Sunday, January 24, 2010

Canada holds anti-dictatorship (aka anti-prorogation) rallies nation-wide.

I never in my life expected we'd have protests against a dictatorship here in Canada, yet yesterday there were protests against Stephen Harper held across the country.  (Here's the poster; put it everywhere!)

Stephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister, has twice now closed (prorogued) Parliament to avoid his government being held accountable for its actions.  While Parliament is closed, Harper is able to rule by fiat, issuing decrees from the Prime Minister's office with no accountability to our Parliament.  By proroguing, he strips our democracy of the checks and balances which are built into it to prevent dictators like Harper from arising.

So there I was yesterday, with a large group of people in front of St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra's office.  Dykstra of course didn't show his face (understandable, since his government's actions are indefensible), but I walked by his office less than two hours later and noticed that all of the signs we had taped to the windows had been taken down already.  In typical Conservative government fashion, Dykstra's supporters had quickly whitewashed the issue.

It doesn't matter what political party Harper belongs to, his actions have proven he has no respect for the democratic system he's supposed to be part of.  In our next election (which hopefully will be very soon), every Canadian needs to cast a vote against dictatorship by casting a vote against Stephen Harper and his cronies.  Harper's style of politics has no place in Canada's democracy.



External:  Niagara at Large also covered the rally.