Jeffrey Simpson has an interesting column this week: Remember the Reformers? They’re still here In it he suggests that the Conservatives are now putting policies in place written for the Reform Party, two decades ago.
However, while the cowboy law and order agenda was early Reform Party, most initiatives are in response to the special interest groups who helped Stephen Harper's rise to power. He now has to repay many, many favours.
The Canadian Wheat Board was never really a target of Reform, but the National Citizens Coalition. They launched a campaign against the board, reportedly on behalf of Karlheinz Schreiber.
In fact, in the early days, the Party almost had a mutiny on their hands when they suggested cutting farm subsidies. Their rural members threatened to leave, until they tweaked it.
The tough immigration laws, that enticed neo-Nazis to infiltrate the Reform Party, came from groups like C-Far, run by Paul Fromm. Fromm was allowed to sell memberships at at least one Reform Assembly, until his ties to neo-Nazi groups was revealed. Peter Brimelow, creator of V-Dare, another anti-immigration group, was also an early influence.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation not only fought against immigration policies, but multiculturalism, which might seem odd given that their former president is now the head of Immigration and Multiculturalism.
Jason Kenney was recently caught in a lie, suggesting that he had only made two patronage appointments to his refugee board. Turns out it was 16. Not so much a math error as a question of his integrity.
Even the latest attacks on Native communities by the Conservatives come from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Harper has distorted the numbers to make it appear that he has given Attawapiskat $90 million that they squandered, using it as an excuse to take over, but it's just that. An excuse.
And suggesting that he wasn't aware of the horrendous conditions on the Reserve, again not true, given that they have apparently visited several times, and reported nothing.
They just want control, in much the same way that they took over Barriere Lake, making it easier for big lumber.
We are now being governed by special interest and right-wing fringe groups. All the devils who now own Stephen Harper's soul.
In 2006, Time magazine raised the alarm over Stephen Harper's control of the media, which included his unprecedented secrecy of what goes on in cabinet meetings.
However, if you want some idea of what they might sound like, watch the Republican debates and listen to their candidates. They all speak the same language.
This week Rick Perry is touting the "flat tax" as an innovative way to restructure the tax system, and it will be even flatter than Herman Cain's 9-9-9. The only thing flatter will be their heads.
This is not a new idea but one that has been flogged for decades. "Reduce government so you can drown it in a bathtub", Grover Norquist, and his Americans For Tax Reform, have been promoting this for twenty-five years.
Canadian Kevin Avram, attended a conference in Austin, Texas where he met a representative of the “Association of Concerned Taxpayers”, then headed up by Norquist. He came home and created the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, once headed up by Jason Kenney.
In 1998, the CTF invited Stockwell Day, then head of the Alberta Treasury, to a briefing on how this tax plan to make the wealthy even wealthier, works.
Mike Harris and Preston Manning wrote a paper Building Prosperity in a Canada Strong and Free, in which they not only tout the "flat tax" but also want to end Capital gains taxes.
When Stephen Harper spoke at the Frontier Institute, another vehicle of the corporate sector, there were protests against the Institutes policies, including, yes, the "flat tax". He snuck out the back door, his Modus Operandi.
All of these neocons sound like parrots on crack. "Perry wants a flat tax", "Flaherty wants a flat tax", "Harper wants a flat tax", "Norquist wants a flat tax", Tea Party wants a flat tax" ...."
As Joe Holley reminds us:
Perry is hoping to capitalize on universal frustration with the current system, draw attention away from Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 flat tax proposal and create a clear distinction between himself and Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor has been critical of a flat-tax system in the past, arguing that a tax structure that was too flat would hurt the middle class.
A flat tax would indeed be more regressive than the current complicated system. It would reduce the percentage that high-income earners pay, while increasing the burden on lower-income groups. That’s fine with some conservatives, who believe that wealthier earners shouldn’t be shouldering so much of the tax burden.
That's it in a nutshell. Creating a tax system that further widens the gap between rich and poor. Just what we need.
Headlines this week revealed to Canadians that we are
about to hit a record debt.
And while this news begs the question, why fighter jets, prisons and corporate tax cuts, it should also prompt you to ask who is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the ones who brought us this "news".
If you don't know who to ask, ask me.
The CTF is the Canadian spin-off of Republican operative Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. Like the Tea Party, it is a corporate sponsored AstroTurf group, focused on reducing taxes for the rich and taking over all government services.
... the same tactic [as the National Citizens Coalition] was used to create another agent for the corporate elite, the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation. The connection with the business elite in this second so-called grassroots citizens' movement is both as strong and as obscure as in the NCC. The CTF's own documents go out of their way to insist that it is 'not a lobby group.' Nor is it a special interest ... Obviously it has not occurred to CTF members that taxpayers themselves constitute a special interest. According to Andrew Hilton of The Lobby Monitor, the CTF avoids referring to itself as a lobby group specifically because it fears that this 'delegitimizes their desired status as a grassroots movement'. (1)
The CTF helped to promote the Reform Party, by coordinating their efforts with other AstroTurf organizations, like Stephen Harper's NCC. Kenney would later become a Reform MP.
"Before the 1995 Budget was brought down .... the CTF sponsored no fewer than eighteen protest rallies across the country whose theme was 'No New Taxes.' These rallies were also deliberately coordinated with others sponsored by the Reform Party and the National Citizens Coalition for maximum affect. "... 'much of the group's anti-tax sentiment is based on ignorance of the actual situation in Canada .... a perception of reality, rather than reality' .... "Many other tax experts ... have also pointed out that the benefits received from government in exchange for taxes have to be taken into account ... Kenney's response to this, however is instructive. 'We only look at taxes, not benefits'..
Public-Service union president Darryl Bean has called the CTF 'a front for the Reform Party,' and it is not difficult to understand the source of his accusations. Preston Manning has often been asked to address its anti-tax rallies. At one such event in Pickering Ontario in 1995, media accounts routinely reported some 3,500 Reform Party supporters in attendance, and Manning received a standing ovation. "... (1)
They also created the "Flat Tax" campaign for Stockwell Day when he was in the Alberta Legislature, and many supporters hail Day as a financial guru, despite the fact that he never had anything to do with it.
People still move back and forth between the CTF and the 'Harper' government. Former CTF director, John Williamson, was hired as part of Harper's swelling communications (aka: propaganda) team and is now running as a Conservative candidate.
In fact, this man who is supposed to be so concerned with taxpayers, was caught already abusing our money, using it for self-promotion. He'll fit right in.
The debt clock is important, but given it's source, we can only conclude that this debt will be used to justify the end to programs like public heathcare. It's what they do.
