Garth Turner: 60 reasons not to vote for Stephen Harper

From Garth Turner's blog:

Sixty reasons not to vote for Stephen Harper.

1. Smearing MP Nav Bains’ father-in-law as being a potential terrorist, in the House of Commons.
2. Heritage Minister Bev Oda spending $5,000 on Halifax limos to arrive in style at the Juno awards.
3. Harper’s broken promise on high gas prices, saying “get used to it” after being elected.
4. Refusing to lower Canadian flags to honour our fallen military heroes.
5. Pushing recognition of “the Quebecois as a nation” through Parliament in order to win seats in that province.
6. Stacking the judiciary with pro-Conservative judges.
7. David Emerson
8. Security Minister Stockwell Day denying he bought off a former MP to secure a seat in Parliament.
9. Canceling the Kelowna Accord, cutting off talks with first nations’ leaders and refusing to deal with the Caledonia crisis.
10. Fudging the costs of government jets used by Stephen Harper and his ministers after blasting Liberals for the same thing.
11. Promising investors a break on capital gains taxes and then abandoning it after being elected.
12. Dredging up anti-gay sentiments by forcing another vote in Parliament on same-sex marriage.
13. John Baird’s partisanship.
14. Parliamentary secretary Pierre Poilievre’s hand gestures in Parliament and F-word comments in committee.
15. Refusing to allow media coverage of the return home of our Afghan war dead, without consulting the families.
16. Broken promise on providing a health care waiting time guarantee.
17. Spending more money in a single year than any other government in Canadian history, stoking inflation and threatening higher interest rates.
18. Broken promise on taxing income trusts.
19. Deporting hardworking, tax-paying resident Portuguese drywallers.
20. Conservative MP Colin Mayes writing a column saying journalists who disagree with Harper should be jailed.
21. Doing nothing about climate change or the environment for more than a year, and until forced to by the polls.
22. Making a former lobbyist for military arms dealers the minister of defence, in charge of $15 billion in spending.
23. Orchestrating a secret dirty tricks campaign against Bob Rae inside the Liberal leadership convention.
24. Preaching Senate reform, then appointing Michael Fortier to the Senate so he could be made an unelected cabinet minister.
25. Spending $150,000 per weapon to arm border guards.
26. Rona Ambrose, as environment minister, firing a government scientist for writing a book on global warming.
27. Stacking a stem cell research advisory committee with pro-life Conservatives.
28. Muzzling Conservative MPs and banning them from unauthorized media interviews.
29. Saying opposition MPs have “more passion for Taliban prisoners” than they do for Canadian soldiers.
30. Trying to dismantle the Canada Wheat Board and sacking its president.
31. Attempts to block access of the Parliamentary Press Gallery to the prime minister and cabinet. Secret timing of cabinet meetings.
32. Refusing to apologize for wiping out $25 billion in private savings with one tax measure, a great deal of it belonging to seniors.
33. Supporting Calgary Conservative MP Rob Anders’ bogus nomination process, later overturned by the courts.
34. Trying to buy the 2007 Quebec election with a 34% increase in transfer payments.
35. Refusal to even consider honouring the Kyoto Accord, or come up with a credible alternative, until forced to by Parliament.
36. Appointing Liberal MP Wajid Khan as a mid-east advisor to write a public report for Harper, then refusing to release it after he defected.
37. Claiming the Air India inquiry depended on anti-terrorism act amendments that opposition MPs opposed, when lawyers said it did not.
38. Blacking out pages on reasons for taxing income trusts when released under freedom of information.
39. Broken promise to cut the GST by a second point.
40. Raising personal income tax rate for the lowest bracket to help pay for record government spending.
41. Vowing to dismantle gun registry after fatal shooting in Montreal with registered weapons.
42. Cabinet minister Peter Van Loan botching the electoral reform commission hearings.
43. Cutting the Energuide program for low-income homeowners and replacing it with a new one for higher-income homeowners.
44. Kicking out Garth Turner.
45. Firing Conservative Senators Hugh Segal and Michael Meighan from committee work for independent thinking.
46. Threatening Conservative MPs with loss of party status if they talked about funding cuts that affect their constituents.
47. Constant campaigning, rather than governing.
48. Not a single new child care space after promising 125,000 would be created in first Conservative mandate.
49. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty spending $400 on a pair of skates while bringing in budget for “working families.”
50. Promising a lean government, then bloating the cabinet by six more people, with cars and drivers.
51. Snubbing two of the world’s fastest-growing economies and most promising trading partners, China and India.
52. Not allowing Conservative MPs to debate government policies in caucus.
53. Cutting funding to literacy programs, then sending Laureen Harper to a literacy event.
54. Attacking Stephane Dion as “not as leader” in a massive TV ad campaign two weeks after he is elected leader.
55. Breaking promises to provinces, including Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan, over transfer payments, while showering Quebec.
56. Politicizing the police and the military.
57. Linking a vote on pension income-splitting for seniors to taxing income trusts.
58. Cutting funding to women’s programs only to restore it after staff was fired.
59. Accusing those concerned with human rights of being soft on crime, soft on terror and bashing police.
60. Forcing an early election in 2007, breaking a legislated promise to have the next vote in 2009