Harper the Disgrace

[ReeferMadness]

I am no Harper fan but do you really believe that 'almost all' independent smart people think Harper is a race-baiting scum. You spend a lot of time and energy attacking his supporters. Why not just focus on the issues.

They don't all use those words but yeah, I think that the vast majority of independent people who follow this sort of thing are either saying it or hinting it. Did you see the open letter signed by almost 600 academics who called him out for it?

And I think that Harper's race-baiting tactics is an issue. And a big one.

[ReeferMadness]

Only really dumb people are saying things like that.

Like the 600 dumb academics who signed the open letter?

I guess you think smart people believe in conversion therapy.

[WestCoastRunner]

They don't all use those words but yeah, I think that the vast majority of independent people who follow this sort of thing are either saying it or hinting it. Did you see the open letter signed by almost 600 academics who called him out for it?

e.

So why not let that speak for itself? Why the need to bait Harper supporters?

[Bryan]

Like the 600 dumb academics who signed the open letter?

If they said what you said, yeah, really dumb.

I guess you think smart people believe in conversion therapy.

It exists whether you choose to believe in it or not.

[BC_chick]

RM is right, academics generally do not support Harper. It's not baiting to say that, it's a fact. Look halfway down the page, only 24% of university educated support him.

http://ipolitics.ca/2015/05/29/the-ekos-poll-canadians-warming-to-the-idea-of-coalition-government.

I remember reading somewhere than something like 45% of Ph.D.'s support Mulcair.

Edit: I found where I read it... "Support for the Conservatives is highest among the least educated (34%) and lowest among the most educated (19%), while the opposite applies with the NDP (35% and 45%, respectively)," Forum Research stated on its website."

http://www.straight.com/news/500721/ndp-under-thomas-mulcair-opens-large-lead-first-poll-after-federal-election-called

Edited October 11, 2015 by BC_chick

[bush_cheney2004]

Giller winning author Joseph Boyden calls out Harper for US-style politics.

Now this is the Canada that I know....always going to the sure fire "race baiting" using Americans and their politics. It is a Canadian electoral tradition when all else fails.

It was PM Harper who apologized for more than a century of First Nations abuse in residential schools, mostly on the Liberals watch.

BTW, can Neil Young even vote in the election? He's been living on his ranch in California far longer than five years.

[capricorn]

Giller winning author Joseph Boyden calls out Harper for US-style politics.

On a lark, I looked up this author. Turns out he lives in New Orleans, not in Canada. It appears we have an unhappy ex-pat probably mad as hell he can't vote in Canada. His politics certainly do not appear to align with Harper's.

During a telephone interview from New Orleans, where he lives with his wife, novelist Amanda Boyden, and where he was readying himself for a fall tour that will include events across Canada, he worked through his book’s darker concerns, including its graphic descriptions of the torture performed by the Huron and Iroquois, and expressed his dismay at contemporary society’s darker corners, too.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/joseph-boyden-tackles-native-torture-colonial-amnesia-and-ongoing-racism/article14308176/?page=all

[bush_cheney2004]

On a lark, I looked up this author. Turns out he lives in New Orleans, not in Canada. It appears we have an unhappy ex-pat probably mad as hell he can't vote in Canada. His politics certainly do not appear to align with Harper's.

Yep...pretty easy to throw election season grenades when you and family live far away...."south of the border".

[waldo]

On a lark, I looked up this author. Turns out he lives in New Orleans, not in Canada. It appears we have an unhappy ex-pat probably mad as hell he can't vote in Canada. His politics certainly do not appear to align with Harper's.

on a lark, I looked up further... finding references that state he divides his time between Louisiana and the James Bay area of Ontario. You have provided no foundation to presume the author's split residencies haven't allowed him to keep his voting right. Nice try though - perhaps you might, on a lark, take a spin at countering what he states within that linked article.

[eyeball]

And I think that Harper's race-baiting tactics is an issue. And a big one.

I'll second that.

[dialamah]

Another small lapse in ethics ...

"Bernd Walter, who heads the B.C. Review Board that handles Schoenborn’s file, called Harper’s statements “either deliberately misleading or woefully misinformed.”

“I would suggest that the prime minister ... (has) never demonstrated any sound or deep understanding of how the legal system works,” he said.

Research paid for by his own government doesn’t support Harper’s position and instead the ad will only further stigmatize the mentally ill, he added."

[poochy]

They don't all use those words but yeah, I think that the vast majority of independent people who follow this sort of thing are either saying it or hinting it. Did you see the open letter signed by almost 600 academics who called him out for it?

And I think that Harper's race-baiting tactics is an issue. And a big one.

You put way too much stock in who is an academic, it's almost as though you think they must be smarter that other people, maybe smarter than you, but don't project that upon the rest. Btw, how many 'academics' are there in Canada, what fraction is the 600? Can you not see how irrelevant that is? No, really, CAN you? Of course and as usual, even if you could, you wouldn't care, it's just another non issue to screech about. FYi, i didn't sign the letter.

Edited October 11, 2015 by poochy

[poochy]

RM is right, academics generally do not support Harper. It's not baiting to say that, it's a fact. Look halfway down the page, only 24% of university educated support him.

http://ipolitics.ca/2015/05/29/the-ekos-poll-canadians-warming-to-the-idea-of-coalition-government.

I remember reading somewhere than something like 45% of Ph.D.'s support Mulcair.