Because only then will the CTF have any credibility. Traipsing around with a stupid clock just doesn't cut it. I wonder if Grover Norquist has a clock?
Sources:
1. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 416-417
But several clues that were held back, have now been made public and we may finally be able to take this to trial.
Or at least it should go to trial because what happened is criminal. Canadians have been robbed of their voice and history it's story.
The perpetrators of this heinous act must be prosecuted.
The Anatomy of a Crime
Crimes may vary in gravity, complexity, the kind of harm done, the state of mind required to commit a crime and the excuses used to validate the act. Traditionally, however, they are broken down into two parts: the physical called the ‘actus reus’ (Latin for criminal act) and the mental ‘mens rea’ (criminal mind).
I intend to prove that the murder of Canadian media was premeditated and fits all of the criteria of a criminal act, carried out by an organized gang of criminal minds.
The Physical Act: An attempt to change the ideological fabric of the country formerly known as Canada, through genocide and cannibalism.
In 1970, Keith Davey's senate committee on mass media sounded a warning about the increasing concentration of [media] ownership. Eleven years later, with the disappearance of even more newspapers, another federal investigation, this one headed up by Tom Kent, raised the alarm again. Not only were independent newspapers being bought out by such major chains as Southam and Thomson but chains were now swallowing up other chains. (1)
Conrad Black's Hollinger spent half a billion dollars in 1996 alone, gorging itself on Canadian newspapers.
A failure to act: Harm may occur because a suspect does not prevent it. In this way, the Government of Canada became a willing accomplice, by standing by while a criminal act was in progress.
Government remained complicit in this steady erosion of democracy by declining to act on the key recommendations coming out of these [senate] reviews, a press ownership review board, and a Canadian newspaper act. (1)
As a result Black's influence extended to 425 radio stations, 76 TV outlets, and 142 cable stations, and though he eventually sold off his holdings, the trend continued.
Between 1990 and 2005 there were a number of media corporate mergers and takeovers in Canada. For example, in 1990, 17.3% of daily newspapers were independently owned; whereas in 2005, 1% were. These changes, among others, caused the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to launch a study of Canadian news media in March 2003. (This topic had been examined twice in the past, by the Davey Commission (1970) and the Kent Commission (1981), both of which produced recommendations that were never implemented in any meaningful way.)
The Senate Committee’s final report, released in June 2006, expressed concern about the effects of the current levels of news media ownership in Canada. Specifically, the Committee discussed their concerns regarding the following trends: the potential of media ownership concentration to limit news diversity and reduce news quality. (2)
The victim’s state of mind: Sometimes a person’s guilt will depend on the state of mind of the alleged victim. Some actions are criminal only when performed without consent. In the media's murder, consent was given by our government and our own complacency. But then, murder is murder.
With successive takeovers, more and more Canadian newspaper staff lost their jobs — 1,550 over three years in the Southam chain after Hollinger took over. Hollinger president David Radler, a.k.a. "The Human Chainsaw," radically cuts staff at small-circulation papers to create cash flow for new acquisitions. With fewer journalists on staff, news editors increasingly turn to the copy provided by organizations like the Fraser Institute to fill the "news holes" between advertisements in their papers.
The preference for right-wing copy starts at the top of Hollinger, with CEO Conrad Black and vice-president of editorial Barbara Amiel, whose neo-conservative views are documented in Maude Barlow and James Winter's The Big Black Book: The Essential Views of Conrad and Barbara Amiel Black. As well as running Amiel's weekly column, Black hired his cousin Andrew Coyne and Amiel's ex-husband, George Jonas, to flog their conservative views in Southam papers. David Radler, who has said it is important to have his employees fear him, states flatly that Hollinger papers, on principle, will endorse only free-enterprise parties, explicitly ruling out any paper's support for the NDP. (1)
And this is why many in the media are now simply using copy and photos, produced by the PMO. It's often the only way they can meet their deadlines. It worked well for Mike Harris.
The Criminal State of Mind (Mens Rea): In describing the mental element required for such crimes against democracy, we can see that there was a definite intent and a desired goal, in the murder of Canadian media. Case in point is one victim Saturday Night.
The transformation of Saturday Night magazine after Black bought it has also been a factor in the prevalence of right-wing opinion in the Canadian print media. With former Alberta Report staffer Kenneth Whyte as the magazine's editor, Saturday Night has been serving up a steady diet of Whyte's "advice for the right" columns, mean-spirited critiques of such Canadian heroes as anti—child labour activist Craig Kielburger and Farley Mowat, and articles on why women should be in the home rather than the workforce. Saturday Night gives yet another platform for Southam columnists Andrew Coyne and George Jonas to air their views, as well as to neo-conservative journalists from the Sun newspaper chain, such as David Frum, Michael Coren, and Peter Worthington.
In his biography of Conrad Black, The Establishment Man, published in 1982, Peter C. Newman provided an insight into the fate that would inevitably befall Saturday Night once Black took it over. Newman's book contains the following excerpt from a letter Black wrote to American arch-conservative William F. Buckley on how to change a magazine the way Buckley had transformed National Review:
"I take the liberty of writing to you on behalf of many members of the journalistic, academic and business communities of this country who wish to convert an existing Canadian magazine into a conveyance for views at some variance with the tired porridge of ideological normalcy in vogue here as in the U.S.A. [during the 1970s]. We are aware of the lack in Canada of serious editorial talent of an appropriate political coloration .. . We are, however, people of some means as well as of some conviction, and unless faced by an insuperable economic barrier, intend to persevere with our plans, to execution."
As though the rightward turn of Canada's self-described "most influential magazine" was not enough, the Donner Foundation financed two new right-wing magazines. Next City, established in 1994 with a $1.4-million commitment from the foundation, seems to specialize in eroding compassion for the poor. (1)
Crime Accelerated to Bio-Terrorism: After getting away with murder, the criminals at large are now plotting an even more devious act. They are engaged in bio-terrorism, and it appears that they will be allowed to do so without interference.
A viral strain known as Haemophilus Ruperta Murdochus influenza, or more commonly referred to as the Rupert Murdoch Flu, has been transported from the U.S. in a petri dish and has been allowed to mutate. It will be released on society through Fox News North.
The first stage of contact will be constant attacks on Muslims, women, gays and minorities.
Symptoms will include the desensitizing of those formerly known as Canadians, so that they will be more accepting of constant attacks on Muslims, women, gays and minorities.
The final stages of this virus, before the imminent death of democracy, will be a political atmosphere so toxic that it will not be safe to leave your home without a gas mask.
