Messed up

The situation in Canada is seriously messed up. We are destroying Canadian civil society because some American Republican hack from the University of Calgary (and Steve Harper's mentor) thinks it's a good idea?

Send Tom Flanagan back to Ottawa (Illinois) where he comes from. That would be a good start to solving our problems.

all of what you wrote is

all of what you wrote is true. It was easy for some to see from the beginning. Others thought Harper would not do such things, it was so un Canadian & when he started it was with the Women's organizations. Lots of people didn't pay attention. Now its down to vickie wanting to listen to us all through ceilings. Harper is destroying our country as we know it. He is trying to bring his version of Canada to the table. However his version looks a lot like Putin's version which just sentenced 3 young women to jail for 2 yrs for singing a song in a church. If we do not get rid of harper we too will be in a similar situation. We have already seen how Americans have lost many of their civil rights, lets make sure Harper doesn't do any more damage to Canada. He is one sick puppy.

Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!

Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!

Rule of law vs ideological bullying

We are in deep trouble here. Much deeper than we want to acknowledge.

This planning by the rich and powerful for the dismantling of our way of life can only be described as enemy action. In the 30s and 40s the fascist movement was quite strong in other places than Germany, and a great many 'capitalists' made a great deal of money off the death and destruction that resulted from their power grab.

I can make a pretty strong case for the idea that the economies of the world have been on a war footing continually ever since. Resources are exploited without regulation as though there were an emergency of some kind, and huge profits that result are concentrated in very few hands.

Add to that the fact that whole populations are subjected and enslaved, their rights and choices removed by the word of some powerful leader without any kind of civil process and one can say we are living in the fourth reich, no matter what our nation or form of government.

That a strong leader has the ability to remove the decent laws we established ourselves to make a decent society, and do it against our public will and against our best interest is enough evidence in itself to prove my point.

That he and his contributors profit from it just clinches the case.

thanks for writing this Keith

You have touched on a few of the Harper strategies to limit and even eliminate discussion on national policy issues.

The trick of each majority government, even one who is not supported by a majority of Canadians, is to fast track your changes early on in your "mandate" no matter what. Take the heat early so by the time the next election comes around most will have forgotten their diabolical changes.

In BC we should be well versed in this strategy.

Another regressive Chickenhawk

Why are the most strident neocons and neoliberals all for sending others' children to for-profit wars but really didn't seem all that interested in serving when it was their time?

Flanagan called for assassinating Julian Assange immediately after telling Evan Solomon that he was "feeling pretty manly today".

What a tough guy.

The Frankenstein That Harper is

is partly due to his creator, Tom Flanagan. Now, he wants to tell us that Harper is recreating Canada in his own image? Surprise, surprise, the monster is out the door and running havoc all over our country. Does Flanagan really believe he didn't have a hand in this? I find it pretty disgusting he wants us to buy his book to tell us things we already know.

Defund the Fraser Institute

When the Liberals or the NDP get in, they should defund the Fraser institute. That will learn them.

Prisons for outriders

Now we know why Harper's government is building more prisons. As his treatment of democracy becomes more like Putin's he's going to need them. It's no wonder the statement from Baird's office about the Pussy Riot trial was so vacuous.

reactionaries have taken over everywhere

snert: when faced with the facts all you can do is blame the messenger? If you remember the end of that story, there actually was a real wolf killing the sheople, I mean sheep.

Hakuin: perhaps it would be more effective to present Stephen "enemy of the people" Harper a gift. I hear you can buy antique national razors in France.

This morning I read this article on CBC about the Pussy Riot show trial in Russia.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/08/17/f-russia-pussy-riot.html

At times, I almost thought I was reading about the U.S. political system. The reactionaries have taken over everywhere, and there is now very little that distinguishes the policies of one government from another.

are we really that easy to silence?

So you're suggesting that when the neocons pick up their guns, the latte swilling tofu-munching lefties that used to survive on government grants just pick up their chopsticks and run and hide? I don't think "civil society" is quite that easy to squash, although it does drive me crazy how polite and well mannered Canadians have become about this creep towards fascism. Why do intelligent people allow this corrosion of democracy and the repug-nation of Ottawa to continue unabated. Haven't we learned anything from history?

Could Snert

please elaborate . What does this mean saying wolf 8 times with upper case W and 6 wolf using lower case w - a code of some sort ?
I think you are trying to tell us something very deep. Yes?

This is the same American

This is the same American born Professor Dr. Tom Flanagan who advocated for the political murder of Julian Assange. I don't know why he is still employed by the University of Calgary. IMHO Flanagan does not deserve to live in Canada. I despise the man!

