Reasons I am not likely to vote Conservative

As this election campaign progresses in Canada, I find myself more and more irritated by the Conservative party and its candidates.

A 'counter-campaign' has emerged in Calgary Northwest to remove candidate Rob Anders from his seat. They have a plethora of complaints, but they boil down to a couple of very basic things:

1. Making a complete ass of himself in the House of Commons by voting - very loudly - against granting Nelson Mandela an honorary citizenship. His reasons at the time were, and continue to be, childish and immature.

2. Claiming that he has had no complaints about his actions, when CBC has interviewed people who went to voice their concerns _IN_PERSON_ to his constituency office. He hasn't heard any concerns because he doesn't want to. Oddly, this is precisely what I know happens with my own MP, Jason Kenney, when you contest his assertions (as I have done numerous times).

Then, Rob Merrifield pops up with a daft statement about abortion. It wasn't the statement itself that set me off - I thought it was stupid and irrelevant at best. It was what Harper _DIDN'T_ say that got me irritated. Harper didn't take Merrifield to task. Instead, we get some mealy-mouthed comment about "allowing a free vote, should a private member's bill be presented". This reeks of the rotting corpse of the old Reform/Alliance party trying to resurrect its moral conservative roots. (This is rather like raising the dead from the grave - you get something that's smelly and rotten, not what you remember burying)

This week, the Conservatives put out this little gem about the changes made to the hate crimes legislation. Oh yes, the reasons? Well, the law might impinge on religious groups right to preach against homosexuality. Last I checked, the amendment made specific provisions for religious discussion of the subject. What it doesn't do is allow a church - or anyone else - to incite hatred - the kind of hatred that routinely gets GLBT people around the world seriously hurt or killed. (It has happened in Canada, don't fool yourself) It wasn't so very long ago that being black could get someone hung, mostly on a white person's word that they had done _something_. It took legislation to make that a crime before society began to turn that corner and actually treat blacks as equals (some would argue that we aren't there yet - but that's another conversation). Protecting LGBT people from hate crimes is in the same vein.

One of Harper's candidates also worried that the law might "protect pedophiles". My understanding of the psychiatric definition of pedophilia holds the condition as secondary to sexual orientation. That is to say that there are homosexual and heterosexual pedophiles. It would seem to me then, that pedophilia could not be held to be a sexual orientation per se - thus rendering the discussion moot vis a vis the hate crimes law.

Harper comes along and says that he'd like to "adjust" the legislation - but he can't tell us how he would "adjust" it. Yet again, the Conservative leader demonstrates that he is either monumentally clueless about what he might want to legislate and the form that legislation might take, or there is a deliberate attempt to hide the real direction that the party would go, should they be elected.

Then we just get into the whole non-sequitur of the Conservative platform. Reduced taxes, but increased spending on the military. Oh yes, with a side order of privatized health care and education. Wow! Sounds great - but so does a McDonald's hamburger - until you read the ingredients and realize that it will cause weight gain and coronary disease, especially if you make a regular diet of them. (Take a look at this movie if you want a more graphic idea of what I'm saying...)

At the beginning of the Election Campaign, Paul Martin asked the question "What kind of Canada do you want?" I'm beginning to suspect that the Conservatives view of Canada is a particularly nasty image. One which idolizes an era half a century or more in the past. An era which the world has grown beyond. One in which physical power (the military) is the first priority; one where the rule of law is replaced by the tyranny of the majority; one where the government ignores the Supreme Court's interpretation of our laws when it is inconvenient to their policies.

I don't want to live in a country where Women's rights are abrogated at the whim of some moralistic twit in Ottawa; I don't want a Canada where bigotry is condoned in any form, whether its roots are religious, racial or otherwise. I want a Canada that respects all of its citizens for who and what they are. I want a Canada that cares for its people, one where education is valued and sickness won't bankrupt a family. I want a Canada that the world looks to and says "That's the country I want to emulate!"