But all is not lost. There may be an antidote.
A Russian scientist, Ivhad Enoff, has been working on a cure, and is patenting it under the name TurnTheDamnedThingOff.
Sources:
1. The Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen: Canada and Democracy in the Age of Globalization, By Murray Dobbin, James Lorimer & Company, 2003, ISBN: 1-55028-785-0, Pg. 209-211
When Jason Kenney was head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federationhe lobbied hard against any money going to multiculturalism and demanding an end to the immigration of "undesirables". In the Neoconservative world, this made him a perfect selection to head up Multiculturalism and Immigration.
He has on the other hand, increased the flow of migrant workers, and if they don't do what the big boss tells them to do (including S.E.X. as one woman discovered after being shipped back when she refused her "master"), Kenney launches work place raids and ships them back in the dead of night, without opportunity to even inform family or friends.
It is hard to write an article about Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's attacks on Canadian racialized communities. As soon as one draft is complete, Kenney is at it again, spinning new lies and venting hateful rhetoric. In a federal cabinet chock-a-block with unsavory characters, Kenney stands first in line. Kenney has expanded his use of arbitrary power and has moved with stealth to significantly reduce the number of family-class immigrants applying from countries of the Global South. While on the one hand Kenney and the Conservatives portray themselves as the friend of immigrant communities, their administrative edicts to Citizenship and Immigration Canada and legislative changes have resulted in the door being shut on immigrants' hands.The most recent step has been a ramped-up Conservative attack on immigrants in early April using workplace raids of unprecedented size and scope.
Using the distraction of police violence against protesters that was on display at the G20 Summit marches in Toronto, the Canadian government once again affirmed their commitment to the movement of people across their borders only as cheap and replaceable labour. On Saturday, June 26, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced changes to immigration policy that further restrict immigrants from obtaining residency in Canada through permanent and meaningful employment. This change follows a long line of policy changes that are designed to bring in more temporary migrants while restricting those and other migrants from having safe employment and a chance to obtain permanent residency in Canada.
The new change to immigration policy restricts residency applicants to applying only if they have arranged employment or have experience in 29 specific occupations. Previously, there was no upper limit to applications, the criteria for residency was broader, and work experience in over 38 occupations was accepted. The change highlights four broad patterns that have played out in Canadian immigration policy over the past few years. First, Jason Kenney, the Citizenship and Immigration Minister, has charted a course for Canadian immigration policy that treats migrants as disposable labour. Under the new policy changes, temporary foreign workers and students are no longer eligible to apply for residency even if they have the necessary points for immigration. Instead, they are rewarded for their contribution to the Canadian economy with a "thank you" and "good-bye" from the government.
It's a good thing Kenney isn't a believer in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, because if he was alive today he would be fighting hard against Kenney's evil. Maybe he'll just get his father to strike him down. Of course, the electorate could do the same thing. If we can't get rid of Jason Kenney at the polls, we can at least ship his party to the other side of the room where they can do less damage.
Stephen Harper already held the record for the most patronage appointments, but I guess he wants to make sure his record can never be broken.
Clearly it's not who you know but who he knows.
The latest appointments went y with little notice in the media, possibly because it has become almost business as usual, possibly because it got lost in Twitter and the relentless cycle of web page news and blogs. But over the past two weeks Prime Minister Harper and his cabinet named Mr. Silye, a former Calgary Reform Party and Progressive Conservative MP, as chair of the board of the federal Museum of Science and Nature in Ottawa. Ms. Skelton became a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, responsible for civilian oversight of Canada's spy agency—the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Her government appointment resume lists her pre-political job experience as a coordinator for Canadian Blood Services, with experience in organizations ranging from 4-H to the Royal Canadian Legion.
Silye is also on the board of Jason Kenney's old haunt, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
It's no wonder the Reformers don't believe they could be ahead in the polls. How can we trust them when they don't even trust themselves?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has appointed Toronto-area realtor and former Conservative candidate Salma Ataullahjan to the Senate to fill a vacancy for Ontario. Ataullahjan, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan in 1979, lost to Liberal MP Navdeep Bains in the southern Ontario riding of Mississauga-Brampton South in the 2008 federal election.
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
The image to the left is of Stockwell Day, two years before he and Jason Kenney decided they would like to make him prime minister, to push a new constitution based on the Old Testament.
It is taken at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the group Jason Kenney left when he decided to run for the Reform Party, to help carry out the mandate of the Canadian Christian Coalition, and infiltrate all levels of government.
Mark Milke took his job but is now with the Frontier Centre, another prop for the Harper government.
These guys move in and out of these so called "non-partisan", "non-profit" backdrops so often, that they are never quite sure who will be giving them a pay cheque in any given week. Could be the Fraser Institute. Could be the Frontier Centre. Could be the Canadian Taxpayer Federation. Or it could even be Stephen Harper, which means us.
But back to the flat tax.
You can't read a bloody bio of Stockwell Day without someone singing his praises over coming up with this wonderful system of taxation. But if you read the caption under the photo upper right, it states. "Marke Milke meets with then Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day to present a single rate tax proposal ... The proposal was adopted almost verbatim."
It was the brainchild of Kevin Avram, after attending a conference in Austin, Texas where he met a representative of the “Association of Concerned Taxpayers” which was then headed up by Grover Norquist. The association was "established to promote a flat income tax..." And if you want to know who benefits by it, they get a lot of their funding from Exxon.
In 2005, Milkes wrote an article on the flat tax, something he's still flogging. In it he mentions:
Think back 20 years. Any suggestion that eastern and central Europe were desirable economic models came only from Western socialists, university professors and others with an eternal grudge against free markets. What a difference perestroika, McDonald's in Moscow, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact makes. "New Europe" moved on, saw the future, and decided not to include in it tax regimes that punish wealth creation. The region is now something of a darling for tax reformers.
In January, Romania scrapped its multiple-bracket system with marginal rates as high as 40% for a single 16% tax rate on personal and business income. Romania, once home to one of the most repressive communist regimes, was country number nine to jump on the flat-tax express. Existing riders include Estonia (first, in 1994), and Georgia (also in January), Latvia, Lithuania (wages and salaries only), Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. But it's not just Europe. Alberta added itself to this list when it switched to a single rate of provincial income tax in 2001. (1)
Fast forward to 2009:
Over the last decade, Eastern European countries became darlings of the far right by instituting free-market economic policies designed to break convincingly from their Communist past. The so-called Baltic Tigers—Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia—garnered worldwide plaudits for a number of free-market reforms, led by the imposition of a flat-rate income tax, especially from the American right. "The flat tax is making a comeback," trumpeted the conservative National Review. The three nations are "leading a global tax reform revolution," said the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.
