Shortly after taking an unprecedented move of lowering interest rates when the economy doesn’t need a cut, rumours abound that there’s a possibility that the Bank of Canada may cut the prime lending rate.

Again.

Yes, the Stephen Harper Conservatives are that desperate.

Not only have they interfered with Canadian monetary policy in an extremely obtuse and interventionist way to try to jump-start the Canadian economy, the rumours seem to be stating that they will do it again.

After destroying fiscal policy and recklessly slashing himself into a corner with poorly designed tax cuts for the corporate elite, Stephen Harper doesn’t have any more tricks up his sleeve.

He’s declared war on faceless terrorists, despite already being at war with them.

He’s ruthlessly assaulted Canadian democratic and public institutions, manipulating them in such a horrid and twisted way that no proud Canadian would consider them ‘theirs’.  Stats Can.  The Parliamentary Budget Office.  The Senate.  The House of Commons.  The Canadian Revenue Agency.  The National Energy Board.  Veteran’s Affairs.  The Department of Finance.

He’s created propaganda agencies to lie to Canadians about how it’s important to buy medical marijuana and stay away from illegal marijuana or debunking 5 ‘myths’ about GMOs.

He’s spent billions in ad dollars on Canada’s largest media conglomerates.

He’s broken most of his own rules, let alone defy any moral or ethical priorities that the bulk of Canadians have.

He’s about to introduce the most ridiculous, controlling and anti-democratic legislation concerning ‘terrorism’ in Canada, which will no doubt result in the shutting of conversations on a national scale.

And much, much more.

And now, the Bank of Canada is his new economic bastard child.

The last economic device he has at his disposal will also be sullied by his ignorant and arrogant hand.  No low in the Canadian dollar will be low enough if it doesn’t provide an economic CPR session.

Unfortunately, these so-called economists are desperate and will stoop to new, unprecedented lows in order to stay in control of Canada.

Stephen Harper is like Greg Stinson in The Deadzone, holding up a baby to save himself from his political end.

The Cons have prorogued their budget and will likely have to hold off on disclosing financial results until the spring.

In a desperate attempt to squeeze some life into Canada’s anemic economy – an ailing economy because of the reliance on Alberta oil revenue and neglect of our manufacturing industry – the Cons have turned to manipulating Canadian monetary policy.

In a breach of common sense, the Bank of Canada has reduced the key lending rate by a quarter of a percent yesterday.

Bond markets were stunned.  The dollar took a hit.

This move will push the dollar further into a spiral, drive up the cost of doing business with American suppliers, and ultimately fuel economic activity in the heartland of industry – Ontario and Quebec.

In theory.

However, in taking this drastic and ill-chosen action, the Cons will also stimulate inflationary pressure and push people into unmanageable debt loads.

But that doesn’t matter.

The Cons are desperate.  They have failed miserably with their fiscal policy and now they’re about to fail miserably with their intervention with monetary policy.

The banks will likely stuff the extra cash into their pockets before lowering mortgage rates, shifting more money from working-class Canadians into the hands of the 1%.

In effect, this shift in monetary policy is a nice little cash grab for Canada’s elite, leaving regular Canadians with higher debt loads than ever, less after-tax dollars to spend and less faith in the economy.

The only thing the Cons will manage to do properly?

Blame the Liberals.

Apparently, we’re all Nazis.

That’s the (admittedly) superficial conclusion to be drawn from the fact that Canada was one of just FOUR nations to oppose a declaration of Anti-Nazism presented by the UN shortly before the end of 2014.

Which begs the question:  what’s at play here?

Russia brought the move forward to the UN, mainly to try to undermine extreme right activities in Ukraine.  If we’re to believe a number of different sources, the Ukraine is being run by a group of neo-Nazis and Canada and the US may find themselves on the wrong side of history, despite the ridiculous behaviour of Putin.

A UN resolution would immediately draw attention to those groups, should they exist.  If they don’t – which many in our Western world claim to be the truth – then there’s nothing to the resolution and you can support it, knowing that you’re doing your bit to stamp out Nazism.

Apparently, our government’s only response is to claim that the resolution is too extreme and will result in the invasion of privacy, but that’s really the soft, sad argument that also leads people to believe it’s OK to bully online or to post misogynistic comments on Facebook pages.

I’m left scratching my head about this because some 150+ countries agreed to do what they could to moderate the growth of neo-Nazism and Canada simply did not, regardless of the excuse that they have in the can.

What is the Stephen Harper government afraid of?

During 2014, I was either time-strapped, too lazy or not as well informed or researched as I would have liked to have been when writing blog articles for Excited Delirium.  However, as an end-of-year resolution (as opposed to New Year resolution, which comes in a few days), I’ve decided to scramble a little and get some of them out there, as many are still relevant and hopefully keep some conversations going about what we can do better in Canada.

I’ve done my best to add some coherence to most of the articles, but will apologize in advance for any shortcomings, including obvious gaps in logic, lack of supporting data and rushed thoughts.

Here are a few of the links:

• End of Wild Rose = End of Canadian democracy
• 2015:  An EJECTion, not ELECTion
• Coincidence and the Con Terror Bill
• Python Pipelines:  Strangling Canada’s Future
• The trillion dollar trick
• Right-wing ‘charities’ that should be audited

Anyways, enjoy what you pick and pick what you might enjoy!

Wishing you all the best and most progressive New Year in 2015.

The Broadbent Institute – at risk of being confused with ISIS or some other malevolent group – has issued a report identifying dozens of ‘charities’ that operate in Canada and that clearly have political mandates.

Right-wing political mandates.

