October 20, 2015

Thanks!

It’s been five months since Humans vs Harper took to social media to express our frustration and concern about the direction Harper was taking our country.

Since then, we posted over 100 articles and saw over 45,000 hits and 25,000 visitors to our blog. But we were just a small part of an unprecedented wave of anti-Harper sentiment on-line. Songs, Facebook pages, blogs, twitter handles, videos, photo posters, signs, stickers, and endless conversations among Canadians, all of which had the common goal of getting rid of Stephen Harper. Facebook pages with names like Heave Steve, Shit Harper Did, Stop Harper, Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper, and Women Against Stephen Harper illustrate the depth of anger and frustration.

This on-line movement fed on itself, expanded and exploded. As the reception grew, it’s momentum supported a fierce desire for change, for a new government. And that’s what we got. Even if we might have preferred a different result we celebrate the fact that through raising our voices we defeated a vile government.

Thanks to everyone who read our blog, who commented, who liked us, who signed up, who shared, who retweeted and favourited us. You kept us going all these months and you defeated Harper. In the coming months, we’ll all see what we can make of this new beginning.

VOTE! You Know You Want To

It’s Election Day. This post is going live at midnight in Newfoundland, so if it is still October 18 where you are reading it, go to bed. You have work to do in the morning.
We have two videos for you, one serious and one funny. That’s how divided we are after this endless campaign. We hope we come out laughing, but only after the serious work of voting is done.
Here’s the first one. Under 90 seconds, a couple of hundred words, and great graphics.

And here’s one last song to sing on your way to the polls, by Paul Kolinski.

When you go to vote, be sure to take some ID with photo and address (e.g., driver’s licence) OR two pieces of ID, one with photo, one with address. Remember: You don’t have to be registered to vote. More information here and here.
So go vote. Vote as if your future depends on it. Believe us  ̵  it does.

Canada Spirit–A Super Hero for Our Time

Hey Con Party – Don’t Stop on Your Way Out

Here we decided to echo all the  wonderful STOP Harper messaging that has criss crossed the country for years by naming all the top rank Tory candidates we all want to STOP  – the elite of what we now call the Con Party.  We know them collectively as We Who Obey and individually as MPs and cabinet ministers who never did and never intended to do a good job for all the Canadians they were sworn to serve. And, since honesty is always the best policy, we’re gladly confessing that we want to STOP every single Conservative who is running for federal office from sea to sea to sea. That sure would be one hell of a shining moment!

I Used to Vote Conservative

Humans vs Harper has noticed that a new kind of Twelve-Step program has sprung up all over the land. Harper-No-More offers support groups for people who used to vote Conservative, but now deeply understand they’ve hit bottom and need to change their ways.

While Canadians of all ages are joining the Harper-No-More groups, there were a lot of white hairs at the meeting we attended. Over 50s who have voted Conservative for 30 or more years have an especially hard time kicking the habit.

Behind The TPP Curtain: Harper’s Secret Free Trade Deal

Here at Humans vs. Harper, we have not read the text of the secret Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. We’re willing to bet that you have not seen the highly complicated thousand-page-plus text either.

Obviously, the 12 governments negotiating the deal have the text. And, it’s highly likely that the dozens and dozens of corporate lobbyists working to make sure the deal immensely strengthens corporate power internationally have also seen the text. It’s worth noting that the full text of the 1988 Canada – U.S. free trade agreement – our first ever free trade agreement – was publically available for months before the deal was finalized.

Meanwhile, the TPP may well be the greatest corporate gravy train ever, but, once underway,

Where’s Harpo?

Conservative Candidates don’t show up for all-candidates meetings in ridings all across the country. Someone orders them not to attend. Do the orders come from Harper himself, or is someone else pulling the strings?

Not showing up, however, is a prime ministerial tradition that Mr. Harper started all by himself. Here are some of the places we would expect leadership from the prime minister, but Harper just didn’t show up.

Who Wants to Be Prime Minister?

Steve and Arthur and Every Breath You Take – Ten Questions

Humans vs. Harper keeps learning more and more about Stephen Harper and his right wing evangelical gun-toting posse. We’ve recently learned that his official Conservative Party lawyer is a fellow evangelical by the name of Arthur Hamilton.

Arthur and Steve have been together since the founding of the Conservative Party in

Election Junket

We zoom in on a conversation between Joseph and Mary, two investigators from the Organization for Security and Economic Co-operation (OSEC) in Europe.

Mary: Did you read the e-mail on our next assignment?

Joseph: Yeah. They’re sending us to Canada. What’s up with that?

Mary: You haven’t heard about what’s going on in Canada?

Joseph: No, haven’t heard. I’m looking forward to a little junket. Maybe a stop over in New York on the way, maybe a side trip to Montreal. I’m thinking the guys in admin finally noticed the good work I’ve been doing and decided to reward me by not sending me to the Ukraine. Either that or you slipped them a couple of bills –