Limes with Orange

I'm too preoccupied with personal concerns at the moment to whip myself up into a frenzy about Harper's latest bullshit plan, but I'm worried enough about it to at least comment...

Harper was afraid of losing by-elections so he called an early election, conveniently ignoring the law that he passed fixing election dates to four year terms. He still couldn't get the other parties out of his hair by winning a majority though, so now he's trying to do it by taking away the money that has always gone to parties that have won a minimum percentage of votes. (Gee, maybe if you hadn't wasted everybody's money by calling an early election, and had focused on the economy rather than campaigning, you wouldn't have this deficit that you're claiming you need this money for!)

Anyway, I've always thought that this small per-vote subsidy is a fair way of making every single vote count. Even if the person you vote for doesn't win, if they have enough support they'll get back some of the money they spent campaigning. This helps level the playing field for the parties that don't have deep governmental pockets but do have public support.

Please don't let Harper kill public campaign financing in Canada.

The world seems to get a little less fair every day. Don't let this grasping little man make it a lot less fair in one fell swoop.

P.S. In case this stupid thing does pass, I encourage everyone who did not vote for the Conservatives (which is over 60% of voters in this country) to donate $10 to the party that you DID vote for.

P.P.S. I would also normally rant about Harper's Nixon-like tendencies of listening in on private conversations between political rivals, with the Tories broadcasting a private conversation between the NDP and Bloc Quebecois about a possible coalition party. But I'll have to let someone else wave that flag for now.

Labels: harper bashing, politics