...overseas salesmen. This new character of the state has disfigured the environment beyond just the climate-torching tar sands: from the razing of the boreal forest to the opening of the Great Lakes to privatization, from the extension of oil prospecting in the Arctic to the refusal to list our most endangered species.
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
Harper’s greatest success in hampering the state from serving Canadians has been to strip it of its most important resource: taxes. Continuing a Liberal legacy, Harper’s cuts to taxes – GST, corporate and personal – have enriched corporations and denied the state a stunning $45 billion a year in revenue. This has deliberately starved the ability of this government – and of future ones – to pay for public services and address inequality or climate change. Such policies have reduced the country to depr...
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
Harper’s greatest success in hampering the state from serving Canadians has been to strip it of its most important resource: taxes. Continuing a Liberal legacy, Harper’s cuts to taxes – GST, corporate and personal – have enriched corporations and denied the state a stunning $45 billion a year in revenue. This has deliberately sta...
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
...pplied carefully, widely, incisively. It has amounted to an unprecedented assault on all that is most distinct and valuable about this country: universal healthcare, a natural world of varied beauty, our public broadcaster, the culture and land protection of Indigenous peoples, and a spirit of openness and tolerance unmatched in the world.
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
...t, directives slipped in through the bureaucracy, cuts applied carefully, widely, incisively. It has amounted to an unprecedented assault on all that is most distinct and valuable about this country: universal healthcare, a natural world of varied beauty, our public broadcaster, the culture and land protection of Indigenous peoples, and a spirit of openness and tolerance unmatched in the world.
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
Small gestures, yet an inexorable dismantling of the finest part of Canada’s governing tradition: the collective project to improve people’s lives and protect our environment. Budgets rammed through parliament, directives slipped in through the bureaucracy, cuts applied carefully, widely, incisively. It has amounted to an unprecedented assault on all that is most distinct and valuable about this country: u...
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
...state in the worst sense of the term,” as he once described the country. That those Scandinavian governments are the world’s best in providing free healthcare and education, redistributing wealth, and guaranteeing political expression: this to Harper is cause for loathing.
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
...e risen to power through other means: money and economic clout; a deep network of right-wing media and think tanks that have shaped policy options; and an unreformed electoral system that has allowed a party with only a quarter of the electorate’s support to rule unhindered.
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
...t from a handful of niqab-wearing Muslim women. It has always come from Canada’s Conservative party. Their imported neoconservative ideology, baked into homegrown resentment toward the federal state, has never been palatable to a country with progressive ambitions. They have risen to power through other means: money and economic clout; a deep network of right-wing media and think tanks that have shaped policy options; and an unreformed electoral system that ha...
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
This threat comes not from a handful of niqab-wearing Muslim women. It has always come from Canada’s Conservative party. Their imported neoconservative ideology, baked into homegrown resentment toward the federal state, has never been palatable to a country with progressive ambitions. They have risen to power through other means: money and economic clout; a ...
Canada's real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian
