Five out of ten Canadians are women. Only two out of ten are politicians. It is a fact that women are purposely kept out of politics by a male-dominated culture. What will your party do to ensure that at least 50% of your MP are women?
According to Mr. Harper, the economy is Canada's greatest concern. When we measure success in terms of income and then average that out among the 34 million Canadians, we find that Canada's few billionaires and millionaires offset the millions of people living in poverty. When we measure success in terms of happiness, we find that Canada is far from being the 'great' country leaders claim to be so 'proud' of. What will your party do, apart from cheap handouts, to change this false image and face up to the increasing poverty levels a growing number of Canadian families live in today?
Here are some questions prepared for the 'All Candidates' Meeting'. Some have been devised by others. The ones highlighted have been formulated by WAP
1) Stephen Harper has stated that a government under his leadership would defend Israel "whatever the cost". Why should Canadians vote for a government that will put the security of a foreign country above all else?
2) Today, the most troubling problem for Canadian Muslims is Islamophobia. If elected member of parliament, what specific actions would you take to protect Canadian Muslims from Islamophobia?
3) No matter which Conservative website one goes to, or the print media, Radio talk shows or Evangelical Christian broadcasting, we are inundated with considerable hate messages and anti-Muslim bigotry. As an example, one website called "Canadian Conservatives" has a section entitled "Islam is Evil". As a Conservative Party Member, what specific actions will you take to eradicate this intolerance?
3) No matter which Conservative website one goes to, or the print media, Radio talk shows or Evangelical Christian broadcasting, we are inundated with considerable hate messages and anti-Muslim bigotry. As an example, one website called "Canadian Conservatives" has a section entitled "Islam is Evil". As a Conservative Party Member, what specific actions will you take to eradicate this intolerance?
4) Why, in your opinion, did Canada lose the vote to be on the United Nations Security Council for the first time in our history?
5) Does your party support maintaining and enhancing the various services of the national public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada?
6) Based on his own story, Mr.Ignatieff is part American, part Israeli, and part Canadian. He said :“Nobody needs to tell me what Israel stands for because I’ve lived there, and I know it, and I have close Israeli friends who fought for their country, so this is a country that I have a personal acquaintance with that’s a vibrant, turbulent, democratic state. What I love about Israel is the argument in Israel and the freedom in Israel. You can count on me to defend that kind of state forever.”
Obviously, Mr. Ignatieff is in direct competition with Harper to serve the interests of a foreign state, which has committed many war crimes and in violation of international law, UN Resolutions, human rights and all in all, a contradiction to all values Canadians hold close to our hearts. Why should Canadians elect a man as Prime Minister, whose primary loyalty seems to be to another state?
7) It is still fresh in our collective memories that the NDP is the party, that punished Svend Robinson in 2002 (with then leader Alexa McDonough removing him as parliamentary critic for the Middle East) after he referred to Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians as terrorist actions, and criticized the erstwhile imperial ally for engaging in murder and torture.
When Libby Davies genuinely mistook the date of Israeli occupation, she was accused of "denying Israel's the right to exist". She was hounded not only by Harper and his party and the Liberals, but also by NDP's own deputy leader Thomas Mulcair, one of NDP's vociferous supporters of Israel in the NDP caucus. Thomas Mulcair, escalated it out of control and went on a relentless campaign to punish Libby.
Can you tell us if the policies of the NDP which Canadians have come to love, respect and appreciate are in decline, and why should Canadians choose a party which is now moving away from its lofty ideals?
8)When Harper took over power, he inherited a surplus of $16 billion, which he turned into a deficit of $55 billion.
He spent $18 Billion on fighting America's war on Afghanistan, $75 billion on a bail-out package for the banks, $1.2 billion on the G-20 boondoggle, and now proposes to spend $30 billion on the purchase of Lockheed Martin, F-35 warplanes, without a public tender or any discussion in parliament.
With the ballooning deficit, despite massive revenue from the sale of our natural resources, why should Canadians trust the Harper government to manage our economy, when our children and their children may inherit a bankrupt coffer?