Edit: I found where I read it... "Support for the Conservatives is highest among the least educated (34%) and lowest among the most educated (19%), while the opposite applies with the NDP (35% and 45%, respectively)," Forum Research stated on its website."

http://www.straight.com/news/500721/ndp-under-thomas-mulcair-opens-large-lead-first-poll-after-federal-election-called

Perhaps someone should study the correlations between the relative number of programs that are more frequented by people who tend to be left leaning in general, for example, how many conservative voters are taking a native and gender studies program?.., perhaps there is a little more to the numbers than the screechers would like people to know, Then considering the relative uselessness of most humanities programs combined with the relative stupidity of those who populate and teach them we could come up with some solid answers about the intellect or lack thereof of these so called 'academics' who don't support the conservatives. We could use former NDP candidate Alex Johnstone as a starting point for this premise, a school trustee, apparently one of these vaunted 'academics' with a graduate degree in Race, Class, Gender Dynamics In Interdisciplinary Teams, which didn't know what Auschwitz was. No doubt she would have signed the letter as an 'academic' if asked. Or maybe this garbage about 'academics' signing a letter should be forgotten for what it is, garbage, i am as much or more of an academic than most of them.

Edited October 11, 2015 by poochy

[dialamah]

You put way too much stock in who is an academic, it's almost as though you think they must be smarter that other people, maybe smarter than you, but don't project that upon the rest.

Not smarter; more informed. More tolerant. More ability to employ some critical thinking skills where needed. Many non-academics are smart enough, but don't necessarily think all that well.

[dialamah]

i am as much or more of an academic than most of them.

Do you know all the people who signed that list?

Edited October 11, 2015 by dialamah

[angrypenguin]

Not smarter; more informed. More tolerant. More ability to employ some critical thinking skills where needed. Many non-academics are smart enough, but don't necessarily think all that well.

Or more naive. Academics usually can't cut it in the real world hence why they are stuck at school

[Argus]

It must be depressing when almost all of the independent, smart people say that your guy is a race-baiting scum. I can see why you find it easier to push your head further into the sand than think for yourself.

It would be easier to respond to brainless opinions like this if there were just one or two threads where you express your horror and outrage that anyone questions the niqab so I wouldn't have to repeat myself.

Let's recap though. The niqab first became a political issue when the Parti Quebecois, sensing the mood of Quebecers, brought in their Values Charter. The charter had overwhelming support among Quebecers, and I recall a lot of talk at the time that a lot of people in Ontario thought it a pretty good idea, too. Then the Liberals of Quebec won election and they said they would be introducing a modified version of the same law. When a woman was refused permission to take an oath with her mask on she went to court, and Jason Kenney, the then minister, fought the decision. Polls showed overwhelming support among Canadians at that time, and those polls have continued to show the same thing. Canadians don't like the niqab. Back in March, well before an election was called, a global news poll showed support for banning it at 88% across Canada.

You ideologues of the left are trying to pretend Harper is leading the parade. He's not. He simply jumped on he bandwagon. You're calling him scum not because he's race baiting, not because he's leading this opinion, but because he won't denounce it. But it's not Harper who should be the target of your hatred, it's Canadians. Because none of them agree with you. Great majorities across all political parties, across gender, race and age all agree with Harper. Even immigrants agree with him. About the only people who agree with you are some fundamentalist Muslims, and the desperately politically correct academic and media elites of central Canada.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Argus

[Argus]

I ask you, why are the opposition parties not all over this?

Uhm, because they know that, like supporting the niqab, it's a sure fire vote loser?

Despite what the academic and media elites think or do or say Canadians support this bill, just like they support the government on the niqab

[Argus]

Only really dumb people are saying things like that.

Not just dumb, ideological zealots of the far left.

[ToadBrother]

Or more naive. Academics usually can't cut it in the real world hence why they are stuck at school

And just how many academics have you ever encountered?

[Argus]

Not smarter; more informed. More tolerant.

Uhm, academics are, in my experience, the least tolerant people in Canada.

And one thing you lefties are all forgetting. They all suck on the public teat. Of course they favour leftist governments and parties and notions because that means more money for them, and less questioning about why they get paid so much and produce so little. The biggest scam job in Canada is being a university professor. You spend almost no time teaching, and it really doesn't matter if you're any good at it, anyway because you can't be fired. Instead you write learned discourses on subjects no one cares about or ever reads and publish them in newsletters and journals only read by like-minded people.

[ToadBrother]

Uhm, academics are, in my experience, the least tolerant people in Canada.

---SNIP---

Please do tell what your experience with academia is?

Edited October 12, 2015 by Charles Anthony
[---SNIP---]

[Shady]

Uhm, academics are, in my experience, the least tolerant people in Canada.

---SNIP---

Exactly. It's one giant politically correct echo chamber. Where conservatives speakers are forbidden from speaking. Edited October 12, 2015 by Charles Anthony
[---SNIP---]

[Argus]

And just how many academics have you ever encountered?

I've encountered far too many myself. I think my first was with my political science professor who spent much of his classes telling us how wonderful life was in the Soviet Union, and how awful it was in the US. We wound up yelling at each other in open class, believe it or not. A number of times. All too many academics seem to be utterly committed to whatever they believe, and will cling to it by their fingernails rather than admitting they're wrong. They also tend to live in a very inbred environment insofar as opinions, cultures and values go, and tend to be outraged whenever they encounter one which is outside their narrowly defined range of acceptability.

[dialamah]

Exactly. It's one giant politically correct echo chamber. Where conservatives speakers are forbidden from speaking.

Actually, it's getting to the point where almost anyone can be forbidden to speak, right or left. That's sad, isn't it?