The revolution comes in on tiptoe. It enters quietly, finds a corner and begins to set about its business.
It aims not to alarm.
So it is with Stephen Harper. A year into his first-ever majority government, Canada’s controversial Conservative prime minister is still operating much as if he commanded only a minority.
True, his style remains aggressive. Harper’s take-no-prisoners attitude toward parliamentary opponents continues unabated.
Thus those who dare question the Conservatives for their role in the so-called robocall affair — in which some voters were deliberately misled about where to cast ballots in last May’s general election — are dismissed as purveyors of “baseless smears.”
On one particularly bizarre day in the Commons, Conservative MPs repeatedly accused the New Democrats of being soft on Hitler.
But, as he was in the minority period, Harper is far more careful in his dealings with the public.
His government’s budget, which sets out the Conservative agenda for the next few years — and which is now being debated in Parliament — is deliberately elliptical.
On the macro-economic side, it is resolutely orthodox. After two years of fiscal expansion designed to deal with the recession, it lays out a series of relatively modest spending cuts designed to bring the government’s finances gradually back into balance.
The Liberals and New Democrats may quibble with the specifics, timing or scale. They might prefer to include corporate tax hikes in the mix.
But both opposition parties know that, had they been in government, they would have followed the same broad strokes.
What’s important in the budget, however — and in the omnibus bill emanating from it that is currently being rammed through the House — are not broad strokes but details. It is these details that the government deliberately downplays.
One section of the bill, for instance, repeals the entire Environmental Assessment Act.
It replaces it with another that gives cabinet the authority to press ahead with mega-projects that it wants, regardless of their environmental effects.
The bill also includes seemingly minor amendments to the Fisheries Act that would remove federal protection from a great swath of environmentally sensitive wetlands.
Another unadvertised section would repeal the federal Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act. That act requires contractors working on federal projects to pay reasonable wages. Its elimination has been lauded by non-union shops.
Yet another so-called technical amendment would reduce the number of jobless who get Employment Insurance. The mechanism here is complicated, but the net effect would be to give cabinet the authority to override the courts in determining who is eligible for EI.
I’ve written before of the government’s decision to make seemingly minor changes to rules governing temporary foreign workers. The effect here too is to put downward pressure on wages.
And that’s really the point. The Harper revolution has never been about abortion or gay rights. This prime minister has little interest in social conservatism.
Rather, the revolution is economic. It is aimed at eliminating regulations — particularly environmental regulations — that interfere in profit-making. It is aimed at reducing wages (which is why the Conservatives take swipes at unions whenever possible). It is aimed at scaling back any social programs — from Old Age Security to Employment Insurance — that help keep wages up.
The revolutionaries dream of a day when the elderly, energized by the reductions in their pensions, will be vying for jobs at Walmart.
But it is a stealthy revolution. The country must remain complacent. Otherwise, we might object.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Thomas Walkom
It aims not to alarm.
So it is with Stephen Harper. A year into his first-ever majority government, Canada’s controversial Conservative prime minister is still operating much as if he commanded only a minority.
True, his style remains aggressive. Harper’s take-no-prisoners attitude toward parliamentary opponents continues unabated.
Thus those who dare question the Conservatives for their role in the so-called robocall affair — in which some voters were deliberately misled about where to cast ballots in last May’s general election — are dismissed as purveyors of “baseless smears.”
On one particularly bizarre day in the Commons, Conservative MPs repeatedly accused the New Democrats of being soft on Hitler.
But, as he was in the minority period, Harper is far more careful in his dealings with the public.
His government’s budget, which sets out the Conservative agenda for the next few years — and which is now being debated in Parliament — is deliberately elliptical.
On the macro-economic side, it is resolutely orthodox. After two years of fiscal expansion designed to deal with the recession, it lays out a series of relatively modest spending cuts designed to bring the government’s finances gradually back into balance.
The Liberals and New Democrats may quibble with the specifics, timing or scale. They might prefer to include corporate tax hikes in the mix.
But both opposition parties know that, had they been in government, they would have followed the same broad strokes.
What’s important in the budget, however — and in the omnibus bill emanating from it that is currently being rammed through the House — are not broad strokes but details. It is these details that the government deliberately downplays.
One section of the bill, for instance, repeals the entire Environmental Assessment Act.
It replaces it with another that gives cabinet the authority to press ahead with mega-projects that it wants, regardless of their environmental effects.
The bill also includes seemingly minor amendments to the Fisheries Act that would remove federal protection from a great swath of environmentally sensitive wetlands.
Another unadvertised section would repeal the federal Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act. That act requires contractors working on federal projects to pay reasonable wages. Its elimination has been lauded by non-union shops.
Yet another so-called technical amendment would reduce the number of jobless who get Employment Insurance. The mechanism here is complicated, but the net effect would be to give cabinet the authority to override the courts in determining who is eligible for EI.
I’ve written before of the government’s decision to make seemingly minor changes to rules governing temporary foreign workers. The effect here too is to put downward pressure on wages.
And that’s really the point. The Harper revolution has never been about abortion or gay rights. This prime minister has little interest in social conservatism.
Rather, the revolution is economic. It is aimed at eliminating regulations — particularly environmental regulations — that interfere in profit-making. It is aimed at reducing wages (which is why the Conservatives take swipes at unions whenever possible). It is aimed at scaling back any social programs — from Old Age Security to Employment Insurance — that help keep wages up.
The revolutionaries dream of a day when the elderly, energized by the reductions in their pensions, will be vying for jobs at Walmart.
But it is a stealthy revolution. The country must remain complacent. Otherwise, we might object.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Thomas Walkom
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