Harper's war on the media...

...or Terry Milewsk learns that to Harper and his followers, the only balanced reporting is that which parrots the propaganda put out by the PMO. Now I don't think that Terry is that naive, but the exchange between him and former Tory PMO Chiefs of Staff Guy Giorno and Norman Spector is illuminating in that it shows the true feelings of Harper and his minions towards a free and democratic society.

It has been clear for some time that Harper and his supporters feel that the only good media is a media that at worst parrots what Harper says and at best sings his praises. It has gotten to the point where Harper and the conservative party has declared war on the media for not being conservative enough. The very purpose of Harper and his supporters? To eliminate the free press and any check on their power.

This is just further evidence that Harper is a dictator. In a free and democratic society, a free press, one that is free to investigate and criticize the government is essential to an informed and engaged electorate. These actions by Harper and his supporters point to them not wanting an informed and engaged electorate. Why wouldn't they want the electorate informed and engaged? Well an informed and engaged electorate may have the gall to elect non-Conservatives and that would be unacceptable to the Conservatives Maximum Leader, Stephen Harper, not to mention the Conservatives themselves.

The fact that they're stooping to tactics practised by the world's dictators to maintain power would seem to indicate that they themselves would like to become dictators. A media completely controlled by the government, even if that media is in private hands, is one step towards this. Given how much the Conservatives hate elections, the best we can look forward to in the future will be the sham elections of places like Mussolini's Italy or the former Soviet Union or no elections at all, after all elections are unnecessary and expensive. After all, think of all the prisons and corporate tax cuts that $300 million in savings by not having elections can produce.

Time will tell. Will we have an election by 2016 as required by the constitution? It is well known that Harper and his supporters have no care for the constitution unless it is working for them. That is another sign of dictatorship, ignoring the constitution except when it's convenient for the dictator to follow it and the Harper Conservatives have been showing that they have nothing but contempt for the constitution.

So we continue to slide into at best a one party state and at worst a dictatorship under Stephen Harper. No doubt plans are being drawn up in the PMO for a secret police force like the Stasi as I write this. The Harper government is already working on giving such a force carte-blanc to read our email and other private internet communication without warrant, no doubt to help create and maintain lists of Canadians who aren't ideologically pure enough. Ideological purity is a concern for Harper and his supporters as evidenced by their actions during the past election and this should be a concern for all of us.

Our only real hope is that a) there is a next election and that b) by that time Harper and his supporters have done such damage to the Conservative brand that those marginal Ontario ridings that gave him his majority government (but not majority support) swing to another party, denying Harper a second term of absolute power.