A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
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Sunday, December 4, 2011

The H@$#&r Government.

Regular readers will know that I refuse to use the phrase that links OUR Government directly with the leader of the Conservative party, preferring to use the more accurate term when referring to that portion of government coming under direct control of this dictatorial leader, that being the 'Harper Regime'. 

We must respect those thousands of government worker who work for us in the Canadian Government and who are forced to use that untenable phrase by directive of said regime, and make no mistake despite all the denials the use of said phrase was and is a directive of said leader and his personal (and ever expanding) crew of mini dictators in the PMO. Thanks to the The Canadian Press and their persistence if obtaining freedom of information documents on this issue we can now specifically say that when Dimitri Soudas, wrote to Canadian newspapers asserting "no directive" went out to civil servants to use the offending phrase and that "Nothing could be further from the truth," he was lieing on behalf of the regimes leader, Mr (you wont recognize this country) Harper.

The use of this heading on press releases and other official documents is offensive enough and according to “top former civil servants” “ breaches both communications policy and the civil service ethics policy” but the so very obvious lieing and cover up once again shows this regime up for exactly what it is.

All that said, we cannot entirely blame the Harper Regime for the persistence of this phrase, yes government employees have little choice but to follow directives from above but the press, and indeed us bloggers, do NOT have to legitimize this phrase by continually repeating it. Simply substituting the single word 'government' or 'Harper' or 'the PMO' where appropriate or, if you prefer as I do, 'The Harper Regime' and refusing to publish anything with those inaccurate, self serving and unethical words attached would quickly bring to an end such 'branding' of OUR government.

There has been much written this week since the Canadian Press broke this story, unfortunately they almost all, in criticizing the use of the word “Harper” in conjunction with the word “Government”, actually use said phrase and thus increase its use and visibility, much I would imagine to the delight of the Harper Regime!

This then is a call to all reader of this blog to cease and desist using the phrase “The (offensive word removed) Government” and to ask others who publish on line and in print, and even broadcasters in radio and TV to do the same. Its a small push back against this oligarchal regime against whom we have so little recourse, but in my view it is a meaningful one.

A t/h to Impolotical for picking up on the Canadian Press piece on this and the many other who followed suit but will you all please start using a more accurate phrase when describing or alluding to the current 'government'.

re·gime/riˈZHēm/
  1. A government, esp. an authoritarian one.
  2. A system or planned way of doing things, esp. one imposed from above.

ol·i·gar·chy/ˈäliˌgärkē/

1. A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.
2. A state governed by such a group





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3 comments:

Colette Amelia said...

I could hardly bear to read this...just reading those words is offensive...but you nailed it...

but the more disturbing thought is that for sooooo many this is not a problem and for soooo many they buy into everything this regime says and does.

what is wrong with Canadians? How did this happen?

Can someone pinch me I don't like this dream anymore!

D. Scott Barclay said...

Just a quick suggestion. I understand that the tradition of 'blogging' is a long unstructured tirade.

But IF... you want more readership, then do what all good articles do - create a brief abstract/summary at the start. The reader then gets the main points in concise form and if interested, reads the whole blog, if not, still retains the underlying principles.

Again, just a suggestion not a criticism.

Kind regards

Rural said...

@Scott I thought I was keeping my posts quite concise however will keep your suggestion in mind. I am by no means a professional writer, just a concerned citizen doing his thing......