Examples:

• the Fraser Institute (this is a charity?)
• the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies
• Focus on the Family
• Macdonald-Laurier Institute
• C.D. Howe Institute (this is a charity?)
• Montreal Economic Institute
• Canadian Constitution Foundation
• Energy Probe Research Foundation
• Frontier Centre for Public Policy
• Institute for Canadian Values

And don’t forget the thousands of not-for-profit groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Foundation that avoid taxes or other expenses because of their status.

I agree with the Broadbent Institute conclusions:  Canadians have a right to an independent inquiry into whether or not the Harper government has overstepped its bounds by employing the CRA as a tool of its fascist policies.

For the record, has anyone started a petition to demand an inquiry?

Our markets are in a failing state, although no one is bold enough to call bullshit on what’s happening.

Every quarter, the US fed and other central banks pump hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into a failed financial system.

We fear the other option, but the more we put a lid on it, the more the pressure cooker will threaten to explode.

Will it happen in 2015?

I’ve decided that I will always refer to the vast infrastructure of deadly and environmentally damaging pipelines for crude and bitumen as ‘Python Pipelines’.

Once they come to be, they will strangle us until we can no longer resist them.

Pipelines serve to provide one thing:  institutionalized dependence.  As soon as they’re operational, there’s no going back.  There’s no dismantling or ripping out once pipe has been laid, regardless of how much they leak, spill, explode or fail.

Once pipelines are in place, we become strangled economically, socially and environmentally, much like our 400-series highways have become the stomping ground of mass truck transit.

We forget how to stop these things once they start.

We forget that there’s a better future or renewable energies, including wind, solar, geothermal, hydro-electric and other options that aren’t based on burning carbon resources, like cave men in the dark.

Our lives will be buried in bitumen, burning black tar until the end of time because it’s endless in Alberta.  Why would we turn away from something so ‘precious’, like the One Ring that will bind us all?

The only good news is that some day, we’ll have a government that believes in equity and justice for Canadians and not just being slaves to big oil.  When that happens, we’ll have a nice juicy pipeline tax waiting!

Coincidence?

When the Conservative bill is introduced, we have a ‘terrorist’ attack.

When the bill came up for discussion in the House of Commons a few weeks ago, we have a very ‘regular’ person going all out with blatant messages of attacking the Canadian government and various institutions.

Both events were grievous and cause for concern, but both smell worse than the PR campaign for The Interview.

Hmm.

Coincidence?

Or convenience?

Nearly identical words, aren’t they?

Just remember that we had the same kind of convenience when the Bush Administration was in charge, starting with the $2 trillion Pentagon accounting shortfall announced by Donald Rumsfeld on September 10, 2001 that was then buried by the tragic news the following day and perfectly crafted PATRIOT Act ready to implement within days of 9/11.

2015 must be about an EJECTion and not an ELECTion in Canada.

The Stephen Harper Conservatives must be ejected from the House of Commons if we as Canadians are ever going to move forward in the world.

It’s sad that the progressive voice in Canada has to band together to oppose something – ie. the Harper Conservatives – versus finding ways to vocalize things worth living for in Canada.

The sense of frustration and annoyance with all things Harper has reached a peak and Canadian voters are desperate for solutions.

I went to a Leadnow meeting recently that ultimately inspired my thoughts for the slogan ‘Ejection, not election’.  I admit that I’m kind of on the fence with Leadnow, as they skew and steer voters towards Liberals at the expense of the NDP and Greens, but so long as they commit to being neutral, they’ll be an effective platform for all progressive Canadians to oust the Harper Conservatives in 2015.

I do know this:  the NDP have failed at the federal level and the Liberals fail me.  The Greens are just libertarians in drag, so I will simply choose that person that shows the greatest likelihood of removing a federal Conservative from power.

Please do the same in 2015, regardless of your political views so that we can collectively EJECT the Harper Conservatives in 2015.

Just a few weeks ago, the Wild Rose Alliance (WRA) was in turmoil, but still offered to be a real threat against the provincial Conservatives.

They rose from nothing very quickly and they have faded to nothing almost as fast.

There’s a very important reason why:  our benevolent dictator wanted it that way.

The Wild Rose Party was (and still may be) a thorn in Harper’s side.

As it grew in popularity, it threatened the Conservatives at the local level, but also started to show signs of going national, or at least federal on a local level.  Alberta currently has 28 seats, with 10 new seats allocated in 2011, for a total of 38, or nearly 11.5% of the total seats available.  Prior to 2011, Alberta represented a slightly smaller portion, at 10%.

Fracturing any of that vote on the national level eliminates an important margin of error for the federal Cons, who rely on very small percentages to win majorities.  The CPC won 53% of available seats with just 39.6% of the popular vote.

Losing just a small handful of seats in Alberta to the Wild Rose party would end the Conservative majority.

To quell any possibility of majority upset at the national level, the provincial ‘rebellion’ had to be crushed, hence the ‘appointment’ of Jim Prentice (a competitor to Stephen Harper for the CPC crown) to ‘King of Alberta’.  He swooped in, decimated the reputation of the Wild Rosers (although they seemed to be doing a very good job of this themselves), brought the CPC ‘Big Tent’ approach to politics to Alberta, and that, as they say, was that.

Soon, Alison Redford crawled across the floor, shamefully turning on those that brought her and her new party to power.  This act of ‘crossing the floor’ is one of the most disgusting outcomes I can imagine for a politician because it proves all they are interested in is protecting themselves and not any greater vision that they might have stood for.  (For the record, this is very different than what I would love to see more of, which is negotiation among parties running our governments as minorities.)

To repeat, the end of the Wild Rose Party ensures 38 seats for the Cons, protecting their majority.

With that in mind, I don’t Canadians realize just how close the Cons came to losing the 2015 election on account of fractured voting in Alberta.  And as long as the Cons run Canada from a majority position, the longer they will crush and eliminate any institution that Canadians enjoy as Canadians, including democracy.