Day 16: August 17, 2015: Reasons NOT to Vote CON #'s 376 to 400

376. The Harper Regime has given permission to Shell Oil to drill off Nova Scotia's coast for oil. GET THIS: to save stocking emergency equipment, Shell does NOT have to cap an oil blowout for TWENTY-ONE DAYS, (yes, three weeks)! Harper has allowed Shell the possibility to freely spill oil into the ocean for almost a month; wreaking environmental havoc on Nova Scotia's amazing marine life, major fishing grounds, coastal communities and the Sable Island National Park Reserve, the world's largest breeding colony of grey seals. And Harper's deal is so Shell can save a few bucks by not having to keep safety equipment nearby! In comparison, the U.S. requires oil companies to cap blowouts within 24 hours. Just where is the nearest capping equipment? NORWAY!!! An ocean and 5,000 kilometres away! Shell wants to drill up to seven exploratory wells, which are especially risky and prone to large spills, off the coast of Nova Scotia in the next four years. If a blowout did happen, it would be catastrophic for Nova Scotia's major fishing grounds. Haddock, lobster and crab stocks would be at risk, as would whales, dolphins, sharks, sea turtles and hundreds of species of migratory birds. IT GETS WORSE: some of the backup safety equipment is located in SOUTH AFRICA, a staggering 12,000 kilometres away.

Possibly coming to Nova Scotia, thanks to the Harper Regime: this is the April, 2010 explosion at British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico which has done irreparable harm to the environment, tourism and jobs. It killed 11 workers.

377. The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, which represents Canada’s prison guards, is urging its 7,500 members NOT to vote for Harper and the CONs in Election 2015. Jason Godin, National Vice President at the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers stated, “They’ve done more damage in three years than any government has done in our entire history. We’re reaching crisis proportions in terms of double-bunking, and [the government] just completely ignores all the research. When they get tough on crime, they get tough on correctional officers. At the same time they’re making our working conditions get more dangerous, they’re gutting the Canada Labour Code, which is the most important piece of protection that we have. In ten years time, Canadians are gonna go, ‘Oh my God what just happened?’ Because all of those people they’re putting in jail, guess what? 80 per cent of them are going to get out.” Although the union’s constitution forbids the guards from endorsing political parties, Godin said he will be encouraging his members to vote against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2015.

378. Harper's Employment Minister, CON MP Jason Kenney offended tens of thousands of unemployed Canadians on August 1, 2104 when he Twittered, "Do Labour Shortages Exist in Canada?" Why would Canada’s Employment Minister openly and offhandedly offend SO MANY Canadians on that very large and well read social network system? Jason Kenny's MAIN RESPONSIBILITY as Canada's Employment Minister IS jobs and he treated these hurting Canadians coast to coast to coast with ZERO ETHICS and COMPLETE IRRESPONSIBLY. What a mess. And it got worse! Tens of thousands of Canada’s unemployed are in serious financial difficulty and are being refused Employment Insurance! Harper robbed the Employment Insurance Fund in a futile attempt to balance his budget; instead of paying Canada's Unemployed what was rightfully theirs! 

379. Harper Employment Minister, CON MP Jason Kenney and Fraser Institute Senior Fellow Mark Milke battle in a PUBLIC TWITTER SLUG FEST over the Temporary Foreign Worker Program!

380. Harper SCREWS Liberal Ridings BIG TIME on government perks handouts! CON and NDP Ridings get biggest shares of the Perks Pie, BY FAR!

381. Harper DESTROYED 48-year-old Terry Potvin's life by handing his "Criminal Record" over to the USA. Decades ago, Potvin had been arrested with a small amount of “crappy hash oil” when he and his pals were searched outside a pool hall. He acknowledges that at 19-years-old he was “being young and dumb,” BUT he got a conditional discharge, two years probation, and NO criminal record! The USA refused him entry which has cost him his career. The now 48-year-old Wasaga Beach auto parts executive and father of two is so squeaky clean that he had no idea why he was pulled over for secondary screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. All he knew was that being grilled for six hours about his past was going to make him late for his business trip to Nashville as part of the new job he’d started just two weeks before as lead quality engineer. He had to call his new boss and tell him that he wasn’t being allowed into the U.S. because of a three-decade old pot charge. Potvin understood when his employer had to let him go because of his travel problems. Another position with an auto parts company also fell through when he told them he couldn’t go into the States.

