THE OLDER, BETTER CANADA IS BACK AGAIN « Eric Margolis

THE OLDER, BETTER CANADA IS BACK AGAIN « Eric Margolis



October 25, 2015



Toronto- I used to call Canada ‘the land that time forgot.’  While the rest of the world lurched from crisis to crisis, Canada remained peaceful, humane, prosperous, progressive and famously polite, a sort of North American Scandinavia.



Polls showed that Canada, for all its blandness and low profile, was one of the world’s most respected nations.  The ethos of Canada was to make nice to everyone, aid less fortunate nations, shine at the UN and make peace-keeping a national cause.



That was, of course, until the old political order broke down after a series of scandals in Quebec. The Conservatives, an  insurgent party made up of farmers and other reactionaries from the western provinces (aka ‘Canadian Republicans),  gained power as first a minority government, then  majority.



For ten years, the rightwing Conservatives political leader from Alberta, Stephen Harper, held power in Ottawa.  He rapidly turned once easy-going Canada into something resembling a dictatorship-light in which Parliament was reduced to a rubber stamp, the courts were often cowed, and parts of the media brought under Harper’s control. Nastiness replaced politeness.



The Harper government was  effective at economic management, notably deficit control, but over reliant on income from oil.  But foreign and social policies changed dramatically.   Harper was reported to be a member of an obscure Christian fundamentalist church that appeared to be close to America’s Bible Belt religious fundamentalists.  Unfortunately, Canada’s media never dared broach this subject.  



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