Stephen Harper has said this would be a nasty campaign. He wasn’t lying when he said it, as already, just into Day 4 of the Election, we have a clear signal of just how nasty it will become. The Liberal Party has its share, with the Bedard Incident, which Dion handled by asking him to resign, and not run as a Liberal.

Harper, has Sparrow, a top Tory operative, who questioned the comments by the father of a fallen soldier, in Afghanistan.

The Conservative campaign suspended a top official indefinitely on Thursday and ordered him to apologize personally for comments he made about the father of a soldier killed in the Afghanistan mission. (source – CBC News)

Biderd was fired for a remark he made years ago, which he stated again that he stood by. So he got the axe. This incident with Sparrow is fresh, not rehashed comments made years ago after the event, and yet he is merely suspended.  Is that with pay?

Now, give the Father credit here. He isn’t asking for his resignation, though the opposition is. He has accepted the apology offered, and isn’t looking for retribution, but the issue is, why are these politicians doing this?

True, no leader can be 100% responsible for the comments made by their top aides & officials. Yet it is the tactic, I think, which is what rankles. Not so much that perhaps Harper was unaware of it, or even that he condoned it, but that those in the Conservative Party believe that is the way to deflect criticism. And that is what is at stake in this election.

Jack Layton maybe stated it best, when he said he wasn’t surprised.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said it was “hardly a surprise” a member of the Conservative team would make such comments, considering the past behaviour of the party’s front and backbenchers in Parliament.

“If you disagree with them, you’re open season for an insult,” Layton said. “I don’t think that’s leadership. I think we should have a respectful House of Commons. And as prime minister, I would insist on it.” (source – CBC News)

Perhaps that is why I am so opposed to Stephen Harper?

I have no problem with people who have a different viewpoint than me. That is called Free Speech, and is DEMOCRACY. What I have a problem with, is that those who have different opinions feel that we should all share that vision, that viewpoint. If we don’t, then somehow that makes us evil, makes us unimportant. Now I don’t know, that just seems more like an American approach, than a Canadian view, so how can we support a Government that is so out of step with our basic philosophy?

Harper is promising a nasty campaign, why? Is it another of his threats, to try and prevent a free flow of ideas, of views? I mean he was pretty adamant about having the Green Party represented at the Leader’s Debate, so it makes one wonder, is it that he’s afraid we will not buy his vision? That perhaps we don’t like to see fairness go by the wayside, simply because it is a political campaign?

In the grand scheme of things, this may seem irrelevant, but in reality it is extremely important. If our direction of a nation is to where only one view is acceptable, then we are slipping into Tyranny, into Dictatorship. Look at how the Republicans have bullied their way into a war in Iraq. By attacking everyone’s patriotism, they foisted a war on the American People, and those who oppose it, are un-American, unpatriotic. It has limited honest debate, has also brought about some pretty scary abuses of basic civil liberties.

Such as secret prisons, embracing torture, and all for what? To claim that they are battling evil? There was no Al Quadya in Iraq until the USA INVADED. So what, was it to finish the job that Daddy did? If so, look at the death tolls, then look at the campaign being run by Stephen Harper. It is the same ATTACK POLICY that George Bush used so successfully, and look at the result.

WAR.

We have already lost troops in this fight against Terrorism, but are we really fighting  a war against terror, or to being democracy to a people who didn’t ask for it? Are we engaged in a conflict to end fear, terror, or are we simply trying to push our religious values on those who don’t believe in GOD as we do?

The suspension and not firing of Sparrow shows that Stephen Harper is not concerned about what was said, but about not taking a political hit for it. Stephane Dion is right, this is simply being swept under the rug, because Harper doesn’t want to get into a debate on ethics, on morals.

HE WOULD LOSE THAT HANDS DOWN.