What a frighteningly awful year it has been in Canadian politics. If you had told me at the start of this year that we'd end the year with a Conservative majority...well, I would have gotten very angry. However, that turn of events did inspire me to create this blog - my attempt to document our slide down the slippery slope.
Here are my top political moments/events/happenings in our new Conservative Canada, where nothing is ever the Government's fault and no question is worth answering or acknowledging and...screw that...you're an idiot for even asking.
Broke their campaign promise to balance the budget by 2014-15 - Actually, we're not going to balance the budget and create a surplus in 2014-15 but we might get around to it in 2015-16 or 2016-17. And, actually, we're pretty awesome for showing such remarkable budget flexibility. Hey, it's been 28 weeks since the election when we made that promise. A lot has changed. And it's not like this was an important part of the platform or anything. Heck. It's way down there at number 3 (of 5) on the list of "key priorities". The most awesome thing. It took them only about a week to break the promise.
Introduced copyright legislation that nobody in Canada really wants, except for a bunch of media conglomerates (and the US Government) that aren't really suffering all that much due to piracy - But don't worry, it's not really practical for us to enforce some of this stuff, so you shouldn't really worry about it too much.
Brushed aside a scandal whereby one of their MP's may or may not have had an affair with a woman who may or may not have been a Chinese spy (looks like she probably was) - But you're the idiot for asking about it.
Ignored youth advocates and statistics and lawyers and some of the Provinces (maybe even judges too?) and decided that the key to a better country is a really expensive batch of "tough on crime" laws - What do those "experts" know about anything?
Announced that if British Columbia (and Newfoundland and PEI) didn't immediately sign their RCMP contract as is, then they'd withdraw RCMP services - Just because we call it a "negotiation", it doesn't mean you get to have any input.
Made a series of increasingly baffling announcements and law proposals to stir up Canadian nationalism and remind us of our links to the monarchy - From a crazy law that would forbid you from preventing somebody else from flying a flag, to creating special laws about mischief around war memorials, to re-introducing the "Royal" into our military, to ensuring that the Queen's picture is hanging in our embassies, to War of 1812 re-education...I'm sure I missed one somewhere.
Thoroughly embarrassed Canada by joining up with pillars of the international community (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Vietnam) to ensure that asbestos didn't make it on to a UN list of controlled substances...so that they could support a mine in Quebec that may or may not have enough asbestos to stay open past 2012. - Hey, small town Quebec votes are more important than an international reputation. Or a bunch of poor people dieing.
Made a gigantic, huge big deal out of the fact that the temporary head of the NDP had past ties to the Bloc Quebecois...which is fine, except when you ignore the fact that members of your own cabinet have past ties to the Bloc Quebecois.
Created a new form of governing whereby anything that suits your list of priorities that you happened to mention during your campaign warrants no debate whatsoever. Things that you didn't mention during your campaign don't get much discussion either. And things that you promised during your campaign but that you can't deliver on, get ignored. See item #1.
So. That's it. All that stuff happened. 4 more years.
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