comes up and the face of the not-so-honourable member in question graces your TV screen, the viewing public will just say, “Oh, not that (insert your favourite pejorative adjective here) again” and change channels.

Devilishly clever those Tories.