When talking about who they believe in an TV interview a voter once said “I was always taught, that when I want to evaluate someone I don’t know that well I should look at their friends.”

Well, since I don’t know Stephen Harper that well (because he hides from the media most of the time.) I thought I would evaluate his advisers, and some of the people he has appointed to the Prime Ministers Office to see what they say about him. When you look at these names prominent names in the intellectual community jump out at you. Names such as Ted Morton, Ian Brodie, Barry Cooper, David Bercuson, and Tom Flanagan.

What do all of these people have in common with each other and Mr. Harper? Well they are all products of the infamous Calgary School. These are a group of prominent Canadian political scientists and economists who share a common neo-conservative and straussian belief system.

As a primer for what a Straussian is basically : Strauss had a deep antipathy towards liberal democracy and its supposed moral relativism. He had a number of jarring beliefs: that society had to be governed by a small intellectual — and male — élite who would use “noble lies” to keep the rabble in check, that religion and fear must be used to control the masses and that perpetual war is humanity’s natural condition.

This belief system sounds familiar? Well yes, it is indeed the belief system that guided George W. Bush and a number of his top advisers for many years. But this of course isn’t the central point, so I shall gloss over this.

Of course secrecy has often been said to be paramount for Straussian to work. However, this is just a paranoid fantasy because Stephen Harper is always open and transparent with the media, really.

Ok so let’s see what do we know about these people..

Ian Brodie : Former Chief of Staff to Harper, quit due to stress from the job. Also many believe due to pressure from various people due his involvement in a certain Obama leak about NAFTA. Replaced by former Mike Harris chief of staff Guy Giorno. His most famous work is “Friends of the Court” in which he said the Canadian Supreme tended to prefer special interest groups, and minorities over the will (tyranny?) of the many.

Ted Morton : Minister of Sustainable resource development, current MLA in Alberta. Quite famous for his private member bills Bill 208 : 1. information about G/L/B/T not be allowed in schools, 2. marriage commissionaires could opt out of performing same-sex marriages, and 3. that a person expressing their opinion/ideas about homosexuality could not have a claim of discrimination brought against them.

Barry Cooper – Canadian Political Scientiest at the University of Calgary. Also known to be one of Stephen Harpers friends, and advisers.  Cooper is involved in the Non-Profit organization – “Friends of Science” which is known to – ‘offer critical evidence that challenges the premises of the Kyoto Protocol and present alternative causes for climate change.’ . Many believe the group is little more than a lobby for Alberta oil and gas industry.

David Bercusson – a Professor and Political Scientist at the University of Calgary. Also known to be a Harper adviser. Famous for his book Canada without Quebec – in which he argued Canada would probably be better without Quebec.

Tom Flannagan – Political Scientist at the Frasier institute, adviser to Stephen Harper. Has been dubbed “The Prince of Darkness” . Has been accused of having possibly racist views of Lois Riel and the First Nations.  Was said to be one of the officials who supposedly approached Chuck Cadman in the now infamous Cadman bribery scandal.

So, what does this say about Mr. Harper. What would Mr. Harper do if he won a majority?

Michael Byers, (NDP Candidate – Vancouver Center), very passionately told an audience today the tar sands should be shut down. It is not the official position of the NDP, who want a moratorium on the pace of the tar sands development, pending studies on the environment.

However, there are many voices in this country, sending distress signals using the internet, that want the tar sands development to stop, yes stop, now, because it has become “the dirtiest oil on the planet”.

If one pauses before thinking the thought “that no matter what the cost, the world needs oil and Canada needs to be richer in the world”, then maybe it is possible to think about the kind of planet this will be if we ruin it for our children and theirs.

Surely if humans survived on this planet in previous centuries and millenia without such a huge dependence on oil, we can figure out a way to do it again before it is too late…

Just out in time for this election and available FREE online, The Harper Record, edited by my trusted friend Teresa Healy.

Here’s the summary from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:

This book is one in a series of CCPA publications that have examined the records of Canadian federal governments during the duration of their tenure. As with earlier CCPA reports on the activities of previous governments while in office, this book gives a detailed account of the laws, policies, regulations, and initiatives of the Conservative minority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper during its 32-month term from January 2006 to September 2008.

