None of the parties or their leaders vying to be chosen to form the next government of Canada have addressed what I consider major issues that require addressing NOW if we want to deal with these issues in a planned and thoughtful manner.

Should we choose to continue to ignore the issues, at some point the costs and consequences of not dealing with the issues will force us to address them. Unfortunately when we are finally forced to address the issues it will not be in a thoughtful or planned manner, but in a madly scrambling helter-skelter fashion.

Important issues that demand to be addressed sooner rather than later, coupled with the fact the parties and their leaders have carefully avoided addressing unpleasant realities in order to avoid having Voters punish them for raising an issue voters do not want to think about – no matter the importance or the consequences of ignoring that issue – leaves me faced with a dilemma – don’t vote or hold my nose and vote for someone, a party, policies that fail to speak about, much less address, the issues I consider pressing and of primary importance.

That there is no leader, local candidate or party who is raising or addressing the issues I see not simply as important but as vital to the Canadian standard of living in any but the most tangential or superficial manner, and that the media fails to reflect views outside of the herd-think, the dominant paradigm or ‘what we know for sure’ [even though it ain’t so], raises the question of whether I live in a democracy and leaves me facing either not voting or choosing to vote for a candidate from among  the limited, bad choices offered.

Which is why I owe Stephen Harper and the Federal Conservative Party a thank you for simplifying the decision matrix I face in deciding who to cast my vote for in the federal election currently in progress.

Faced with choosing among evils, the actions of Mr. Harper and his Conservatives have clearly demonstrated they are the biggest evil.

At a time when Canada desperately needs statesmanship, not politics and politicians, Stephen Harper and the Federal Conservative Party have, time after time, demonstrated that winning is everything; that financially responsible behaviour is something to bamboozle voters with not something to practice; and that for Harper and the Conservatives ethics are not a matter for consideration or deliberation but of expediency.

Actions speak louder than words,  and one must evaluate Harper and the Conservatives based on their actions because their actions as the government of Canada have – with consistency – made it abundantly clear that what is said or promised to get elected has no meaning, value or effect upon their actions once in Power.

Their words and promises are as worthless as a three dollar bill.

Yet, while the worthlessness of the words and promises of Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party are reprehensible, it is the treatment of veterans that demonstrates a lack of ethics that brands Stephen Harper and the Conservatives as unfit to form the government of Canada.

While sending our troops into combat to curry favour with the US violated what Canada stood for around the world, as the government of Canada Stephen Harper and the Conservatives had the right to do so.

What Stephen Harper did not have the RIGHT to do, even though he/they had the POWER to do so, was to refuse to accept responsibility for the consequences of sending Canadian troops into combat in a manner that violates the fundamental character of Canada and Canadians.

Stephen Harper chose to send troops into Afghanistan. Into a theatre of operations where they never knew whether the woman or child they had just passed would shoot them in the back and where anything that was ‘achieved’ was quickly lost in the quagmire that was Afghanistan.

It was an unavoidable consequence of sending Canadians into a situation such as Afghanistan that there would be a significant increase in the financial cost [retirement, medical] of caring for the troops, veterans and their families.

To avoid the high financial cost/consequences of his actions, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives used the artifice of ‘reforming’ veterans retirement and medical benefits to take money out of the pockets of veterans, their families and children, the widows, widowers and orphans of Canadians who died in service to Canada – victimizing veterans and their families.

To avoid the cost of his actions, Stephen Harper abandoned those who served Canada to suffer PTSD, mental health challenges and suicide.

I AM Canadian and have always been proud to be Canadian. While I did not agree with sending our armed forces into combat, one had to be proud of the way they answered the Conservative government’s call.

Stephen Harper’s betrayal of those who truly paid the price for the Prime Minister’s ego is not only unacceptable, it shames Canadians that such an odious perfidy was perpetrated on our armed forces by a Prime Minister of Canada.

Stephen Harper’s actions reveal the baseness of his character. And it speaks volumes about the priorities, character and ethics of the Conservative party that Mr. Harper was allowed not only to remain a member of the Conservative Party, but the leader of the party.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.                      

 Albert Einstein   

All good is hard. All evil is easy.

Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy.

Stay away from easy.

Scott Alexander