... Too bad for them that it hasn't worked out. Latvia, which has a flat tax of 25 percent, and Lithuania and Estonia, which have 21 percent tax rates, are all in deep economic trouble. They all have huge government budget deficits, a sign that they took in too little in tax revenue to cover their costs, primarily state expenditures to provide a generous welfare state. Conservatives might argue that they didn't slash welfare benefits enough, but there is no dispute that the flat tax didn't provide the expected revenue. (2)
That's why the neocons love this system, because it gives them an excuse to "slash welfare benefits" .... again. And I don't mean corporate welfare ... bite your tongue (or a neocon will do it for you). Just the country's most vulnerable.
And if you still think there's a very slim chance that it might work, the tea baggers have added it to their battle cry.
So the biggest dream of any of these nut job Tea Party folks is a flat tax, of about 15%. That's the number I see most often as being a "fair" tax. So this idea is that everyone, no matter what they make (except those below the poverty line I assume) pays x% for my purposes I will use 15%.
... But where this "brilliant" idea falls flat on it's face is when you realize what is left over and what can be afforded with it. It turns out that this "fair and flat" tax actually turns out to be regressive, not in that it puts the burden of funding the government on the poor but those hurt most by it, are the lower income. So poor people have less money then wealthy people, this is obvious. Though they are not rich, they still have to live: buy food, pay for electricity and phone, pay for medical bills, and yes taxes.
Because these less fortunate people make less money, a greater percentage of there income goes towards those necessities. So what this means is that if the poor are paying the same as the rich, the hit being taken by them is still much greater then it is for the wealthy .. Now I know, these people are entitled to their wealth they worked hard... BLAH BLAH BLAH. But lets remember here so did the poor man, and yet they are the ones who suffer from taxes. The rich are the ones who most complain about taxes and yet many of them do not even pay. They shelter it in Swiss and Cayman bank accounts. (3)
The flat tax is a bad idea. But even if it were a good idea, the next time someone credits Stockwell Day with this initiative, set them straight. Or do what I do and scream.
2. The Flat Tax Is Flat-Lining: The meltdown of Baltic countries shows what a bad idea this gimmick always was, By Charles P. Wallace, The Big Money, March 31, 2009
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
James Egan and John Norris Nesbit, were a gay couple who had been in a conjugal relationship since 1948. Their challenge to the courts over the definition of a spouse would pave the way for not only gay rights but equal marriage.
The Old Age Security Act in Canada, provides that a spouse of a pensioner may receive a spousal allowance should their combined income fall below a certain amount. So when Nesbit reached 65, fitting the definition, he applied to the Department of National Health and Welfare for a spousal allowance. However, he was refused on the basis that spouse, defined in section 2 of Old Age Security Act, did not include a member of the same sex.
So Egan and Nesbit delivered a motion for a declaration of unconstitutionality to the Federal Court of Canada alleging that the definition of "spouse" under the Old Age Security Act constituted an infringement of their right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law, entrenched in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Though they were refused by the trial judge and their case was turned down for an appeal, they took the matter to the Supreme Court, who in 1995 agreed, and the two men were granted the supplement. (1)
As a result of this decision, the Canadian Parliament voted to amend* the Canadian Human Rights Act to explicitly include sexual orientation as one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination.
This inclusion of sexual orientation in the Act was an express declaration by Parliament that gay and lesbian Canadians are entitled to "an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives they are able and wish to have..." (Section 2). The Canadian Human Rights Commission , which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Act, provides further information about human rights and sexual orientation. (2)
This decision angered many fundamentalist Christians, who feared that legitimizing same-sex marriage would be the next step. Two of them were Brian Rushfeldt and Roy Beyer, pastors of Victory church. Since neither were ordained ministers, they decided to take a correspondence course at Charles McVety's Canada Christian College, but the change in the Constitution to include gay rights, changed their priorities, and they decided to:
... drop everything and build a grassroots political force to demand the restoration of biblical principles to government. At Victory headquarters, their boss arranged for them to fly to Washington for a tutorial from the reigning expert on evangelical organizing, Ralph Reed, the Georgia wunderkind whom Pat Robertson had chosen to build the Christian Coalition. (3)
Also in attendance were Jason Kenney and Don Spratt, the man who would create the Canadian Christian Coalition, based on the techniques used by Reed.
Years earlier, Reed had confided to a reporter that stealth was essential** to his modus operandi. "I want to be invisible," he said. "I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night." Warming to the metaphor, he boasted, "You don't know it's over until you're in a body You don't know until election night." Nobody had paid much attention until 1994 when Reed realized that scenario on a national scale. The mainstream media woke up on election night to discover that the Christian Coalition had been instrumental in engineering a Republican takeover of both houses of Congress for the first time in forty-two years. (3)
Beyer and Rushfeldt were also inspired by Reed and they too started a Christian grassroots movement: the Canada Family Action Coalition.
Canada Family Action (CFA) was founded in early 1997 with a vision to see Christian principles applied in Canadian law, politics and society. We provide strategies, networking, training and tools to enable ordinary Canadians to influence government, education, media, and culture.
We work with individuals, churches, other like-minded groups, and businesses to provide a unified thrust in promoting the Christian worldview in government, the media and society. Presently we have over 40,000 individuals who are active supporters, plus hundreds of thousands of others who participate in various major campaigns through phone calls to MPs , petitions, brochure distribution and letters to editors of newspapers. Some even host meetings in their area on issues and invite speakers. Our Mission: To mobilize, train and activate Canadians in defending and promoting Christian principles in Canadian society. (4)
They immediately went into action, when Alberta premier Ralph Klein, called an election, and
... scrambled to put together a homegrown version of a tool that Reed had developed for churches, a political report card aimed at pinpointing acceptable social-conservative candidates without taking a partisan stand that would jeopardize their charitable tax status. Those voters' guides graded lawmakers on how they had cast their ballots on bills close to theo-con hearts. Beyer and Rushfeldt sent out their first edition to ninety thousand Alberta households in what turned out to be a dry run for the federal election that was called months later.
In a burst of enthusiasm, they ordered half a million copies of their new national guides, confident that evangelical corporate leaders would leap at the opportunity to underwrite such an innovative scheme, but Beyer came back from his first fundraising tour empty-handed. "Up here," Rushfeldt says, "the Christian community had bought into this idea that politics and religion don't mix." (3)
(The Canadian Christian Coalition fared much better for the Reform Party).