The citizen's job is to be rude

wiley said: "... it does drive me crazy how polite and well mannered Canadians have become about this creep towards fascism"

Regarding public politeness, John Ralston Saul wrote in "The Doubters Companion" at page 237:

"An obsession with polite or correct public language is a sign that communication is in decline. It means that the process and exercise of power have replaced debate as a public value.

"The citizen's job is to be rude -- to pierce the comfort of professional intercourse by boorish expressions of DOUBT. Politics, philosophy, writing, the arts -- none of these, and certainly not science and economics, can serve the common weal if they are swathed in politeness. In everything which affects public affairs, breeding is for fools."

I do not like the fact Harper

I do not like the fact Harper like to hide from the press. Trudeau never hid not did Clark, Broadbent etc.. But Joe Clark was a real conservative though not further right on the scale like Harpers conservatives which are really Republican/Reform and not real conservatism like back in the good old days. Real conservatives do not give multi nationals the keys and walk away...

I remember the good old days of politics when there were the likes of Ed Broadbent, Joe Clark, Pierre Trudeau...

are we really that easy to silence? certainly not!

No where in Keith's article does he suggest that Canadians are easily silenced. What he has done is provide us with a well researched, and documented analysis of the Conservative government's extreme and continuous assault on civil society organizations. By pointing out the extreme lengths Harper and his government have gone and are going to limit and even silence voices that question and/or challenge the conservative agendas and mantras, Keith is actually pointing out how hard it is to silence us. At the same time (rightly so - I think, he is alerting us to the harm the conservatives are causing to our democracy with the chilling effects of their tactics. And even courageous voices can be silenced or muted, when faced with choices like - "be quiet" or you loose the funding that keeps the doors open to shelters for battered women. If I have any critique of Keith's article, it is that he did not include the fact that on issues like the Northern Gateway Project, our voices, in spite of all the evil tactics to silence us, are thunderous and certainly being heard far and wide. To paraphrase something I think my dearly departed friend Tom Cozier would say: These voices are sounding like hailstones on the tin roof of life. I also know Tom's spirit will be with those in the forefront of the Northern Gateway battles to come.

the pigs will always usurp power

In my first comment above I wrote: "...there is now very little that distinguishes the policies of one government from another".

Then I read this AP article:

"South Africa Police Say They Killed 34 Miners"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/south-africa-police_n_1796082.html

"Poor South Africans protest daily across the country for basic services like running water, housing and better health and education – all of which were hoped for when racist white rule ended with the first democratic elections in 1994. Protests often turn violent, with people charging that ANC leaders have joined the white minority that continues to enrich itself while life becomes ever harder for the black majority.

"Police often are accused of using undue force. Still, Thursday's shooting appalled the country, recalling images of white police firing at anti-apartheid protesters in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, though in this case it was mostly black police firing at black mine workers."

Orwell was right, the pigs will always usurp power. If regime change, either through elections or revolutions, fail to improve the lives of citizens then what will?

Any government that keeps

Any government that keeps secrets from the people that elected them should and deserve to be forcibly removed from office. But the North American problem outside of Quebec is people are sheeple, chattle etc years of eating processed crap food has hurt the brains and made people lazy ( There is a reason why 13 year olds have heart disease in record numbers and diabetes is an epidemic).

Then the endless consumerism where most people are in debt buying things they do not need but just to one up the neighbour or relative then the propaganda on the tv news and newspapers (Like how MSM only seems to show polls where Harper is ahead yet ignore the ones where Muclair is ahead)people have lost the ability to think critically. Not everyone is a mindless zombie but there is more than enough of them which allow governments to get away with all sorts of crap whether they are Lib, Con, NDP etc

Go to a mall sit down and watch people for 30 minutes or so and so many look miserable, heads down and walk like mindless zombies. Not all but I would say a majority...The 1% have people right where they want them. It will get worse as the middle class is disappearing and there will be the 1% and the rest of us poor or just enough to keep us happy so we do not physically revolt...

