Letter to Ukraine

Recently you were visited by our Prime Minister, Mr. Stephen Harper, but I am sorry to say he failed to make a stopover at Runnymede, site of the signing of the Magna Carta, before he ventured into Ukraine to promote your democracy.  You see, what Harper says in Ukraine is the opposite of what he does in Canada, and on this particular occasion he did not have his music band with him to serenade you with current Beatles hits.  If his band were reunited (God forbid), and if our Prime Minister were to sing, may I recommend “Hello, goodbye” (“I don’t know why you say goodbye. I say hello”).

Here at home the “Harper Government” has introduced the so-called “Fair” Elections Act, which has garnered criticism from all corners, including the Globe and Mail, our newspaper of record, which has published an unprecedented 6 editorials eviscerating the legislation, which is being rushed through Parliament, as with all government bills since the Conservative Party election to majority government.  You would think that if the bill were “fair”, and given that it has everything to do with how our elections are run, the government would not limit debate; maybe it would even consult some of the opposition parties.

The same Conservative Party that had trouble with the scandal of robo-calls in the last election are now gutting Elections Canada, the body responsible for investigating such irregularities.  Canada was widely regarded as an open democracy, but now voting rights are being limited by a hidden problem we did not know even existed until the legislation was drafted.  The real problem is now voter suppression, and the real targets are the young, who are not likely to vote Conservative.  Moreover campaign spending is protected by a curious loophole that benefits mostly, you guessed it, the Conservative Party. And now, as well, each incumbent will have the power to appoint election officials, formerly the domain of (non-partisan) Elections Canada.

This is really the tip of the iceberg, but it is also the tipping point.  While he was jetting off for Ukraine, Canada’s Supreme Court declared that Harper’s monkeying around with his appointment to that same august body “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”  If it were not for that major embarrassment, dragged over six months, and if not for the implications the decision bears on Harper’s fiddling with the Senate, Canada would be ever closer to the “Alberta model”, where there once was a “King Ralph” and where the same party has ruled for 43 years.  The “Harper government” needs its comeuppance, but Canada’s Parliament is not up to the task of Runnymede, because Canadians no longer live in a meaningful democracy, saved only by the Supreme Court.  This is why, I respectfully suggest, Ukraine should say “goodbye” when King Harper comes to say “hello”.