Defeating Harper Top Priority: Mulcair

Early March, I addressed a letter to the the Honorable Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and the Honorable Tom Mulcair, Leader of the NDP and of the Official Opposition in order to form a Progressive Alliance to defeat Stephen Harper's Conservative government. Elizabeth May kindly responded to my email end of March, which I posted here two days after (to read my letter and her letter, please go shodja.blogspot.ca : A Progressive Alliance: Elizabeth May's Response). Yesterday, I had the pleasure to receive the response from Tom Mulcair. His message seems to have been prepared for a wider audience, and the idea seems to be moving forward. Here is the reply as I received: April 27 (one day ago) Tom Mulcair <Thomas.Mulcair@parl.gc.ca>
to me

Thank you for contacting my office regarding multi-party cooperation. I want to assure you that defeating Stephen Harper and the Conservatives remains my top priority.

I have thought long and hard about the prospect of cooperation. I have come to view it as a possible scenario to get rid of Stephen Harper and repair the damage that he's done to our country. That's why I have opened the door to working together with the Liberals—but Justin Trudeau has repeatedly slammed it shut. 

You may remember that we put together an alliance with the Liberals in 2008, but they pulled out of our deal.  In 2008—like today—it was our priority to get rid of Stephen Harper. That's why we were willing to do what was necessary to make sure that we'd get rid of him for good.   Unfortunately, the Liberals refused to honour their commitment and Stephen Harper is still Prime Minister. 

You can be sure that I remain committed to considering all possibilities that will lead to defeating Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. But, I still firmly believe that the best way to ensure we have a progressive government is for progressive folks to vote for what they believe in and elect a majority of NDP MPs.

We have an incredible team of NDP MPs, staff and activists—and we have the skills and experience to lead Canada.  We're ready. With 95 sitting MPs, we're still best positioned to defeat Stephen Harper.  In the 2011 election, we came in second in 121 ridings across the country.  That means in 224 ridings across Canada New Democrat candidates came in either first or second place.   

What's more, we have a practical plan and a positive vision and we've been sharing it with folks across Canada. Here are a couple of examples of things we've proposed:

$15 a day daycare;

$15/hour federal minimum wage;

Eliminating a tax loophole on CEO stock options;

Rolling back the retirement age to 65;

Help for small business and;

Our Urban Agenda for strong, prosperous cities.

Stay tuned for more progressive proposals and ideas to build a better Canada.

Thanks again for getting in touch and sharing your views.  I hope that I can count on your continued engagement and support.

Best regards,

Tom

Tom Mulcair

Violence in Canada against aboriginal women, the NDP plan, and mine: every day should be Women's Day.

Today, I received an email from the NDP Critic for Aboriginal Affairs, Niki Ashton, reminding us that:''There have been more than 1,200 documented cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada over the last 30 years.'' ... an average of 40 missing and murdered Indigenous women per year, for 30 years. 

The NDP's proposed solution: ''This International Women’s Day, we’re demanding Stephen Harper take immediate action to end violence against women. '' Niki is asking us to sign for this call. And the NDP electoral campaign to address the issue as follow:

A national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women is a critical part of the NDP’s plan to end violence against women. We must also reverse the damage Stephen Harper has done by cutting programs women rely on and refusing to fund groups that advocate for women.

My comments:

1) A serious inquiry is certainly a good start if it hasn't been done so far in 30 years! However,  there is a silence about the nature of the inquiry. The killing of 1200 aboriginal women isn't a case of individual crime to be given to the police or RCMP, who are actually suspected to be part of the problem (see, for example, the killing and violence against aboriginals by security forces during Mike Harris premiership in Ontario; I am sure many other examples can be cited. It obviously is a societal and political issue.  What kind of researches our social science, political science, and sociology departments, within so many Canadian universities, are engaged in, if they have disregarded for 30 years such crucial social and political phenomenon of the killing and disappearance of 40 aboriginal women per year in average?

Yes, a serious inquiry is necessary and should be done. But I also hope everyone would agree it should be done not by police and security forces but by an academy, and by scholars well-known for their expertise and knowledge, their neutrality, and their independence of mind. 

Then the result of such inquiry should be followed by action to cure this ill.

2) Contrary to what NDP Critic, Niki Ashton, is saying and implying,  I am not sure how much Harper's 'cutting programs women rely on' (not necessarily aboriginal women) is the cause for violence, and how much 'funding groups that advocate for women' (not necessarily aboriginal women) will be the solution, for 30 years of killing Aboriginal women.But of course, Ashton is engaged in an electoral campaign.

To help ending violence against Aboriginal Women, against women in general, against men and women in general, to help ending violence in general, we need to put an ending to our violent society. We need an ideological upheaval, a radical change in the way we live in the agonizing modern society, not to go backward, back to the ideology of Abraham who would kill in the name of 'God', Jehovah or Allah, but to move forward to a new post-modern society of peace building, love and welfare, thanks to all the technological progress we made in the past centuries. We need to change our social, political, and economic model to be in line with our industrial and technological progresses. The level of our social conscience and awareness should adapt to the level of our science and knowledge. We need to change our moral principles not only in abstract and philosophy but by applying them in the social practice. We need to stop everything that promotes, allows, and encourages violence. Violence against nature, and particularly violence against animals. All kind of violence. Including violence in our old religious books, called sacred, including violence we are teaching our kids, including violence promoted by our political leaders, including violence by some men considered to be heroes, who, in front of millions of people watching them, including youngsters of all ages, beat and hit each other in the face with closed fists, without being arrested.

And this isn't just a plan for one particular Day. Every day must be Women's Day!