Absolute Power Power Corrupts Absolutely

Here are Tom Flanagan and Stephen Harper writing in 1997:

"Although we like to think of ourselves as living in a mature democracy, we live, instead, in something little better than a benign dictatorship, not under a strict one-party rule, but under a one-party-plus system beset by the factionalism, regionalism and cronyism that accompany any such system. Our parliamentary government creates a concentrated power structure out of step with other aspects of society. For Canadian democracy to mature, Canadian citizens must face these facts, as citizens in other countries have, and update our political structures to reflect the diverse political aspirations of our diverse communities."
{'¸'} {'▄'}

Here's Harper in a less academic vein; again in 1997 with Paula Todd of TVO:

"What will be the test is if there is any party in opposition that's able to form a coalition, a working one with the others, and I think we have the political system that's going to continue to have 3 or 4 different parties, or 5 different parties, and so, I think, parties that want to form government are going to eventually have to work together."
{'▄'}

Tweedledee v. Tweedledum
The only two parties (both are corporate parties) ever to govern federally excel in retaining members who are wall to wall sleazes with unblemished records their words are no good.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
―John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton 1834–1902

Harper and U.S. Republicans

I have always felt that Prime Minister Harper and his Government is taking us the way of whats happening now in the United States politics, where big money, power and a care less attitude towards our home, which is called earth. Thank God we have the power to vote Harper out but in the meantime we must be aware of whats taking place in our Country and keep it positive.

Dan the Socialist said earlier...

"The 1% have people right where they want them. It will get worse as the middle class is disappearing and there will be the 1% and the rest of us poor or just enough to keep us happy so we do not physically revolt..."

Actually, Dan, unless your are wickedly impoverished, you may find, from the following GLOBAL RESEARCH (Montreal based)article, that you are part of the one percent.

"To be among the wealthiest half [50%] of the world, an adult needs only $4,000 in assets once debts have been subtracted. An adult requires more than $72,000 to belong to the top 10 percent of global wealth holders, and more than $588,000 to be a member of the top 1 percent.... Meanwhile, the poorest half of the global population together possesses less than 2 percent of global wealth.... Addressing the power of the global 1 percent—identifying who they are and what their goals are—are clearly life and death questions.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32356

Living in Vancouver [according to this report],and owning your property outright, would probably put you in the 1%. This could also be the reason why you don't have as many "reactionaries" here in Canada as you would expect. We can bitch and complain all we like, but compared to some other world citizens [or their children], we are living high off the hog --so to speak.

Those who don't learn from history...

Wiley, I hope your question is merely rhetorical, but just in case...

Adolph really had little hope of gaining power during the latter days of the Weimar admin., until the 1929 stock market crash and its resultant US banking withdrawls to Germany to pay off WWI reparations.

"Why do intelligent people allow this corrosion of democracy..."?

Because most people are no longer interested in politics, especially the way the media presents it (Goebbels would have been proud). Most folks just want to work to pay their bills, look after their families, and if there's anything left over, entertain and recreate. Only a few have social and environmental goals as their priorities, need more.

Threaten these wishes with instability and job losses and it becomes easy to blame the scapegoats.

Throw in a little external (eg. terrorist) threat, as Goering pointed out at Nuremberg, and, the "sheeple" will unite, calling economic, social and government critics weak or even traitorous. It becomes very difficult to get over that tipping point back to democracy.

Soup kitchens/food banks can be manipulated by characters like Adolph or Al Capone to show what great jobs they are doing for their communities. No one wants to lose what they worked for over decades. Jobs in work camps are better than starving. Easy to scam people as such. Jobs uber alles.

Democracy is very fragile, it's a balance between right and left as well as tyrrany and anarchy. Attention and self discipline are required by the majority, or someone or small group takes over, thinking they know what's best for all, an early step to totalitarianism if left unchecked.

Make people busier, more stressed and desperate and only a few actually begin to question the system or risk their well being with challenges.

But there is hope of taking back democratic power, as evidenced by the HST and Northern Gateway blowback, but we are still being pushed back by items like that massive Omnibus bill shoved down our throats.

How will Canadians react in just under 3 years from now? How many will be bamboozled or even remember?

Proliferate attack ads against the Harper govt., as distasteful as that may be, would remind people of this nasty, corrupt and somewhat incompetent regime. A viable and preferable alternative must also be available.

The NDP? An "alliance" of NDP, Liberals and Greens, perhaps with some disillusioned "Red Tories" and no infighting? A little less than 3 years to work it out. Meanwhile...

The Common Agenda

At the risk of being accused of shooting the messenger, I'll point out that the author is employed by a behemoth of a bureaucracy (that claims to have something like 600,000 members) and also says he's worked for "all three levels of government". Well I worked for one level of government - municipal - rather briefly, and along with that was a "member" - though not by choice - of that same powerful union. Both employer and union invested a considerable amount of time and money to try to silence me. And here I am, so the expenditure was a waste.