9) Canada's health care system was the envy of the world, but it is now in a state of dis-repair, with many patients needing urgent healthcare / surgeries having to wait for months, and hospitals running out of beds, tying up the ambulances, which, thus cannot be dispatched to pickup Canadians faced with emergencies and so on. While this being the case, Harper's Conservative Party has in its agenda*, a healthcare system that is 100% privatized.(*Page 31, of Conservative Manifesto, ironically entitled "A Canada Strong and Free").
Moreover, the Canada Health Accord expires in 2014, but the Harper government wants to have the unelected senators to review it.
How do you think that the unelected senators would know the needs of the citizens (voters), if the M.P.'s aren't the ones reviewing the accord?
10) The Harper government has flouted international law by refusing to repatriate Omar Khadar, a Canadian child-soldier, who was left to rot in Guantanamo Bay, even though all other countries retrieved their citizens from this illegal hell-hole.
What measures would your party take to never have a repeat of this crass abandonment of one of its citizens?
6) Based on his own story, Mr.Ignatieff is part American, part Israeli, and part Canadian. He said :“Nobody needs to tell me what Israel stands for because I’ve lived there, and I know it, and I have close Israeli friends who fought for their country, so this is a country that I have a personal acquaintance with that’s a vibrant, turbulent, democratic state. What I love about Israel is the argument in Israel and the freedom in Israel. You can count on me to defend that kind of state forever.”
Obviously, Mr. Ignatieff is in direct competition with Harper to serve the interests of a foreign state, which has committed many war crimes and in violation of international law, UN Resolutions, human rights and all in all, a contradiction to all values Canadians hold close to our hearts. Why should Canadians elect a man as Prime Minister, whose primary loyalty seems to be to another state?
7) It is still fresh in our collective memories that the NDP is the party, that punished Svend Robinson in 2002 (with then leader Alexa McDonough removing him as parliamentary critic for the Middle East) after he referred to Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians as terrorist actions, and criticized the erstwhile imperial ally for engaging in murder and torture.
When Libby Davies genuinely mistook the date of Israeli occupation, she was accused of "denying Israel's the right to exist". She was hounded not only by Harper and his party and the Liberals, but also by NDP's own deputy leader Thomas Mulcair, one of NDP's vociferous supporters of Israel in the NDP caucus. Thomas Mulcair, escalated it out of control and went on a relentless campaign to punish Libby.
Can you tell us if the policies of the NDP which Canadians have come to love, respect and appreciate are in decline, and why should Canadians choose a party which is now moving away from its lofty ideals?
8)When Harper took over power, he inherited a surplus of $16 billion, which he turned into a deficit of $55 billion.
He spent $18 Billion on fighting America's war on Afghanistan, $75 billion on a bail-out package for the banks, $1.2 billion on the G-20 boondoggle, and now proposes to spend $30 billion on the purchase of Lockheed Martin, F-35 warplanes, without a public tender or any discussion in parliament.
With the ballooning deficit, despite massive revenue from the sale of our natural resources, why should Canadians trust the Harper government to manage our economy, when our children and their children may inherit a bankrupt coffer?
9) Canada's health care system was the envy of the world, but it is now in a state of dis-repair, with many patients needing urgent healthcare / surgeries having to wait for months, and hospitals running out of beds, tying up the ambulances, which, thus cannot be dispatched to pickup Canadians faced with emergencies and so on. While this being the case, Harper's Conservative Party has in its agenda*, a healthcare system that is 100% privatized.(*Page 31, of Conservative Manifesto, ironically entitled "A Canada Strong and Free").
Moreover, the Canada Health Accord expires in 2014, but the Harper government wants to have the unelected senators to review it.
How do you think that the unelected senators would know the needs of the citizens (voters), if the M.P.'s aren't the ones reviewing the accord?
10) The Harper government has flouted international law by refusing to repatriate Omar Khadar, a Canadian child-soldier, who was left to rot in Guantanamo Bay, even though all other countries retrieved their citizens from this illegal hell-hole.
What measures would your party take to never have a repeat of this crass abandonment of one of its citizens?
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Published February 7, 2011