The 47 writers, researchers and analysts who have co-written this book probe into every aspect of the Harper minority government’s administration. From the economy to the environment, from social programs to foreign policy, from health care to tax cuts, from the Afghanistan mission to the tar sands, from free trade to deep integration, and to many other areas of this government’s record, the authors have dug out the facts and analyzed them.

The Harper Record was necessarily researched and written long before an election was called, but its publication does coincide with an election campaign and thus may help citizens to make informed choices about the future of their country. Regardless of the election outcome, its contents will continue to be relevant between elections. In detailing what a minority Conservative government really did, or failed to do, it may serve as a guide and model for future elections.

Like many other voters I am disgusted by political ads which take comments out of context so as to mislead the public/viewer about opponents. But these are politicians, who we know rank just above (or is it below) lawyers in terms of public respect. They are trying to shape voters perceptions and get votes, not be truthful.

Journalism on the other hand is supposed to be about investigating the facts and presenting both sides of a story. It is all about context and getting as close to the truth as possible. In something as important as an election, we need the media to cut through the political spin, otherwise they are just as guilty of manipulation as the politicians.Unfortunately, our Canadian media seems to be failing us in this regard.

The most obvious case of this lack of media scrutiny was the coverage of the statement from Lawrence Cannon’s aide to an Indian band leader.Taken out of context, telling the Indians ”… if you are sobre and behave…” is insulting. In the context of prior incidents in which the police were involved because protesters showed up drunk and made threats, it is perfectly understandable.

And don’t tell me they don’t have the time to do this. Just watch the news on BBC or PBS, or read the Economist. Important stories get the time they need, and are not compressed into 30 second sound bites.

Our democracy depends on a properly functioning media acting responsibly and objectively to hold politicians accountable. If the media wants to become a US style circus where biased coverage is the norm, we will all lose in the end.

Here is the Sault Ste. Marie riding, none of the five local candidates are particularly strong. NDP incumbent Tony Martin wins elections because the NDP have an experienced machine locally and his opponents tend to run weak campaigns. Whenever Tony has faced a strong opponent, such as Liberal David Orazietti provincially, he’s lost by a landslide – twice (once head-to-head while Tony was the provincial incumbent, and a second time through Tony’s surrogate Jeff Arbus).

However, Conservative candidate Cameron Ross is seen as largely absent, which favors Tony. The Sault is still a working class riding and thus impossible to win without a strong presence among the working class and ethnic communities. Similarly, after promising a star candidate, the Liberals parachuted Paul Bichler into this riding. I’m sorry, but appearing on CBC’s Dragon’s Den does not a celebrity make – rather it’s an answer to a trivia question. Yes, Paul grew up in the riding, but he’s been living in Southern Ontario for the past few years. As for Luke Macmichael, the Green candidate, he’s got potential; but both he and his party are still new (dare I say ‘green’?) to the political limelight.

Finally, there is Cory Mcleod of the First Peoples National Party, who is a well-known organizer within the local Anishinabek community. While the party needs to do more groundwork before it can take the riding, the potential for inroads is there. Our local Anishinabek community is known for producing hard-working leaders, including hockey coach Ted Nolan. And Cory also has a natural constituency outside of the Anishinabek community in that he’s an avid hunter and proponent of responsible firearm ownership. Our riding has an unusually high number of hunters and recreational shooters, who are frustrated with having to bear the brunt of laws enacted for Toronto’s violent crime problem. Tougher anti-gun legislation is one of the issues that cost the Liberals this riding during the last federal election.

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Yesterday was the first anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This Declaration was passed overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly. But four settler states with dismal records regarding their indigenous populations voted against it: the United States, Australia, New Zealand–and Canada.

Thank you for that, Stephen Harper. The frankly racist decision by your government to oppose this Declaration has tarnished our international image, insulted First Nations and Inuit, and shamed us all.

Here is yet another election issue that needs to be foregrounded by the other parties. Harper’s “apology” to Native people was sheer hypocrisy. Your empty words, sir, cannot conceal the actions of your government–this disgraceful UN vote, the destruction of the Kelowna Accord, even the vetoing of a primary school for Aboriginal kids by a Minister whose comments about Aboriginal people simply reek of contempt.

Out of respect, and to atone for being a day late with this, I will now turn the floor over to Les Malezer, a descendant of the Gubbi Gubbi and Butchulla peoples of the region of the Mary River and Fraser Island on the eastern coast of Australia, and the former Chairperson of the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus on the Declaration, who issued this anniversary statement yesterday:

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