Boston is a wondrous city and adds an indomitable spirit to the American psyche. That is why, when hearing about the Boston marathon bombing, you stop for a bit, you consider what you have heard and you question what could cause people to do such a thing. That is what Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau did. He wanted to understand the root causes of such an act.
But Prime Minister Harper does not need or want to understand. He took time from the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to condemn those unknown persons who perpetrated such a thing. It was a knee-jerk political reaction to a sad and disturbing event. His comments were a deliberate feeding of the American paranoia. He wants punishment instead of prevention. His comments were in stark contrast to Justin Trudeau’s humane search for understanding.
The question we really need to ask is if attitudes, such as those expressed by Mr. Harper to politicize the events, are part of the root causes. Do people such as Mr. Harper add to the alienation from society that can produce home-grown terrorism? This is a very serious question.
Did a young Steve Harper maybe find himself alienated from the middle class orientation of his parents in Toronto? Did he find his niche in life with Calgary natives who sometimes put down those they consider effete Easterners? Did the young Harper find his cause with the Reform Party that said “the West wants in”? Did he not serve as the angry president of the extreme right-wing National Citizens Coalition? Does he not represent the one per cent?
And what has Stephen Harper done for Canadians lately? Is he not lying about how his government’s economic action plan is solving all our problems? Is he allowing citizens the right to voice their concerns about their environment? In fact, does he even allow his own party’s backbenchers to speak out for their constituents? This man is an ideologue and does not give a damn about what anybody else thinks. As long as we let him be Prime Minister, he is going to fly around the world telling people how to run their economies while micro-managing a mean and dysfunctional Parliament in Canada. He is going to continue to be part of the problem, instead of part of the solution
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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