Jason Kenney and Don Spratt
Reproductive rights rights in Canada took a giant step backward in January when a provincial court judge gutted the British Columbia's government's new Access to Abortion Services Act, which had established protest-free "bubble zones" around abortion clinics and doctors' homes and offices. The ruling came at a time when the previously disorganized Religious Right in this province was congealing into a B.C. wing of the newly formed Christian Coalition of Canada, inspired by the politically influential Christian Coalition in the U.S. ... a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress.
The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt ... "Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association), and Alex Parachin (head of the Christian Broadcasting Associates in Toronto, the Canadian branch plant of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network). (5)
As mentioned, Don Spratt was then the leader of Rescue Canada (also known as Operation Rescue), a position he held in "the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, for which he was repeatedly jailed for “contempt of court” for obeying God rather than man ... "(6)
His group fared better than Canada Family Action, perhaps because of the connections of people like Bill Vander Zalm, Jason Kenney and the Reform Party.
The Christian Coalition has established roots in British Columbia, Canada ... Bill Vander Zalm, a former British Columbia premier and one of the more than 20 directors ... announced that the group plans to distribute "voter guides" in churches around the province in any upcoming election.
Vander Zalm notes that the group is already organized in the Okanagan, the Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland. Vander Zalm has associated in the past with the right-wing Reform Party and the Family Coalition Party of B.C. The B.C. chapter formed after several dozen Canadians attended the fall 1995 Christian Coalition convention in the U.S.
Don Spratt, a member of Operation Rescue, leads the B.C. chapter. Other advisors to the group include Ted and Link Byfield of the right-wing Alberta Report and B.C. Report magazines, Alex Parachin, head of the Canadian branch of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and Jason Kenny, head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association.
Jim Garrow, the Ontario-based leader of the Christian Coalition of Canada told reporters that the group will seek allies in organizations such as the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, REAL Women and the Canadian branch of James Dobson's Focus on the Family. (7)
They would build up such a network of think-tanks and non-profit groups, that I'm beginning to feel the way that Lucy did in the following clip. You start off slow, tracking the money and the players, and then they speed up the conveyor belt and you're stuffing names in your hat so they don't fall off your radar.
I'm going to do a list and the end of this chapter, of which, mostly faith-based groups, promoted which candidates for the 1997 election, as well as future ones; but it's pretty clear that this party has been taken over by the Religious Right. I don't think Stephen Harper could stop them now even if he wanted to.
So why should this matter? Well, as Canadian author and activist, Maude Barlow explains:
Sincerely held religious beliefs accompanied by strict morality are obviously not a bad thing, and any Church is entitled to make its own rules about who, for example, it will choose to marry under Church auspices. (Some may deplore a lack of tolerance for alternative lifestyles displayed by particular denominations, but the freedom of religion means that people are free to make such choices.) Civil rights are another matter. Increasingly, however, the sometimes narrow convictions of Christian sects are being exploited by politicians in both Canada and the, United States (where the tendency is highly developed) to introduce into the political realm a degree of inflexibility, passion, and rancour that tend to undermine the spirit of accommodation and tolerance that is essential to the functioning of a democratic society. Our civil liberties are threatened as a result. The point is that people are free to believe what they want privately, but if they enter politics to inflict those beliefs on others, then their religious concerns become fair game.
Intolerance for gays, passionate opposition to abortion and a handful of other "hot-button" issues are pushing a number of born-again Canadians to identity with the evangelical, right-wing views of American fundamentalist groups such as Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition, two of the groups that helped put George W Bush in the White House. (7)
Less than 11% of Canadians are evangelical, and of that probably less than half are of the extreme variety. Yet they now make up more than half of the Harper caucus. But what's worse, they have also been infiltrated into all levels of the public sphere, and are now in the courts, the senate and even the civil service.
If this government is in power much longer, the majority of Canadians risk losing their voice, and all decisions made will be contrary to Canadian beliefs and Canadian values.***
* Stephen Harper voted against amending the Canadian Human Rights
**Stephen Harper would later also adopt Reed's strategy: "The state should take a more activist role in policing social norms and values ... To achieve this goal, social and economic conservatives must reunite as they have in the U.S., where evangelical Christians and business rule in an unholy alliance. Red Tories must be jettisoned from the party ... Movement towards the goal must be "incremental, so the public won't be spooked." Stephen Harper (8)
*** "Westerners, but especially Albertans, founded the Reform/Alliance to get "in" to Canada. The rest of the country has responded by telling us in no uncertain terms that we do not share their 'Canadian values.' Fine. Let us build a society on Alberta values." Stephen Harper
3. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 69-70
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
In 1993, the Reform Party had it's first big electoral success, winning 52 seats, all but one from the West, including the seat of Stephen Harper, with the help of a $50,000.00 campaign against his opponent and former boss, Jim Hawkes, paid for by the National Citizens Coalition.
The Reformers ran on a platform of anti-government, anti-Ottawa.
Having a clear critical dynamic, focused on the corrupt Ottawa establishment, was of the first importance to Reform's recent success. In this, as in so many other ways, this party has a similar focus to the United States Republican Party in its present mood ... Part of its appeal is to anti-Quebecois sentiment "let Quebec either secede", Reform says in effect, "or, preferably, stay in Canada but without any of the special privileges it seeks." Outside Quebec this message is extremely popular. It might be noted that Reform did not bother to run candidates in Quebec. (1)
Other policies that appealed to many in the West included:
- Giving over to the private sector as many functions as possible (including Petro Canada and Canada Post, for example). Government would manage any remaining publicly-funded enterprises, but not operate them. It would cut at least 25 per cent off subsidies to Crown corporations like the CBC.
- The government should have no role in job-creation apart from clearing obstacles for the private sector.
- "The treatment of every motion in most of our legislatures and Parliaments as confidence motions
- Giving voters the right to recall their MP if the MP fails to represent their views adequately. "So you don't trust politicians?", Manning asked during the campaign. "Here is our money-back guarantee: we'll put the power in your hands to fire your elected MP." Recall is the Party's single most popular policy plank, according to its direct-mail surveys, and certainly its most constitutionally radical, and one may expect it to be implemented should Reform win the next Canadian elections. As the Party says in its advertising literature, "Recall will obligate MPs to listen to their constituents between elections." (This one was soon abandoned when his own party wanted to recall him)
- Cancelling government subsidies for special-interest groups.
- Pulling the government out of unemployment insurance, and letting employers and employees fund it themselves. This policy reflects that same concern shown by the Republicans for making people more responsible for themselves.
