Stephen Harper and Alicia Gordon Have Decided That the Aids Epidemic in Africa is Not a Cause They Care About

On March 9, Gloria Galloway reported in the Globe that: "A long-running attempt to make it easier to produce and distribute copies of patented medicines for sale at cut-rate prices to the world’s poorest countries has been approved by the House of Commons."

The musician K’naan had warned our ELECTED MPs that: Voting down generic-drug bill would be slight to world’s poor

But unbelievably Stephen Harper had his little lapdog Tony Clement recommend turning down the bill, perhaps this government's most inhumane action to date.

It passed and went to the unelected Harper dominated senate. They turned it down flat. Democracy at work.

Gerald Kaplan wonders how they look at themselves in the mirror.

Stephen Harper ended Parliament in typical style. He had the trained seals he’s appointed to the unelected Senate (a body he doesn’t believe in) sabotage the clear will of the democratically elected House of Commons with consequences that will cost the lives of “thousands, maybe millions, of poor people” in Africa and elsewhere.

Killing C-393 last week was a second example of the extraordinary harm a majority of Conservative senators have been ready aye ready to inflict at the behest of their master. (Some Conservatives stayed away from the chamber, apparently to avoid voting with the majority but not prepared to vote against them, and one, Nancy Ruth, honourably spoke in favor of the bill.) Have no doubt the majority knew exactly what they were doing and what the stakes were.

Last night my local Conservative candidate Alicia Gordon, hosted a $125 a plate fundraiser with two of Harper's senators, Mike Duffy and Hugh Segal, in attendance. She is bubbly and bright and no doubt charmed everyone in the room.

Now imagine that with a backdrop of the devastation that Aids is causing in Africa, a nation too poor to provide the proper medication to fight the disease.

I would like to ask her how she looks herself in the mirror. She is better than this, or at least I thought she was.

I sent her an email, though I'm not expecting a response.

We need to do this with every Conservative candidate. Bring them onto the national scene. Harper is trying to keep all campaigns local, so that people like Gordon don't have to wear his shame. We can't allow that to happen. We need the electorate to know just what they would be supporting.

I can't imagine too many voting to deny aids patients the right to life, simply because they are poor.

My note to Alicia:

Hi. I have to admit that I was quite disappointed to learn that you were running for Stephen Harper's party. As a former PC supporter, who voted for your husband back in the day, I was devastated when the Reformers took over and swung the party so far to the right they make the Tea Party look moderate.

Am I to assume that you are now homophobic?

Am I to assume that you support your government's boycott of a bill to provide generic medication to fight aids in Africa?

Am I to assume that you hold Parliament and our time-honoured institutions in contempt?

Am I to assume that you are now against women's rights? And please don't remind me that you are a woman, because it won't matter if you are sent to Ottawa. You will have no voice of your own. The very worst message to young women that they are destined to be subservient.

You claimed that you were going to run on strengthening social programs, while Harper is tearing them down.

Yes I am very disappointed and I hope in your campaigning you will denounce this government's actions and promise to reverse them, rather than simply being compliant.