The trouble with all the bleating about Stephen Harper's agenda is that he gained power precisely because the agenda throughout the previous years of a "liberal" regime really wasn't much different. The NGO's (under which heading I'll include the unions), for the most part, are not what they claim to be.

The public got tired of hearing the promises from all the liberal voices but seeing no result. I could say a great deal more, but in summary I'll simply say that this article is just more of the old neo-liberal propaganda.

If you want to have a real impact, Mr. Reynolds, come up with a new message that convinces people like me.

"Keith Reynolds is a National

"Keith Reynolds is a National Research Representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees."

Obvious

Thank you for that reminder brunssd! Flanagans call for assassinating Assange is a perfect example of Harper and his cronies' evil ways - murder, finding someone guilty without a trial to them.

Election fraud gets a nod in negating democracy too.

We could debate how deep the CPC [Conservative Party of Canada] might be into immoral behaviors and fascism, but all the while they are laughing at our gullability because that is exactly how they think, they truly believe we are scum if we can be fooled. No gentlemanly quarter here!!

When we see a career criminal dressing up nice and smiling for the judge on court day, think no different of them than when you see a smiling cabinet Harpocrit.

They KNOW their ways are evil ways, and they only love us when we pay.

if we want it we fight for it ....

@DonValley - "We are destroying Canadian civil society because some American Republican hack from the University of Calgary (and Steve Harper's mentor) thinks it's a good idea?"
- not quite. The real tragedy here is that there are so many more of us who want to get back to the 'social democracy' path we were on for so long until the neocons took over, beginning in the 70s and then officially with Mulroney et al in the 80s, than there are of those who want to fully destroy democracy here such as Harper et al and the handful of supporters they actually have - but 'we' are sitting passively by (mostly) while they steal our country from us, not to mention trillions of dollars - poor people have a much harder time resisting this kind of thing, or people worried about losing jobs if they get the wrong people angry at them. If we want 'our' democracy back - we take it back. Nobody is going to give it to us - Democratic Revolution - now or never http://www.rudemacedon.ca/vgi/backgrounders/revolution.html . We can only hope enough people start to understand this before it is too late, although history does not give many hopeful signs, as it appears people deny impending disasters until it is too late, not quite grasping the idea that it is easier to spend a bit of time and energy stopping the egg from getting broken, than trying to put it back together after they allow it to be broken.
(snert - not all people crying wolf are 'crying wolf')

Cognitive Dissonance is about to set in

In the time I have been away I have been studying many aspects of society and my suspicions have been confirmed.

First of Canada is not a country. It is a corporate entity Above that are the three city states
It is in "The City" that you can find the Bank of England, the Stock ... similar to the Vatican, and Washington D.C. Since the Bank of England was ... "The Crown is a private owned corporation and is not subject to either the Queen or Parliament. ..."
Harper is a puppet
We consent tacitly of explicitly to play a game we only guess at the rules of more tomorrow

Cognitive dissonance has

Cognitive dissonance has always been the biggest power in the hands of rulers, and ruler aristocracies, now called multinational corporations, served by the priesthood of so called "economists" who now invent the theories for the excuses for destruction and enslavement in the name of the Almighty Money God, who hath no physical presence, but liveth as computer figures.

The problem is that while the conscious mind can be warped to accept anything, the subconscious can not, and, as it happened many times in history, now and again the human race wakes up and start asking questions.

Not weapons, or violence, but questions have always been the biggest enemies of history's ruling classes who are doing everything to silence them. Socrates was forced to drink hemlock, accused with "impiety", because he dared to ask questions, while our ruling classes and priesthoods have now replaced the hemlock with texting and video games to silence the subconscious and accept contradictory, faith based garbage, like "monetary efficiency", as the chains of servitude.

Ed Deak.

silencing democracy

It is a world wide problem not independent from each other but concerted by the power elite

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Book_Excerpts/HigherCircles_PE.html

The power elites are getting

The power elites are getting their instructions and licence for enslavement and destruction from university economics departments, all over the world, with the use of fraudulent theories using imaginary monetary figures as weapons.

The same way all power elites in history have always obtained their licences from priesthoods, and prophets, claiming to represent the "Will of God", or Marx et al.

Take away the distortions of ideological and religious theories power elites have always used and their actions become simple crimes.

Ed Deak.

Kredit

So......???

@RickW

He's not exactly an impartial source, is he?

Not surprisingly, most of his complaints seem to be criticisms of cutting funding for this-or-that government-paid organization or interest group - nothing about 'democracy'....which we don't have anyway...

arabrab, Perry & siamdave

arabrab: - I suggest you go back and look again. Seems there's an issue distinguishing between upper and lower case letters. Back to code school for you.