- In general, allowing each person to be the major provider of his or her own basic needs, including most social services and medicare. This means, in effect, that more social services should be user-pay, and that relatives and private charities should bear more of the welfare burden.
- Slashing immigration.
- Not giving any government seal of approval to homosexuals, abortion-on-demand, and political correctness generally. "Reform", Manning told one rally, "refuses, and continues to refuse, to be intimidated by the extremists of political correctness".
- Abolish the policy of official bilingualism. (1)
Throughout the campaign, which became increasingly an attack on Ottawa and the federal government, often making them just one Montana Freeman away from a stand-off, there were several people south of the border who were paying attention, including Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist.
"Indeed, Canadians became exporters of neo-con innovation in the 1990s. 'I would say Margaret Thatcher and Mr. [Preston] Manning are the two non-Americans we learned most from'', said U.S. Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich in 1995.'I know him [Preston Manning] because I watched all of his commercials. We developed our platform from watching his campaign.' (2)
And using the techniques and talking points honed by Manning and the Reformers, Gingrich's team created their "Contract with America".
It is thus not difficult to understand why the Republicans, in the run-up to the mid-term elections of last November, made such a point of dissociating themselves from Washington and identifying instead with popular sentiment on such issues. The dividends of defining Washington as the source of false values are seen in the results of the elections, which gave the Republicans control of both the House and the Senate.
In the months preceding these elections, the House Republican leadership under the direction of Newt Gingrich developed their "Contract with America", a promise to introduce, in the first ninety days of a Republican-dominated House and Senate, a set of ten bills based on their careful reading of what a majority of Americans were signalling they wanted. (1)
And several of these bills were adopted right from Manning's play book, including: a "Personal Responsibility Act", drastic cuts to social programs and privatization of several services. And two men who helped to draft this "contract" were Grover Norquist and Frank Luntz.
Norquist, of course is the anti-tax guru who inspired the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Luntz is the Republican pollster who told Stephen Harper that the best way to get a majority was to stay on message about tax cuts and accountability, and talk hockey every chance he got.
"By February 1994, many Republicans ... were upbeat about their chances of doing well in the mid-term elections scheduled for November ... An optimistic group of members of the House of Representatives met in Salsbury, Maryland, to discuss their platform ..."Overwhelmingly male, middle-aged and white*, with a large contingent from rural and southern states, they could hardly have claimed to be representative of the American people, but they were certainly indicative of the constituency that elected them." (3)
They did win what Newt Gingrich called 'the most shattering one-sided Republican victory since 1946.'
No one disagreed with him. Certainly not Canada's Preston Manning, the leader of the like-minded Reform Party, which a year earlier had taken the fifty odd seats in the federal election. Not only had Manning visited Gingrich for a photo opportunity, but Gingrich now attributed his electoral success to techniques he had learned from Manning and his Reformers. (3)
But the Reform Party also paid attention to something that Gingrich had done:
In this election, the Republicans were closely in tune with prominent conservative media personalities like Rush Limbaugh, a no-holds-barred, technically brilliant and aggressively comic articulator of anti- Washington, anti-elite, pro-mainstream sentiment who appears nightly on national television, and Pat Buchanan, a Congressman and television and radio personality who takes the conservative side on the nightly verbal sparring match, "Crossfire".
More significantly, the Republicans tapped into the nation's religious heartland, gaining the overt support of the powerful Christian groupings which make up the Christian Coalition. The Coalition, while mainly evangelical, embraces a wide spectrum of the devout from Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, to prominent traditionalist Catholics. According to Ralph Reed, Christian Coalition's executive director, "One of every three voters was someone who attends church regularly, who is socially conservative"**. The Democrats, according to Reed, "badly miscalculated how to handle" this important segment of the electorate, and tried to "marginalize and stereotype these voters and their leaders". (1)
And:
"Amoung these organized religion was clearly uppermost in Gingrich's mind. The role of the evangelicals in assuring Gingrich's victory was far greater than it had been for Reagan. As Rosalind Petchesky points out in an article on anti-feminism and the New Right, this heightened emphasis of moral conservatism in the American neo-conservative movement was unprecedented. It was also producing a situation in which the party's platform was being increasingly designed to meet the requirements of these supporters." (3)
Enter Jason Kenney, who the following year would attend a major convention of the U.S. Christian Coalition, then headed up by Ralph Reed who was hired by Pat Robertson. (4)
... Even more ominous for democratic rights ... is the recent hatching of the B.C. clone of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. With 1.7 million active members and a $25 million (US) annual budget, the U.S. organization has become a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress. The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt, and claims among its founding board members former B.C. Premier and ardent anti-choicer Bill Vander Zalm ... "Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association) ... (5)
So by the time the next Canadian election rolled around, Jason Kenney and his gang were ready to "become a formidable lobbying force in [Canadian] politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates.
"... the notion that some Reform members may have strong Anglo-Saxon nativist inclinations is supported by more than merely the background profiles of its leaders, members and supporters. It is supported also by the words of many of its ideological mentors who depict Canada as not only historically an Anglo-Saxon country but also part of a wider Anglo-Saxon culture that is in need of recognizing and re-establishing its heritage." (5) ** Reform is a mass-base party (110,000 active members, 1993, and rapidly rising) of social conservatives led by an evangelical Christian, Preston Manning. (1)
Sources:
1. Policy from the People:Recent Developments in the USA and Canada, By Philip Ayres, Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of The Samuel Griffith Society, April 2, 1995
2. Slumming it at the Rodeo: The Cultural Roots of Canada's Right-Wing Revolution, Gordon Laird, 1998, Douglas & McIntyre, ISBN: 1-55054 627-9, Pref. xiv-xv
3. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 36-37
4. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 5
6. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada, By Trevor Harrison, University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 170
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
When I read Marci McDonald's Armageddon Factor, I was surprised that she didn't have more on Jason Kenney. Her book was excellent and connected a lot of dots for me, but Kenny is just as involved with the Religious Right as Stockwell Day. In fact, maybe more so, especially to the American movement. And his beliefs are also just as troubling.
However, while researching another story I came across an old article from Australia, that directly ties the Reform Party and the Republican Party, and in a way that we all missed. I had already written about the close relationship between Preston Manning and Newt Gingrich, but this goes further and deeper, and involves Jason Kenney in a very big way.
I should have seen this before, but I had my light bulb moment yesterday. So I went over all of my notes and skimmed some old postings, and it was all there. So I'm going to try and put everything in chronological order as best I can. I will be doing it several parts. But it involves the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Christian Coalition and Grover Norquist. A strange combination indeed.
