“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you,
then they fight you, then you win.” --- Ghandi
What’s behind the
Orange curtain? We’ll soon see. It’s Showtime for the 103 NDP MPs brought to
Ottawa on the Orange Wave. Most are fledgling politicians who have never before
stepped foot in the political arena, much less the House of Commons.
An awful lot is riding on the
new Party of Opposition. Harper has his majority, and pundits have been quick
to assign the NDP to irrelevance.
But Jack Layton and the NDP are the
government in waiting, and the quality and consistency of their performance
will decide whether or not Canadians trust the NDP enough to vote them into
government when---yes, when---the House of Harper falls.
For this edition,
X-Ray’s “deep politics” columnist, Stephen James Kerr, questions the NDP’s detractors and
pseudo-supporters, and looks way back to the origins of democracy to defend the
as-yet untapped potential of the Dippers’
Young Turks.
Also in this issue, Geoffrey
Stevens wields his formidable pen to smite Harper’s killing of the per-vote subsidy for
political parties. The move may be good politics, but as it turns out, the
public purse will still be wide open, especially for the Conservatives.
Expat Canadian writer
and Renaissance man, Liam Roberts, looks at the arithmetic shocker that exposes the
fact that the majority of Canadians don’t actually support the Conservative
agenda.
And as the new session
of Parliament starts, we examine the international scandal bubbling up from the
Alberta tar sands.
From a dodgy oil pipeline deal with the US, to secret
(special ops?) lobbying teams tasked with destroying EU climate change efforts,
to the hiding from the UN of the real statistics around tar sands emissions,
the Harper government is being exposed as an international climate criminal.
Anyone who fears the
cold-blooded hand of Harper can take heart in knowing that the rest of the
world (with the exception of Israel, and the 39 percent of Canadians who voted
for him) sees through our Dear Leader’s Teflon veneer.
It’s up to progressive
Canadian voices to lead the charge at home, and if you haven’t heard what’s
brewing out west, read Harper’s Brewing
Tar Sands Scandals and share it with your friends, family and coworkers.
We might be heading
into summer and the long-weekend bliss that makes up for the long winter blahs,
but we can ill afford to look away from the federal government for too long.
Too much is at stake.
Enjoy, share, comment,
and as always, let us know what you think.
Cheers,
David Julian Wightman
Publisher slash Editor
davidjwightman [at] xraymagazine [dot] ca