|
|---|
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Sheenagh, a lone woman fighting for Canada's democracy, needs your help to carry the fight to every Conservative candidate in this election.
 |
| Sheenagh McMahon - lone fighter |
We are facing a battle for the soul of Canada, and yet if you read the press or watched television or listened to any of the four parties on the hustings, you would not get that impression at all.
Harper's Conservative Government fell on a vote of no confidence because it was found in contempt of Parliament by the majority of the MPs. This happened only a week or so ago, yet for all the reporting in the press and the media, you might get the impression that nothing like that ever happened.
The silence of onlookers ...
Harper is refusing to even acknowledge the Contempt finding, and his ministers are downplaying it as well. None of of the three opposition parties has launched anything like a major campaign against the Conservatives during the first week of the election based on the contempt finding.
The Contempt List ...
The history of the Harper Tories contempt of our Parliament is well-documented, and accessible to anyone who does a bit of googling. The Tory record is a long one, spread over their five years in power. This is a short summary to be found in the Liberal election platform, released today:
Sheenagh's Call for Help ...
I posted a blog discussing the fight Sheenagh is carrying on – you can find it here – and Sheenagh has commented on that post. I reproduce her call for help in defending our precious democracy from the attacks on it by the Harper Conservatives:
Hello, Sheenagh McMahon here.
Jymn is right, the media are avoiding this story, in fact they are avoiding the word Contempt almost entirely. You rarely hear any reporter raise the Contempt for Democracy issue with any Conservative candidate.
Please follow Lorne's suggestion and send this posting on to anyone you know and any media. The most important thing is to keep this question going. Everyone should attend every debate they can and pose it to the Conservative candidate.
Do some other things. Get creative. Paint a sign that says Stephen ^not Harper and put it on your lawn and in your car window. Make a funny Youtube video and post it. Get up off your couches and do something. Voter apathy is what the Conservatives are counting on.
Most importantly, on May 2, vote the Harper Conservatives out.
The posting Sheenagh refers to is my post on her fight in Ottawa – click here for it.
She challenges us to spring to the defence of our country, to stand on guard for Canada. I beg you to read her suggestions carefully, and to think of any ways that you, too, can join in her fight.
The stakes are too high for us to allow Harper to bury this issue, assisted by an ignorant and quiescent media.
Prime Minister Harper still in denial ...
Today Harper rejected the contempt finding, going so far as to say that Canadians are not concerned about the issue:
Don't use this C-word around Stephen Harper.The prime minister continued Monday to deflect questions about the contempt motion that brought down his minority government and made it the first in history to be found in breach of Parliament.During a news conference in a quiet Vancouver Island subdivision, Harper said the only issue Canadians care about is the economy and its continued recovery.Harper was asked if his refusal to acknowledge the contempt ruling is an indication of how he would govern should his party be returned to power."On the question of contempt, the only contempt in this election is the idea that Mr. Ignatieff's opposition can lose the election and form a government without an electoral mandate, with the support of the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois," he replied in French.Harper did not use the word "contempt" in his English remarks.
Accountability Calls Begin in the East ...
However, there are stirrings of further resistance to the Harper arrogance in dismissing the contempt of Parliament finding.
 |
| An O, Canada Contempt Campaign |
One of the first O, Canada campaigns happened today in St. John's. What is perhaps a very encouraging sign is that the organizers of the Contempt Campaign used all the modern social technologies – just as the democracy dissenters in so many Middle Eastern countries have done:
Jenn Graham, a Memorial University student who helped organize the demonstration, said the protest came together within hours."We had to send him a message and within hours we had Facebook events, Twitter updates, [a] real social media campaign. [We were] really using the new technology to get the word out there," she said.
Join in, folks. Get the word out, and compare notes on the best ways to organize the events, the best posters, the best ways to get the news into the press, and the best ways to confront each and every Conservative candidate on the Contempt issue.
Help Sheenagh help Canada.
0 Comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
