The Census Play Was Just Foreshadowing

If you thought that the HarperCon$ had sunk about as low as they could go with the census issue, guess again.

In handing the procedural reigns of government to John Baird, I think you will see a parliament whose level of dysfunction will reach new depths. Baird isn't exactly known as a conciliator or someone capable of negotiating compromise at the best of times. He's far better known as an agitator and destructive force - always ready to turn things back on the opposition.

To hazard a guess, I'd say you will see a much more hardline stance from the HarperCon$ in the next sitting of the house - one that they will need as they attempt to ram through legislation that will be damaging to Canada on all levels. The "get tough on crime" agenda is a load of absolute crap that Canada cannot afford, and in many ways will violate key tenets of our constitution on the way past.

Of course, this will not bother the ever increasing totalitarianism of the HarperCon$. They have already demonstrated a repeated disregard for facts and reality in their approach to governance many times since 2006. The most recent bit to emerge in their overbearing totalitarianism came from the PMO - when they criticized a play based on the case of one of the "Toronto 18".

I'm not going to comment on the play itself - that's almost irrelevant. The issue here is that someone in the PMO saw it as their role to comment on a play from a political stance. We already know that the HarperCon$ have intervened in funding decisions for political reasons before (e.g. the pride parade funding issues that got Diane Ablonczy in trouble earlier) This is deeply troubling because it shows us that this government thinks nothing of intervening in Canada's arts and culture scene when it finds something objectionable. This smacks of McArthyism or for that matter the behaviour of Stalinist USSR, where the government thinks that its role includes the right to dictate the cultural dialogue of the nation.

If our opposition doesn't wake up and start calling this stuff out - loudly - Canada is about to enter one of the darkest periods of its history.