In 1989, Brian Mulroney began discussing the implementation of the GST, which became a very hot button issue with Canadians. This prompted Saskatchewan resident, Kevin Avram, to start a kind of grass roots organization, to mobilize people against this new tax. (1)
So he attended a conference in Austin, Texas where he met a representative of the “Association of Concerned Taxpayers” which was then headed up by Grover Norquist. So he decided to set up a chapter in Canada, which he simply named the Association of Saskatchewan Taxpayers, which was incorporated on May 1, 1989. Jason Kenney was hired as Executive Director.
Meanwhile, a similar group had started in Alberta called Resolution One. I'm still hunting down information on them, but they may have been connected to Link Byfield. Though not a member of the Reform Party himself (his father Ted was a founding member), he drafted "Resolution One" for Preston Manning, which became the Reform Party's fiscal philosophy. (2)
Link was a founding member, along with Stephen Harper, of the Northern Foundation and is currently involved with the Wildrose Alliance Party. Resolution One became the Alberta Taxpayers Association and they joined with the Association of Saskatchewan Taxpayers to become the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and Jason Kenney was named CEO. Rob Anders also claims to have been involved with them at some time as well, according to his resume, when he first ran for public office.
I have a bit more information on the American Association of Concerned Taxpayers, as it relates to Stockwell Day (when he had big hair. Oye!), but I just wanted to follow along with Jason Kenney and Grover Norquist for now.
Norquist had worked for Ronald Reagan, setting up Americans for Tax Reform, as a "think-tank" to sell his tax cutting measures. It was such a success that he kept it going, with branches and affiliates right across the country, including AOCT, on which CTF was fashioned.
In 1988, Norquist was asked to work on the campaign of George H. Bush, and he advised him to stick to one simple message. It was the message that he had adopted for his own anti-tax outfits. Remember the famous "Read My Lips"? That was Grover Norquist.
Well Jason Kenney did all but tell people to read his lips, though Stephen Harper tried it out in 2008. But in 1995 when Kenney was touring Canada, he must have felt the invisible hand of Norquist brushing against his cheek.
"Before the 1995 Budget was brought down .... the CTF sponsored no fewer than eighteen protest rallies across the country whose theme was 'No New Taxes.' These rallies were also deliberately coordinated with others sponsored by the Reform Party and the National Citizens Coalition for maximum affect. "... any casual observer of the CTF's literature cannot fail to note the groups neo-conservative approach to the role of government in general. As well-known tax expert Neil Brooks has stated, the CTF's 'anti-tax rhetoric disguises a view that government should play a minimal role' ... David Perry of the Canadian Tax Foundation ... notes that much of the group's anti-tax sentiment is based on ignorance of the actual situation in Canada .... a perception of reality, rather than reality' .... "Many other tax experts ... have also pointed out that the benefits received from government in exchange for taxes have to be taken into account ... Kenney's response to this, however is instructive. 'We only look at taxes, not benefits'.. (3)
And in the same way that Americans for Tax Reform originally propped up Ronald Reagan, it was pretty clear that the CTF were doing the same thing for the Reform Party.
Public-Service union president Darryl Bean has called the CTF 'a front for the Reform Party,' and it is not difficult to understand the source of his accusations. Preston Manning has often been asked to address its anti-tax rallies. At one such event in Pickering Ontario in 1995, media accounts routinely reported some 3,500 Reform Party supporters in attendance, and Manning received a standing ovation. "... (3)
Now this was 1995, and in the fall of that year, Jason Kenney, along with dozens of Canadian conservative Christians thronged to Washington, DC, to attend a major convention of the U.S. Christian Coalition, (4) then headed up by Ralph Reed.
When Robertson's campaign flamed out, political analysts served up a new round of obituaries for the religious right, but once again, the reports of its death proved premature. Even as Robertson nursed a wounded ego, he was hatching his organizational revenge, hiring a fresh-faced young doctoral student named Ralph Reed to build a grass-roots evangelical network, focusing first on the takeover of school boards and town councils before ultimately commandeering the machinery of the Republican National Committee itself. That institutional coup took place almost entirely beneath the media's radar, and by the time it finally caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress and would later play a major role in putting George W. Bush in the White House, not once but twice. (5)
Jason Kenney and his gang came back to Canada with a new agenda. They were going to replicate the success of the Christian Coalition on home turf. In McDonald's book, Armageddon Factor, she states that this initiative was the brainchild of Roy Beyer and Brian Rushfeldt, but Jason kenney was involved in this as well.
... Even more ominous for democratic rights in [British Columbia] is the recent hatching of the B.C. clone of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. With 1.7 million active members and a $25 million (US) annual budget, the U.S. organization has become a formidable lobbying force in American politics, installing its anti-choice, anti-gay agenda and candidates at all levels of government, from school boards to Congress. The B.C. chapter is headed up by Operation Rescue activist Don Spratt, and claims among its founding board members former B.C. Premier and ardent anti-choicer Bill Vander Zalm ... "Advisors" to the new CCC reportedly include Ted and Link Byfield (owners of the ultra-conservative B.C. Report and Alberta Report magazines), Jason Kenny (head of the Canadian Taxpayers Association), and Alex Parachin (head of the Christian Broadcasting Associates in Toronto, the Canadian branch plant of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network). (4)
I'm going to leave it there for now. Most of what I have written here has been covered in other posts, but it's what happens next that is rather surprising, so I want to cover it separately. This just sets the stage.
The media missed this in the U.S. "and by the time it finally caught their attention, Reed's Christian Coalition controlled both houses of Congress" (5) ... this was missed in Canada as well, though one diligent reporter did try to sound the alarm.
While Don Spratt may be telling readers "Nobody has anything to fear from the Christian Coalition," progressive activists and journalists will have to make sure the electorate knows better. (4)
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
In 1995, Jason Kenney, then head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, criss-crossed the country promoting his anti-tax philosophies. In fact when he was first named president of the CTF, some anti-tax groups lauded him as their hero.
While claiming to be a non-profit advocacy group:
.... the CTF in reality is neither a grassroots movement nor a democratically run organization. One critic has actually described it as 'more of a pyramid sales group than a bottom-up grassroots movement,' and an examination of CTF recruiting tactics explains why."Incredibly, the entire operation of the CTF depends on the recruitment of new members by some sixty-five salespeople operating on commissions .... In 1991 the Consumers' Association of Canada issued a warning about the CTF, noting that approximately 59.5 per cent of membership fees went to the CTF sales force, field managers and 'consultant' .... (1)
Most of their funding comes from corporate donors, a list they protect like the holy grail.
