what they fear

One of the verities of blogging in Canada is that voicing any remotely negative comments about the federal Conservative Party is certain to result in a repost within minutes, even with a blog that enjoys a tiny readership such as this one. Without wanting to appear paranoid, it's as though the party has someone monitoring blogs 24-7 and delegating them to acolytes for immediate response. It makes one think of the secret intelligence service in some dictatorship; always watching, always listening.

Also no surprise is that the Conservative comments to exaro always come from an anonymous source. Apparently Conservatives can't read very well either; or they are unable to comprehend this blog's policy on anonymous comments. Or maybe they are just cowards and embarrassed by what they write.

Yesterday's re-post from The Economist generated one such response that was so ridiculously amusing it deserves a comment even if it will never be published. The author, Tomm, too shy or too embarrassed to give his/her real name, took offence to my characterizing the article's quote from Lawrence Martin as a "warning" to Canadians that Stephen Harper has an agenda of unfinished reforms should he ever be able to secure a majority in the House of Commons.

Last Thursday, when Mubarak vowed to remain in office and exercise his fatherly duties to Egypt, CTV's Craig Oliver described him as delusional. Delusional is how I would have to characterize the Conservative apologist who described Harper's election as Canada's "Prague Spring". Well at least we know how old Tomm is given that s/he remembers the Prague Spring of 1968. Of course those of us over 60 who remember that period also remember that Prague Spring was followed by 2 decades of violent suppression of democratic rights. Maybe there is a common thread. Or maybe age explains the Tomms delusions.

Tomm goes on to extol such meritorious achievements of the Harper government as a realignment of the federal-provincial tax imbalance (huh? could that be be explained in terms of squandering a federal surplus to run-up a $55 billion deficit?) and making "decisions with respect to Israel". The latter, presumably, would be to have Canadian foreign policy written in Tel Aviv while chasing humiliation at the United Nations.

A couple of positive achievements of the Harper government cited; the apologies to Chinese Canadians for the Head-Tax and to aboriginals for the abuses perpetrated in religious schools, deserve mention.

Missing from Tomm's recollections of Harper's five years in office is any mention of the attacks on Canada's democratic institutions and system. Closing down Parliament to avoid answering awkward questions, firing public servants for doing their jobs according to the laws passed by Parliament, issuing Cabinet orders subsequently over-ruled by the courts as illegal; acting in contempt of Parliament, the House of Commons and its Committees - that's the real record of the Harper years and the one that gives rise to the warning that Canadians need to beware of what the prime minister would do with the unfettered power a majority government would give him.

I give the Conservatives credit for being well organized in terms of reacting to any and all blog posts written about them. But if they see danger to them in an innocuous warning from exaro, maybe Canadians have reason to be paranoid. Or at least fearful of what a majority Harper government would do.