60 Reasons to dump Harper
HARPER WATCH COUNTDOWN / Queers and allies should be very worried
By: Marcus McCann
Xtra.ca / Vancouver Xtra
May 21, 2007
EXCERPT

.... Just 15 months into his mandate, and in a delicate minority Parliament, he's doing all those things -- and more. Harper and his cabinet have been slowly -- quietly -- changing the way Canada is run. But many changes don't get headlines, because they don't require legislation to pass through Parliament. That's because government policies can be changed directly from the Prime Minister's Office -- and policies affect the kind of Canada we live in much more than legislation does. That Canadians haven't noticed -- or else are willfully blind -- proves it really has been a con job.

Starting on April fool's day (not an accident) and for the next two months, xtra.ca brings you a countdown of 60 of the ways Harper is reshaping Canada in his own image.

#46: MESSAGE TO WIFEY: STAY AT HOME

At least two recent announcements by the Harper government are designed to keep women at home. The first was the 2007 budget, which disproportionately rewards married couples where one partner earns most or all of the income. These breaks shift the trade-off for women who are already at home in the direction of staying there -- and even rewards partners who work part time for quitting to stay at home.

The second is the $1200 child care benefit for children under six. While doing virtually nothing for those moms who work -- where can you find child care for $25 a week? -- the plan was a hit with those already staying at home with their kids. When it one nearly universal approval from ultra-con so-called family values leaders last fall, one had to wonder what they were actually applauding: tax breaks or social engineering?

#42: $22 BILLION, UNSPENT, USED TO PAY DOWN DEBT

We're one of the only countries in the world doing it. By any traditional economic measure, when an economy like Canada's stops adding to its debt, the debt shrinks. The debt-to-GDP ratio shrinks. The comparative debt load shrinks (compared to other nations, or compared to other industrialized nations). Economists have traditionally held that balancing the federal books is the best way to handle the debt.

Still, after a billion dollars in ideological cuts last fall and handouts to stay-at-home moms this spring, Stephen Harper has decided in February that the best use for $9.2-billion of federally-collected taxes is to sink them into the debt.

That's less than six months after earmarking another $13.2 billion for debt reduction in 2006.

That's at a time when over 90 per cent of Canadians think we should be doing more for our poor. That's when cities, squeezed by years of federal and provincial off-loading, are scraping the bottom of the barrel to pay for basic services. Taxing Canadians and putting the money into debt reduction is silly -- this is a two-strikes-you're-out game.

#18: HARPER'S FAMILY RHETORIC IS INSULTING TO QUEER PARENTS

The branding of Harper's SoCon agenda as "family values" -- as an excuse to trounce the rights of women, gays and the poor -- is just another example of twisted Conservative logic.

In the wake of a 100-study analysis of the scientific evidence, he can't deny what we knew all along: that gay parents are just as good, if not better, than straight parents. Harper's fear mongering be darned.

And yes, we're waiting for an apology from him. But we're not holding our breath.