382. Harper the Hypocrite hosted the "Saving Every Woman, Every Child" global summit on maternal, newborn and child health in Toronto from May 28 to 30, 2014.  Very nice. At the Summit, Harper announced Canada's commitment of $3.5 billion to improve the health of mothers and children for the period of 2015–2020 and to support global efforts to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborn and children younger than age five. Also very, very nice! On September 25, 2014, during his address at the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Harper also announced that Canada, along with its partners, had founded the Global Financing Facility for Every Woman Every Child, in order to provide the critical financial infrastructure to mobilize the capital to improve health services for women and children, and would contribute $200 million in its support from its $3.5 billion five year commitment.  Even nicer Harper! BUT BUT BUT! Here's the Harper HYPOCRISY: during his speech, when donating billions of dollars to this cause,  Harper stated, "There is a moral imperative to saving the lives of vulnerable women and children in some of the poorest countries around the world when it is in our power to do so." SAY WHAT HARPER! Why do you commit BILLIONS of dollars and see the moral imperative for women and children around the world but you do NOT see the moral imperative, or commit a dime, for an Inquiry for Missing & Murdered Women and Children in your own country!

383. Harper racially SLURRED every Muslim in the world in a CBC interview with Peter Mansbridge, referring to their religion as "Islamicism" and warning they are terrorists. The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada immediately urged Muslims to speak out against Harper's remarks about their religion.The council said Harper's words damaged efforts to bridge cultural gaps and fight extremist activities in Canada. It wanted Imams in its affiliated mosques to condemn the comments prayer gatherings.The council also urged Canadians to contact the Harper's office to demand an apology for "insulting the faith of 1,600,000,000 Muslims worldwide. "How can Mr. Harper associate Islam with radicalism and fanaticism?" the group asked in a statement."We are working hard to bring people of all faiths together to fight extremism and radicalism but Mr. Harper's comments about Islam have damaged those efforts."

384. Harper's inexperience, government waste, and ineptness was reflected perfectly in his CON-highly-touted, but Titanic-like, disastrous maternity leave Employment Insurance Preggie Programme for self-employed business people. This stupidity was a major and integral part of Harper's vote-getting strategy of the 2008 CON election platform, which many voters bought into; hook, line and sinker. (Seriously: if Harper says a CON scheme will work, some people actually believe him!)  Well, read on. Harper SHOULD have consulted experts, including self-employed business people FIRST. In one minute he'd have learned he would WASTE tens of millions of dollars. (Then again, he does not consult with scientists on scientific matters ...) Harper would have learned that hard-working, self-employed Canadians take as LITTLE TIME OFF as possible. It is the nature of their SUCCESS. But Harper, who shuts down Parliament at will when he is a failure, (repeatedly sending 308 highly-paid MPs home), wouldn't comprehend the nature of self-employment: to keep it successful you MUST keep working. This proves that his ineptness is another factor in how Harper destroyed Canada's once-Liberal-rich Treasury; by proroguing Parliament at will. From documents obtained through the Access to Information Act, Harper's idiotic and highly touted Preggie Programme, (administered by Harper's ring-kisser, then Employment Minister, CON MP Pierre "Skippy" Poilievre, who has never worked in business), INSERT: [but has nice hair though], which promised to be a "self-paying" CON scheme, actually COST hard-working Canadian Taxpayers millions of dollars! Harper and Skippy told Canadians an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 pregnant Canadians would sign up. It has been learned 2,316 claims were filed, worth $21,100,000 in benefits. The CON participation projections were out by 99.5 PER CENT! How much did this "self-paying" CON scheme cost to administer? $39,600,000! Harper's lack of business knowledge cost hard-working Canadians $18,500,000! And RIGHT now, during the summer and fall of 2015, Harper is going coast to coast to coast touting new, UNTRIED programmes. Again! After this schmozzle, which helped to blow away a Treasury filled by the Liberals with tens of billions of dollars, Harper does not have an ounce of credibility left!

385.  Harper's Director of Political Operations, CON Fred DeLorey, sent a letter nationwide to all CON voters asking them to donate five bucks to the CON Party because, (are you ready for this?), the Toronto Star called Harper a sociopath. Seriously, the Toronto Star said Harper has "Harper’s dead sociopathic eyes." Actually, Mr. DeLorey had a very valid point. If the Toronto Star had done any research they would have learned that sociopaths are FOLLOWERS. Sociopaths FOLLOW psychopaths. Psychopaths do the leading.

386. Harper's poorly vetted and ridiculous Senate appointments cost hard-working Canadian taxpayers $1,000,000 in RCMP fees and expenses to investigate Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau!

