Dawn Wentzell

I’m not voting for Harper because…

Posted on October 13th, 2008 in current events

Aside from my issues with the Conservative Party of Canada and their values and policies, there are several reasons why I think Harper has been an inadequate leader.

• After claiming that he wants Canada to hold elections only every 4 years, he turns around and calls an election. I cannot trust what he says, and I cannot trust that he has the best interests of Canadians at heart, when clearly he’s out to serve his own agenda.
• I am incredibly angry that Harper decided to call the election the day before the by-election was to occur. Guelph was to have a by-election, and virtually the night before I was questioning whether or not I would need to make time in my schedule the next day to vote or not. Again, I don’t feel like he’s putting my best interests at heart when he flips and flops like that. It is also incredibly unfair to the candidates of those by-election ridings, who have been campaigning for like 3 months straight or something now. I know their campaigns are not cheap, so this has got to be a financial struggle for them, if nothing else.As well, by canceling the by-elections in favour of a general election, it turned from being an election about local riding issues to choosing a PM. I am concerned about what my MP would do for me, but none of the candidates seem to be focussing on that anymore; it’s all about the national platforms.
• Harper is apparently incapable of choosing effective cabinet members. All I can remember about his term as PM is hearing about all his cabinet shuffles. And not to mention the whole Bernier scandal. I mean really. How can I trust someone who clearly can’t put trust-worthy people in charge of my country?
• The Mulroney inquiry was a ridiculous waste of tax-payers’ money. I couldn’t give a shit, and I’m not the only one! Stop wasting my money on bullshit inquiries that don’t actually affect us!
• The Conservatives have been running attack ads on the Liberals and Dion for months before an election was called. Again, stop wasting my tax dollars on such bullshit! Also, attack ads on another party only make the Conservatives look worse in my eyes; petty, juvenile, and that they have no other opinions to run on. “Vote for me because I’m not him”, etc.
• The one policy that was implemented that I remember was the child care benefit. I actually paid attention to this because I have several friends with young children, and child care is an issue. I honestly don’t think that getting $1200 a year per child is really much of a help for those whose children are in daycare. The average cost of centre-based childcare in Guelph and Wellington County is $35-40 per DAY per child (according to CHILD CARE AFFORDABILITY
  IN WELLINGTON AND GUELPH). This works out to about $8470-9680 per year per child. I’m sorry, but $1200 doesn’t make much of a dent in that. But that’s for centre-based childcare. My friends cannot afford centre-based childcare, nor can they even find available spots in centre-based childcare.

  However, for my friends who have one parent at home, I do agree that this can be helpful for them. But not all families can afford to have one parent at home, so we need options. We need income splitting for when one parent stays home but the other works, and we need more spots available in daycare, and we need more affordable daycare. But Harper didn’t give us options, he gave us a one-size-fits-all solution.

• Harper’s finance minister basically told the world not to invest in the economy of Ontario. I know that is not what he meant, but that’s how it was interpreted. I’m sorry, but as a resident of Ontario I don’t want a leader who doesn’t support us. The ecomony of Ontario is integral to the economy of the country. There is more to Canada than the Alberta oil sands, and the rest of Canada is struggling. Don’t disregard us; help us.
• Harper won’t ratify the Kyoto agreement. Sure, it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the only one that’s in place right now. And he hasn’t presented any better solutions, all he’s done is ignore the issue. Well, guess what, climate change isn’t going away. We need to do something, and do it now.

So that’s why I’m not voting for Harper. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out who I am voting for.