Stephen Harper did a whistlestop in neighbouring Burnaby Monday.
Not surprisingly he tried stoking all sorts of fears in one jam-packed stump speech.
If you don’t vote for the Conservatives you just might see the end of Canadian society as we know it. Well, we could argue that we are already seeing that thanks to the Conservatives, but let’s just put aside that stingy thought for a moment.
Harper’s platform of more security – and no, not the social security kind that keeps more kids from going to sleep at night hungry, or the kind that allows First Nations people to have secure, safe, drinking water – no, he’s saying that only the Conservatives can keep us all safe from terrorists running amuck in Canada. That kind of security.
Really?
The irony of his statements are not lost on the Canadian veterans who have been fighting for years with the Conservatives to simply get what they deserve for actually serving their country.
Harper told the audience in Burnaby, “Friends, this is the world we live in: a difficult and dangerous uncertain place and yet through it all, through it all over these last few years, there are no better economic fundamentals, there are no better economic prospects, there has been no better place to be in a troubled world than this island of stability, our country, Canada.”
For Harper to take credit for Canada’s place in the world, given that our standing in so many ways has dropped, seems, well, audacious to say the least.
Of course, this is what the guy has to do to get votes. Get them thinking that Canada would be in worse shape without him than with him. Get them to forget about Senate scandals, muzzling Canadian scientists, gutting environmental standards, ignoring climate change, rolling back seniors’ pensions, etc. etc.
Can he do it? Can fearmongering overpower hope?
Sadly, it can.
One only has to look at our southern neighbours to see how people are clamouring for easy anti-immigration answers in the form of Donald Trump.
Isolationism and a superiority complex will not solve any of the problems we face as a planet. And any leader who promises security and economic stability in this day and age is surely promising something that he cannot guarantee. When China slumps, we all slump, and no political leaders can protect us from that global reality.
But surely we deserve more than fear-mongering. That is not leadership.