387. Harper's HYPOCRISY could BACKFIRE because of his CON Caucus CON Johns: Harper passed Bill C-36, his new, oppressive Prostitution Law which targets "Johns" or men who use Sexual Workers. Harper wants to eliminate the world's oldest profession from Canadian soil. In fact, Sexual Workers claim Harper has done nothing but make their profession highly more dangerous. Under oath, in a Senate Committee Hearing, (from which she was tossed by CON Chairman of the committee, Senator Bob Runciman), retired dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford testified that many of Harper's CON MPs are in fact CON Johns, regularly using sexual workers in Ottawa when they are sitting, away from their wives. (Or would that be lying?) Under oath, Ms. Bedford claimed she has all the CON Johns' names, and threatened to release them to the public. Is this CON JOHN threat why so many "rats have jumped ship"? Many political junkie inquiring minds want to know.

388. Harper's Vetting skills are ridiculous. He has appointed:

Patrick Brazeau - criminally charged, assault, drug possession

Pamela Wallin – under RCMP investigation

Michael Sona - criminally convicted, election fraud

Arthur Porter- charges pending, fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, since deceased.

Vic Toews- convicted for violating Manitoba Election Law, affair with nanny.

Bev Oda- resigned after lavish expenses

Mike Duffy - criminally charged, fraud

Nigel Wright - resigned after Duffy payoff

John Duncan - resigned after writing to Tax Court, ignored State of Emergency- Attawapiskat

Bruce Carson - already convicted of fraud, charged again in 2012 for influence peddling

Julian Fantino- demoted from cabinet post for incompetence.

Irving Gerstein- charged for violating Elections Act, charges dropped when Tories paid $52,000 fine Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu – Under investigation, senate expenses

Nathan Jacobson – criminally charged, fraud, racketeering

Peter Penashue - resigned because of illegal campaign contributions.

Dean Del Mastro- criminally convicted for election fraud.

Saulie Zajdel – MP candidate/on James Moore's staff, convicted of corruption and breach of trust.

Don Meredith – had affair with a minor.

389. Cape Breton Veterans, under the hard-working Veteran Ron Clarke, organizing Veterans NOT to vote for Harper in Election 2015

390. Harper HYPOCRISY: went all goo-goo over history when Franklin's ship was located, this ... after DESTROYING libraries, archives and historical documents! Where's the sense in that?

391. Harper does not understand Ontario

392. Harper's CON MP Christian Paradis BARRED Natural Resources Canada Scientist Scott Dallimore from talking to the Press about floods that occurred 13,000 years ago, citing that subject had wide-ranging implications. AND ONLY THEN, when allowed, the press conference had to be FIXED with pre-arranged questions and proposed responses!

393. Harper SECRETLY signed the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, LOCKING IN Canada for 31 years! On this THIRTY-ONE YEAR agreement, Harper allowed just ONE HOUR of discussion at the trade committee, NO vote in Parliament, and NO public consultations. Canadians buying a wide-screen TV are more meticulous! Is it any surprise Harper's style of vetting has brought so many crooks into the Senate and Prime Minister's Office?

394. Harper MUZZLED Kristi Miller, Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist, on her groundbreaking and complex research into the decline of Pacific salmon stock

395. Harper's War on Science brings Canada international shame

396. CBC's Steven Guiton, the Crown corporation's Vice-president of Technology and Chief Regulatory Officer told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that Canadians should pay for CBC broadcasting. What a coincidence! Harper has been eliminating CBC's Federal funding.

397. Harper advised Federal civil servants that he intends to cancel their $5 billion in sick leave and disability insurance already earned. Their union believes Harper will use a budget bill to unilaterally impose a sick leave deal before the courts determine whether the legislation is constitutional.

398. Harper's Chief Policy Analyst and troubleshooter from 2006 to 2008, Bruce Carson, charged with influence peddling.

399. Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Frechette threatens to take Harper to court for lack of transparency and accountibility.

400. Harper CORRUPTION: The CONs tried to undermine, interfere with, take over, falsely obtain union funding and destabilize University Campus Student Unions across Ontario, according to documents released by Wikileaks. Shelley Melanson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, when advised of the leaked strategy, stated, "Campus students' unions are there to represent students and should be free from the partisan interference of federal and provincial parties. The contribution of students' unions and OPIRGs to the broader social justice movement in Ontario is important and it's disturbing to think that Canada's governing party would use its resources to undermine democratic student organizations in this way."

ref: 1902/1926