The one thing Harper's accomplished for me is driving me to a better education and understanding of our democratic systems in Canada. Mainly by abusing them badly, mind you.
I never was very politically active. I grew up with voting parents, who watched and listened to news, so I knew from childhood that each individual had a role to play in democracy. Admittedly, though, I didn't see a big difference in my world with who sat in the PM's chair. Trudeau in my childhood, Mulroney in my teens, and there was always that third guy somebody on the Air Farce made fun of and an upstart from Quebec from time-to-time. A couple of short-lived designates in between some other names. Life seemed to go on, somehow, though I think during the Mulroney years my family was less secure than before or since, mainly due to some ridiculous mortgage interest rate.
Other than that vague awareness, I've voted in all federal and provincial elections since I was old enough to do so. For various parties. Usually based on info I gleaned from listening and talking to others.
What's really making a difference now, and got me started watching carefully, was the current Prime Minister's antics to derail both democratic processes and common decency, in some ways. American-style attack ads assaulting character and person rather than platform and policy. Partisan and obstructive behaviour aimed at crippling Parliament. The the fixed election dates law passed in 2006, which seemed - well, a stupid and unnecessary thing and one established to make our system look more American than for any real functional purpose. We already had law that an election was to be called no more than 5 years after the last. Reasons for calling one earlier still existed and were not changed by the fixed-date law. The real nudge to pay attention came when, about 2 years after ramming through the fixed-date law, Stephen Harper effectively, if not in exact technically, broke it for no reason than his own partisan advantage, thinking he was polling high enough to turn his minority government into a majority by forcing Canadians into an election nobody wanted. Yes, you see, the 2008 election was the one nobody (except Stephen Harper) wanted. Apparently the result proved that, as the status quo was returned.
Then things got interesting, but not in a good way, and I lost any shred of respect for the Conservative Party of Canada and its leadership, which had clearly buried any notion of the "progressive" side of conservatism which was one of its founding parties, and was clearly on the way to being the Republican Party of Canada. While the lies and contradictions, looking back, were already racking up between 2006 and 2008, the behaviour around and immediately following the 2008 election clinched it, when partisan CPC MPs and their leader began misleading or outright lying to the Canadian public about the nature of our democratic system, Parliament and Constitution. For a rehash of that, to save the typing, I'll refer you back to my posts dated December 1, December 3, and December 5, 2008, during which I discussed exactly why referring to a coalition as any of "illegal", "unconstitutional", "separatist", or in any way inappropriate for Canada.
What has continued in the 2.5 years since has demonstrated the same lack of basic respect for Parliament, elected MPs, the offices and agencies that serve the country, and generally, for Canadians, particularly those who seek progressive consensus, rational adult behaviour and just plain straight answers on what is going on in Government.
... this post to continue later, I do in fact still have a real life to deal with....
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