To the Editor:
(Open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper)
Dear Mr. Harper:
I have begun this letter with a salutation that I hope you are readying yourself to become more accustomed to in any letters you might be receiving from people in the future after this next election.
I can’t, in all fairness to myself, refer to you as a prime minister. Not, at least, of Canada. So, go ahead Mr. Harper, put me on a watch list as Public Enemy No. Whatever, because I am not afraid of you.
You want me to be afraid of you and of everything that moves or breathes or wears what you consider “non-normal” attire or subscribes to a religion outside your personal comfort zone, but I was raised to cherish my freedom and to defend democracy, ethics, morality and social equality so I am not afraid of you, nor do I feel bolstered by whatever “protection” you would like me to perceive that you are needing to provide for me from hostile, non-democratic factions. So I will not be voting for you. But you probably already figured that out.
However, I do fear the negative, controlling, inexcusable, underhanded, narrow-minded, homophobic, tight-assed techniques you seem to feel you have a mandate to use in managing our country.
So, let me make it clear that I want:
•an unbiased, honest Senate, or none at all;
•a strong crime-preventative police force inspired and funded by the government to work for taxpayers and not conglomerates or drug dealers or you;
•a non-fossil fuel driven economy;
•Big Brother out of my home, phone, Internet and all other forms of unauthorized data collection;
•an inspiring, free-thinking body of MPs who aren’t afraid (there is that word again!) to speak out for and support the people who voted for them and not the prime minister, just to gain favour with him or her;
•a good, polite and meaningful debate between intelligent individuals in the House of Commons (if I want to spend a day in a poorly-run daycare facility, I will go there instead);
•an election free of corruption;
•a military that has the government-supported ability to protect our country, rather than constricting environmental protests and demonstrations;
•a provision for those who live too meagerly, including veterans and seniors; and
•respect for First Nations and their determination to protect our environment
This is not a conclusive list, but I think it describes in part what Canada has been in the past and can be once again. Once you are gone from the office of the prime minister and back into public life, we can begin putting our country back together.
Goodbye, Mr. Harper.
Canyon