Colorless Green Ideas

Why You Absolutely Must Vote on January 23rd ( And Not for Stephen Harper )

I got around to writing this post - the first in four months ( and for that i sincerely apologize ) - for the two following reasons:

i) Stephen Harper's Conservatives have finally begun to edge out the Liberals in the current election polls, which, in my opinion, signals the beginning of the great Canadian decline - the loss of our political independence to the military/economic juggernaut of the south, the United States of America.

ii) Voter apathy is at an all-time high, especially amongst youth. This is simply not admissible, when you take into consideration the consequences of a potential Conservative victory. If by writing this post I can compell even one undecided or apathetic voter to go out and cast a ballot for the NDP or the Liberals this Monday, then it was well worth my time.

Four reasons why you absolutely must vote on January 23rd - and not for Stephen Harper:

1) Stephen Harper plans to re-open negotiations with the United States about adopting their proposed Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system. For the unitiated, BMD is the Bush administration's answer to Ronald Reagan's controversial Strategic Defense Initiative - commonly known as "Star Wars" - which was proposed in March of 1983, and, incidentally, was never approved.

Basically, BMD revolves around the idea of constructing a satellitic nuclear missile shield in space above the United States and other signatory nations. The average American - who has been indoctrinated and depoliticized well enough to believe that his personal ( and national ) security is constantly at risk - regards the BMD system as his best defense against nuclear strikes from so-called "rogue states."

Of course, this couldn't be further from the truth:

- Currently, the biggest threat to American national security are acts of low-tech terrorism that cause disproportionately high levels of destruction. Consider, for example, the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City. With only a handful of hijackers and 2 stolen passenger jets, Osama Bin Laden murdered over 3,000 people and destroyed one of the country's most important financial centers...the economic reverberations can still be felt in America today. The idea that someone would launch a nuclear attack against the U.S. or Canada is, quite frankly, preposterous - the aggressor would be wiped off the face of the planet in an instant. What truly threatens North American security are terrorist measures such as dirty bombs and instruments of biological warfare - methods against which a Ballistic Missile Defense system would be entirely useless.

- In addition to being ineffective against the most imminent threats to national security, a Ballistic Missile Defense system would compel other nuclear countries - including India, Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea - to develop more advanced types of nuclear weaponry that could overcome the missile shield. Thus, with the implementation of BMD, the U.S. risks starting an extremely competitive worldwide arms race that would make the bilateral Cold War system look like a child's game of tug-of-war in comparison.

- Washington stated that the cumulative cost of a “layered” missile defense system - including boost-phase, mid-course, and terminal defenses as called for by the administration - could go as high as 1.2 trillion dollars.

- The U.S. has been testing the fundamentals of the missile defense concept since 1976. Between 1976 and 1999, 17 high-altitude interceptor trials have been conducted, designed to test various interceptors and their ability to destroy incoming ballistic missiles. Of those 17 tests, only 3 interceptors were able to hit their targets, and of those, at least one was a qualified success.

The Bush administration is well aware of the critical flaws in its proposed system, yet development continues unhindered. Why? Because BMD has never been about 'defense' in the first place. Ballistic Missile Defense will be used as a means to weaponize space, thus giving the U.S. the ability to launch pre-emptive strikes against any target in the world that it percieves as a threat. And, as we all know, it doesn't take much to justify a threat these days - Iraq was, after all, an entirely defenseless country, and yet, somehow at the same time, the greatest of all threats to American national security. Basically, the U.S. needs BMD in order to get a head start on the European Union and China in the quest for global domination.

So, to recap, Stephen Harper wants to re-open talks with the U.S to implement a 1.2 trillion dollar Ballistic Missile Defense system that has only ever worked once, is useless against the majority of the low-tech terrorist arsenal, will initiate a potentially catastrophic arms race, and is ultimately an instrument of supreme aggression.

Yeah, sign me up, Steve.

2) Stephen Harper plans to turn his back on the Kyoto Accord. The Kyoto Accord is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Control that calls upon signatory countries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases.
There are currently over 100 signatory states, including Canada. While it isn't perfect, the Kyoto Accord is helping to alleviate the amount of stress placed on the environment. Stephen Harper would move to abandon our commitment to the protocal, thus further accelerating the imminent destruction of the ozone and our natural environment. Conversely, NDP leader Jack Layton has ambitious plans to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by the year 2020.

3) Stephen Harper plans to privatize healthcare. Despite international acclaim for our publicly funded health care system, Stephen Harper plans to supplant it with an American-style, privatized system. The current flaw in the system is that it comes at incredible cost to the government, which is covered by raised tax rates across the board. Personally, I don't mind paying a little extra in taxes to help maintain one of the world's best healthcare systems, and it's evident that the majority of Canadians feel the same way. An American system, while cheaper for the government, will cost Canadian citizens dearly: American insurance and pharmaceutical companies are absolutely ecstatic over the prospect of finally breaking into the untapped Canadian market and milking us for expensive surgeries, high-cost medications, and insurance premiums.

4) Stephen Harper would help turn Canada into an American satellite state. If I proposed to you the idea that the United States would someday take over Canada in a war of conquest, you would most likely laugh in my face. However, the idea is not at all a new one - American political scientists and philosophers have been calling for a Canadian conquest for centuries. In fact, many Americans view our nation as they do Cuba or Mexico - extensions of the United States that are rightfully theirs, but were snatched from their grasp by rogue regimes. Fortunately for them, however, Canada is rapidly integrating into the American sphere of influence through her corporate capitalist hegemony and "free trade" agreements such as N.A.F.T.A. Indeed, the fact of the matter is that we're already well on our way to becoming an American satellite, and all without a single American soldier so much as lifting a finger.

However, over the last few decades - and especially in recent years - Canadian and American political dispositions have grown increasingly contentious. We refused to participate in the war in Iraq, we refused to accept George Bush's initial BMD proposal, we support the rights of homosexuals to marry, we have a much more 'liberal' view on the legalization of marijuana...the list goes on. So basically, on the political front, we're a huge thorn in America's side. Economically, however, we're becoming frightfully integrated with our southern neighbour.

Stephen Harper's political values are very closely aligned with those of George W. Bush, in that he is pro-Iraq, pro-BMD, anti-gay marriage, and so on. With Harper as Prime Minister, the Bush administration will capitalize on the momentous opportunity to seize our once-rebellious political agenda and coordinate it with theirs. Ultimately, Harper will replace Tony Blair as Bush's #1 lapdog, and our great country will become little more than a means to legitimize and further the American political agenda, which includes ravaging third-world economies, undermining third-world democratic reform, and invading sovereign nations in the name of corporate interests.

And so, it is of the obvious utmost importance that you and everyone you know go out on January 23rd to tell parliament that we wish to remain a tolerant, independently-minded and multilateral nation; and that our vision of the future doesn't at all coincide with Mr. Stephen Harper's vision of a subservient, culturally devastated United States of Canada.

More posts to come, and sooner than 4 months this time...I promise!

posted by Sylpheed @ 12:50 PM