Perry: - You are correct, of course, but stop and think about how it applies in this case. It's scarier than Stephen Harper is any day of the week. Fixation should never be an option.

siamdave: - Other than myself who is just trying to make a point you can actually tell the difference amongst all the hate rhetoric?

Oh, and for those having trouble establishing just when democracy is actually being challenged, maybe look up Jim Crow and see how it applies to the 'greatest democracy on the planet' and their current presidential election campaign. The only true way to silence democracy is to take away the right to vote and in some parts of the USA they are sure making it difficult for some to exercise that right. That is an issue that might be worthy of the headline for this article.

In the Soviets and satellites

In the Soviets and satellites it was compulsory to vote and the Party usually received 95% approval.

The point is not to "vote", but what people are permitted to vote for, especially with the media and the propaganda machine in the hands of criminals.

Ed Deak.

Harper's hard right agenda

We are smart, we have the internet, we do not have to be pushed around by politicians or media. This is a good time to be alive and in this country despite who happens to be in power today. We must be vigilant about being manipulated. We must pay attention to the next step which will be changing or extending electoral districts to favor the Cons - you can be sure their researchers are playing with it now. We all know what Harper is doing and it is up to us to ensure he never gets into power again! Come on people; Canadians are ticked off about this government and we can plan for the next election right now!

Pee Wee hasn't much respect

Pee Wee hasn't much respect for democracy or freedom of speech.

I put forward the following evidence:
(taken from a column by Lawrence Scanlan in the summer of 2010)
The annual gathering of the Writers' Union of Canada took place in Ottawa in June, with many former chairs on hand to offer memories of their time in office. Susan Crean remembered encountering a young, blue-eyed politico at a constitutional conference in Calgary in 1992. When the man learned that she had co-authored a certain book about American domination of Canadian and Quebec politicians, the man responded: "You should not have been allowed to write that book."

The man: Stephen Harper. Crean never forgot his words, but especially the word allowed. The room full of writers in Ottawa issued a gasp.

Crean later elaborated on the encounter. "Harper spoke to me first and asked if I had written 'that book.' I asked which one, and he mentioned Two Nations, which I wrote with Quebec activist/sociologist and well known independentiste Marcel Rioux. ... Harper was clearly still angry about having had to read it at university. In his view, I took it, the book was treasonous. I was so shaken by his words, and his open hostility, that I immediately left the dining room."

No PM should be held strictly accountable for every utterance before taking office. But this exchange suggests an instinct to control and suppress, and that is precisely -- 18 years on -- what the Harper government is being accused of.

Harper methodical backfire

What is interesting in Harpers methodical attempt to silence democracy, is that he has made a target of the Conservatives and proven that they are unfit to govern Canada, due to deliberately misleading and lying to people during their elections and treating Canadians like they are enemies, which is "Not" smart wise or intelligent.
Harper has proven Conservatives are treasonous, contemptuous, unhealthy , unwise, dangerous , costly, unintelligent, Incompetent and "Not" here for Canadians.

Flanagan and his heroes

Whatever works is alright, according to Tom Flanagan. The thought that he might be teaching young Canadians is enough to make your skin crawl.

In one of his endearing quotes, he notes that Machiavelli is merely "politically incorrect", not thuggish, brutish or immoral.

"By using confidence measures more aggressively," Flanagan wrote, "the Conservatives can benefit politically." If the opposition backs down, Harper gets his laws passed. If not, Tories "get an election for which they are the best prepared."

Flanagan concluded: "'Fortune is a woman'," Machiavelli wrote in a now politically incorrect aphorism, 'and it is necessary, if you wish to master her, to conquer her by force.' It is time for the government to take advantage of its advantages."

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=7107ada6-9122-4acf-9631-26f0d386870c

Harper is someone's fool.

Harper has an inferiority complex that individuals from the Big Corporations love to play with to get what ever they want.
"The Middle Class can kiss my ass,
I'm in the Upper Class at last!"
-an old British ditty

Harper is a Fool, period

Oh, I am sure that Harper is owned and operated by OIly Barons, the Koch-aroaches. Tom Flanagan always was a "spokesman" for the 1%, trying to impress his masters, the Rothchildren. Bhglennie is right: Harper is just a suck, trying to appear bright and suitably arrogant to resemble the people who support him and his dismantling of Canada and our safety nets. If reincarnation is a possibility, Harper will come back as a woman in Afghanistan. I also picture Tom Flanahooligan in a full-bodied berka. Ahhhhh;)