STOP HARPER

Eduard Hiebert
ST Francois Xavier MB

June 6, 2011

When a 21 year old Senate page, Brigette DePape, took the unprecedented step of holding up a “Stop Harper” sign during the reading of “throne speech” she played the role of the child in the story of the “Emperor’s New Clothes” who observes the king is in fact naked.

She quite correctly pointed out two things that should be obvious to all adults: Mr. Harper’s so-called majority is the result of a defective vote-splitting electoral system that gave 100% of the power to the party with just 40% of the votes. As Ms. DePape observed it is even worse, since 75% of Canada’s eligible voters did not vote Conservative.

This university grad and experienced Parliamentary page also pointed out the other obvious fact: there is no real possibility to stop the Harper agenda within the Parliamentary system. We are facing a four year long dictatorship. Farmers will be among the first victims with the destruction of the Canadian Wheat Board at the top of the corporatist agenda of the Harper government.

We need more creative and courageous people like Ms. DePape to lead non-violent opposition to the imposition of American Republican’$ values on Canada by the Harper Conservatives. And should ordinary Canadian’s in the next election or by-election organize themselves to conduct a straw-vote pre-election Canadian Wheat Board style vote123 preferential ballot poll, such citizens thereby empower themselves on voting day to avoid much of the vote-splitting vulnerability of our single-mark ballot system.