... well-known tax expert Neil Brooks has stated, the CTF's 'anti-tax rhetoric disguises a view that government should play a minimal role' ... David Perry of the Canadian Tax Foundation ... notes that much of the group's anti-tax sentiment is based on ignorance of the actual situation in Canada .... a perception of reality, rather than reality' .... "Many other tax experts ... have also pointed out that the benefits received from government in exchange for taxes have to be taken into account ... Kenney's response to this, however is instructive. 'We only look at taxes, not benefits'... leading Brooks and many other critics to conclude that the CTF agenda is simply lower taxes, not fairer taxes." (1)
As part of his little tour, he met up with Mike Harris who signed a pledge not to raise taxes if elected. He kept his promise, but between Harris and Guy Giorno, they almost destroyed Ontario, driving record numbers to be forced to live on the street.
But then Jim Flaherty came to the rescue suggesting that homelessness should be made a crime. I agree, except that he meant it literally and wanted to toss them all in jail.
Not the brightest bulb on the tree, because the cost to house them in jail would far exceed providing them with a home.
But remember, it's not about fairer taxes just lower taxes.
***************************************
Grover Norquist
In 2000 Grover Norquist criss-crossed the country to build support for a policy that would deliver $1.35 trillion dollars in tax cuts over ten years. As founder of Americans for Tax Reform, he had helped to get George Bush elected, on the promise of cutting corporate taxes.
Once elected, Norquist wanted to make sure that he could count on Bush, and the man delivered. As a result, the 400 richest multi-millionaires received tax breaks worth an average of one million dollars a year, a total of $58 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 per cent of the population. (2)
But like Jason Kenney and the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, this is only part of a larger agenda.
When Bush took office he was left with a surplus of 8 trillion dollars and the debt clock at Times Square had to be taken down, because Clinton had eliminated it. There was also trillions more in state public pension funds. Grover Norquist, architect of Bush's economic policy, had his eye on this money as well.
George Bush has followed to the letter the first two planks of Norquist's three-step formula for transforming government. First, he has radically cut taxes, especially to the rich, thus creating huge deficits. Secondly, he has used these deficits as an excuse to slash non-defence spending.
Now is the time for the third step. State by state, Norquist told the Nation's Robert Dreyfus, and at the federal level, he and Bush will be dismantling and privatizing public pension funds and "liberating" the trillions of dollars now held in trust for retirees. Referring to those who believe in public services such as public pension funds, Norquist stated, "We want to take that power and destroy it." (3)
When Stephen Harper first took office there was a surplus of 13 billion dollars. Since then his government "has followed to the letter the first two planks of Norquist's three-step formula for transforming government. First, he has radically cut taxes, especially to the rich, thus creating huge deficits. "
The Harper government's Halloween mini-budget contains corporate tax cuts that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty boasts are "much deeper and much faster than ever contemplated before". By 2012, the corporate tax rate will drop to 15% - almost half the 28% rate in 2000. The small business tax rate will fall to 11%. What's it worth? More than $13 billion annually in lost revenue: enough to pay for the previous Liberal government's child care deals, the Kelowna Accord with original Peoples, the Canada-Ontario Agreement, and the offshore arrangements, which would have cost $5 billion over 5 years (CLC Submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee 2007 Pre-Budget Consultations). How low can we go? According to Flaherty, the goal is to lower Canada's corporate tax rates below every industrialized country in the world. That's something, considering that our combined federal/provincial corporate tax rate of 36% is already lower than Japan (41%), USA (40%), Germany (38%), and Italy (37%). Among the G-7 countries, only France (33%) and the UK (30%) are lower. (4)
Despite this:
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the federal government will run deficits until at least 2015 -- two years longer than originally forecast. (5)
And this:
Canada's richest are getting richer: Given the tumultuous economy, we might have expected another year of the rich bleeding money, but they are actually making it - a lot of it. The wealthy Thomson clan is at the top of Canadian Business magazine's 11th annual RICH 100 ranking, having amassed roughly $21.99 billion, up 19% over last year. But that growth rate is nothing compared with Ivanhoe mining executive Robert Friedland's. The ranking's highest climber this year, his worth rose 217% to $1.59 billion and he jumped 61 spots to No. 32 in the RICH 100. (6)
But he will do this:
Faced with the largest federal deficit in history, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he will start looking for programs to axe and government assets to sell off as soon as the economy recovers."It's necessary for restraint to happen" to rein in Ottawa's spending, Flaherty told the Toronto Star in a year-end interview. (7)
It's all about reducing the government's capacity to take care of it's citizens. If they can spend the cupboard bare, they can use that as an excuse to cut programs.
"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Grover Norquist
"Whether Canada ends up as one national government or two national governments or several national governments, or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion… And whether Canada ends up with one national government or two governments or ten governments, the Canadian people will require less government no matter what the constitutional status or arrangement of any future country may be." Stephen Harper
It's about tearing down not building.
Sources:
1. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 416-417
2. Corrupt American-style capitalism: The Haves and the Have-Mores, George Bush, speaking at an $800 per plate fundraiser, October, 2000
3. Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America, By Maude Barlow, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 0-7710-1088-5, Pg. 54
4. FLAHERTY DELIVERS HUGE CORPORATE TAX CUT, By Liz Rowle, The People's Voice, November 2007
I recently mentioned that Jason Kenney's Canadian Taxpayer Federation was going to spend a lot of their tax-free dollars to push for an end to the gun registry. However, I've recently learned, that despite the fact that Canada's police chiefs say the gun registry is vital, the Reform-Conservatives will be running attack ads against any MPs who support our Chiefs of Police.
Of course, only in rural areas. They wouldn't dare pull that crap in urban centres, where gun control is a huge issue.
Just when you thought they couldn't be anymore un-Canadian, they outdo themselves. Unbelievable! Why don't we just start flying the stars and stripes and be done with it!
Conservatives are ramping up their fight to kill the gun registry with a series of hard-hitting ads targeting a dozen or more opposition MPs, Sun Media has learned. The series of radio spots to hit airwaves Monday will directly call on Liberal and NDP MPs in designated rural ridings to stand up for their constituents in a Nov. 4 vote to repeal the registry.
Conservatives expect the vote on C-391, a private member’s bill sponsored by Manitoba Tory MP Candice Hoeppner, will be “very close” due to vacancies in the House of Commons. While the objective of the ad buy is to twist the arms of some MPs, Conservatives also warn the recorded votes will be fodder for the next election campaign if C-391 is defeated.
AND THIS IS DEMOCRACY? I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe the opposition members should record the votes of Reform-Conservatives running in Urban ridings.
