Harper a dangerous ideologue
Trail Daily Times
December 9, 2008
By: Bud and Ann Godderis, Castlegar

It was obvious from the recently tabled Financial Update that Prime Minister Harper simply could not resist following the dictates of his economic guru, Milton Friedman, who instructed his followers to take advantage of (or even create) crises to push forward an agenda that voters would not tolerate in "normal' times.

In this case, we learned of plans to accelerate the process of privatization by selling off Crown corporations and federal property, to reduce the power of opposition parties by cutting funding, to limit the power of organized labour by suspending the right to strike for federal government employees, and other measures that received little publicity but were equally disturbing.

Not one of these proposals had anything to do with stimulating the economy but everything to do with Harper's economic goals of deregulation, privatization and reducing the ability of government to redistribute wealth and enhance the "common good" in Canada and internationally….

It is interesting to note that, according to recent research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 88 per cent of Canadians believe that if the government took concrete action, poverty in Canada could be greatly reduced.

The study also reports: "Across Canada there is majority support to raise the minimum wage, improve income support programs to help poor families with the costs of raising children, create more low-cost child care spaces, create more affordable housing, make sure welfare rates keep up with the cost of living and invest in more jobs and skills training for people who are in between jobs."…