BACK TO THE DARK AGES

Provencher MP Vic Toews' new pre-election propaganda campaign arrived
in mailboxes this week, and the dreadful, shameful message the
Conservatives are sending reeks of the sick agenda perpetuated by
American neoconservatives -- that breed of politician that wants to
rewind time and return to the ignorant and reactionary style of
government that's slowly been on its way out since the 1960s.

The mailing features a stereotypical "young punk" sitting lazily on a
couch with a smug "I don't care about anything" look on his face. He's
wearing a so-called "wife-beater" undershirt and a beer bottle is in
his hand.

"Jail?" the picture reads, suggesting this is what the average
convicted criminal is doing -- sitting at home relaxing and plotting
his next deviant scheme.

The inside of the perverse brochure reads like something off an old
Soviet propaganda poster.

"Why should thugs, drug dealers and sexual offenders serve their
sentences at home watching TV, playing video games, and surfing
websites on the Internet?" it says, and goes on to support an end to
house arrest.

Of course, the face of Provencher MP Vic Toews adorns the mailing, and
is clearly an attempt to unofficially begin the federal election
campaign almost certainly set to begin in September.

Toews is obviously set to run again, having yet to land that plum
judicial appointment he was under consideration for earlier this year.

The mailing shows yet another display of tried-and-true Conservative
tactics, which take advantage of an uninformed electorate that's under
the impression Canada's streets are rampant with dangerous criminals
and the only solution to the crime problem is more prisons, more
guards, and longer sentences. A modern-day return to the Dark Ages,
you could say.

This is the sort of hogwash that even Toews knows is nonsense, but as
a Conservative, he's got to play politics. The neoconservative rule
book is strict, and those who don't play by the rules suffer the fate
of Adam -- banished for daring to attain a more enlightened,
intelligent worldview.

It's a story every neocon should be familiar with. Yet these
right-wing politicos seem happy to live in a perpetual state of
ignorance, insisting to the electorate that the sky is falling when,
in fact, it's in the same place it's been for six billion years.

CBC columnist Heather Mallick wrote a wonderful little online column
this week titled "The road to neocon rule." In it, she demonstrates
just how much Canada is coming to resemble the U.S. as the
neoconservative influence gets stronger here in the Great White North.

"I'd get all biblical about the foolishness of Canada following the
U.S. into disaster, but I can't. It isn't tragic; it's just
embarrassing," she writes. "The (American) neocons had their sickly
moment in the sun. Now they scuttle away by night. So why is (Prime
Minister Stephen Harper) creeping after them, trying to recreate the
American disaster in this country in 2008? It's so last century."

Mallick is right. The possibility of Harper getting his coveted
majority government is a frightening prospect. If Harper's government
has proven anything since 2006, it's that Canada has nowhere to go but
down under an American-style right-wing government.

Health Minister Tony Clement had the gall this week to publicly state
that the listeriosis outbreak in Canada is proof that the country's
food safety system works. Clement must have some kind of food
poisoning himself that's making him lightheaded, because the sheer
dumbness of that statement cannot be understated, and proves Canada is
headed the way of America under the Harper regime.

"Leaked documents reveal that the Harper government has been planning
to copy the Americans on meat inspection, allowing the meat packers,
rather than federal officials, to inspect their own operations. You
can find it all in Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, the book that
served as the Silent Spring of the America hamburger," Mallick notes.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture was neutered, industry took over
and meat was being sent out contaminated with 'fecal material, hair,
insects, metal shavings, urine and vomit.' In 1993, more than 700
people were made sick by tainted Jack in the Box burgers -- 200
people, mostly children, were hospitalized and two died."

The signs have been slowly popping up since Harper's government came
to power, signs that should fill us all with fear. Political influence
in picking judges. Harper's denouncing of Dr. Henry Morgentaler
receiving the Order of Canada for defending a woman's right to choose.
Scare campaigns designed to create the illusion that crime is at an
all-time high when, in fact, Canada's crime rate is declining. Support
for tougher drug laws, when all the evidence points to
decriminalization and outright legalization as the solution to the
drug problem.

Harper wants us to go the way of Uncle Sam, but he's been smart enough
to give us all a "Conservative lite" style of government while he's
trapped in a minority Parliament. What will he do if given a majority?
The signs are all around us.

Hopefully, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion will get his act together
before Harper and his merry band of wanna-be Republicans get the whole
feeding trough to themselves.

Canada's future depends on it.