Letters to the Editor - The Conservatives Deserved to Lose

I came across this today, presenting the reasons why the Conservatives deserved to lose.  Reasons the Conservatives seem to be avoiding.  The original story appeared in the Star Phoenix on October 27th, 2015.  I post it here in its entirety.

On election night, Conservative MP Brad Trost said he didn't know why his party lost; Canadians just wanted change for change's sake, he guessed. Could anyone be that clueless?

Stephen Harper's government was consistently self-serving, hard-hearted and mean-spirited. It was anti-democracy (omnibus bill, prorogation, spin - repeat), anti-transparency, anti-accountability, antipress, anti-immigrant, antidiplomacy, anti-knowledge (goodbye long-form census), anti-scientist (hello muzzling), anti-environment (only tree huggers hate C-38), anti-conservation, anti-CBC, anti-culture, antifreedom (only terrorists hate C-51), anti-oversight, anti-Obama, anti-UN, anti-Palestinian, anti-gay, and anti-aboriginal.

It was pro-gun, prowar, pro-business, pro-oil, and pro-Israel (one-sided support, regardless of the diverse views of Jews and Israelis, let alone the world). 

Alternative opinions, dissenting views, and provincial premiers were ignored or ridiculed. Harper's MPs were minions who read from scripts. 

For Harper, business trumped science, nature and compassion; photo ops trumped action; punishment trumped rehabilitation, authority trumped dissent, and lies trumped truth especially during election campaigns (the brothels are coming). Throw in Harperappointed corruption-prone senators, self-benefiting electoral changes, voter suppression, financial hits to retirees, cynically targeted tax breaks, millions wasted on self-promoting condescending government advertising. 

Those were just a few items in their well-stocked shop of horrors. 

It was the most polarizing, fearmongering, partisan and hypocritical government ever. The Conservatives were looking out for themselves, not Canadians. Any means justified their ends. 

Harper's style was cruel and vindictive. The Harper years have done irreparable damage to Canada. Why were the Conservatives booted out? The real question is why it didn't happen sooner. 

W.G. Potter 

Saskatoon 

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