Conservative Government, Liberal Flinching, and Legislative Bullying

The Conservative party has been pissing me off for a couple of years now, as it strives to put actual conservatism behind it and go to an ideology-driven agenda of stripping out all that makes Canada relevant, special, and different and putting us on track to become the US' prison bitch.

But the federal Liberals are managing to piss me off worse. And that's utterly amazing.

My latest wanna-bite-someone moment comes from the package of immigration Reforms passed by Parliament this week.

First: In usual Harper style, the announcement was made by--and I quote from press sources: "A ministry official who could not be named."

When the government hides the identities of officials makling public ministry announcements, what the hell does that mean?

Second: Canada's immigration process, while cumbersome, was at least equitable. It took bloody ages for a prince or a peasant. And no matter what, you knew that your file would be reviewed at some stage.

The current queue for reviews was about six-to-eight years. The backlog, according to the Harperites, was almost a million cases.

So, uh, what? You couldn't hire a few more clerks and reviewers to help out? Oh, I see. That would have meant admitting more brown people to Canada, and the All-White All-Stars, all former pillars of the Fas--I mean "Alliance" Party, are ag'in' that.

Now the Conservatives want to:
a) Stream all applicants so that those with "required skills" such as doctors get moved to the top of the pile.

b) Scrap the old process and simply force people to reapply year after year.

This is classic Conservative Party pandering, to prove they haven't forgotten their roots in the Reform Party and the later Axis--sorry, I meant "Alliance" party.

However, they're not being honest. Here's what they haven't actually said:
Under the old system, everyone had a chance. Now in classic neo-con fashion, only "desirables" will be considered.

That was what the review process was for.

All others will have to reapply each year. You could conceivably be in the queue, applying every year, for fifty years and not ever have your file reviewed.

It was already hard enough to immigrate to Canada. They're determined to make it harder.

The Conservatives are willing to poach doctors and other skilled workers from the third world to let their vision become reality. And if I were an honest man, I suppose I'd admit that if these people were leaving their countries anyway, I'd as soon they ended up here.

But that doesn't make it any righter.

And here's the real heartbreak. Rather than stand and defend Canadian values, Stephane Dion and the Liberal party rolled over and let Harper £µ©λ them without even asking for a reach-around.

Because Harper, without a majority, likes to bully by attaching everything to the budget. That way, any provision that's defeat-worthy becomes a confidence motion, the government falls, and they have to hold an election.

Message to Stephane Dion: You know, you might not be elected if an election were held tomorrow (although I don't think enough people like the Cons enough to vote them a majority).

But you'll sure as hell never get elected if you never have the balls to call an election.

Go ahead, for £µ©λ's sakes. Pull the trigger already! If you never stand up to the bully you just keep looking weaker and weaker until you fade into irrelevancy.