Margaret Atwood thinks Canada needs to set up a dictat-o-meter.
Similar to the famous clock that counted down the seconds to nuclear Armageddon, this clock would grade how close Canada creeps toward a dictatorship...
Because we’re just about there.
We had very early indicators of where harper was headed when he did not appoint a deputy prime minister.
One oddly common trait among dictatorships: The dictator almost never has a named successor. Most democracies have something like a vice president, to take over if the president dies. Dictators don't want their opponents to know who would succeed them.
Since becoming PM, harper has wasted no time in establishing a totalitarian, dictatorship type of control. Dictatorships limit freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of opposition political parties, independence of courts, free and regular elections.
Since harper took power, he has been focused on one thing - getting all of it, with no chance of effective opposition.
He has been replacing key people in the public service, the courts, the military, and oversight agencies.
He has limited access to information.
He has divided the country, causing us to fight each other rather than his undermining of democracy.
He has encouraged an us-and-them mentality between police forces and the public, and the military and the public, causing a shift from serve and protect the public to viewing the public as the enemy, potential criminals who rather than be protected must be constrained.
He has limited freedom of speech by treating peaceful protesters as criminals, harassing and smearing people who speak out, punishing civil servants who speak the truth.
The more time he has to erode systems which are meant to protect our rights, the more difficult it will be to reverse that damage.
If we think harper thumbs his nose at our laws, rights, and Parliamentary system now, give him a little more time and not all of our shock and anger will be of avail because we’ll have no effective way of expressing it. Not through protests, not through our vote which will become useless, not through our rights which will have been so altered that they will be weapons to control us rather than protect us.
We have to get this guy out. Now.
2 comments:
Setting up a dictat-o-meter is a good idea. And I am tempted to ask how it can be done but I realize it is the Canadian people who should be the barometers of the abuse of its leader. So, in this case I believe people should express their views and opinions to reveal that our leader is already becoming a dictator.
if polls set up a wide enough range of questions that could come together to give an overall question, it would indicate some of how people feel we're headed that way. oo narrow, then we'd probably end up with a reflection of who supports harper as opposed to those who don't.
Sad thing, it seems like a comical idea on the surface, but there's no doubt our democracy is very unhealthy and the PM holds too much power with little effective challenge.
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