{"id":193304,"date":"2015-10-21T19:49:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T19:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=193304"},"modified":"2015-10-21T19:49:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T19:49:32","slug":"high-stakes-cleaning-harper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/politics\/high-stakes-cleaning-harper\/","title":{"rendered":"High Stakes \u2014 Cleaning Up After Harper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canadians couldn\u2019t have been much clearer on Monday when they hit the polls in numbers that haven\u2019t been see for decades: The Harper era is history after some ten years of Conservative rule led by outgoing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Elected with a decisive majority, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada have been given a mandate for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/canada-election-2015-voting-results-polls-1.3278537\">change<\/a>. Canadians were no doubt sick of the <a href=\"http:\/\/ipolitics.ca\/2015\/10\/17\/how-harper-ended-up-shooting-himself-in-the-foot-over-the-niqab\/\">divisive politics<\/a>, our crumbling <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/world\/2013\/11\/23\/canadas_real_international_shame_and_its_not_ford_burman.html\">international reputation<\/a>, our fragile <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2015\/09\/01\/us-canada-economy-idUSKCN0R13S620150901\">resource-burdened<\/a> economy, and a government who was relentless in its bidding for <a href=\"http:\/\/climateactionnetwork.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/CAN_Dirty_Oil_Diplomacy.pdf\">Big Oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Harper years will be reflected on as the darkest in Canada\u2019s environmental history. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/technology\/faq-the-issues-around-muzzling-government-scientists-1.3079537\">Muzzled<\/a> federal scientists, the gutting of decades\u2019 worth of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theharperdecade.com\/blog\/2015\/4\/18\/the-erosion-of-environmental-protection-and-public-environmental-information\">environmental regulations<\/a>, the steamrolling of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theharperdecade.com\/blog\/2015\/7\/14\/harpers-10-year-war-on-first-nations\">First Nations Rights,<\/a> the demise of Canada\u2019s climate leadership on the world stage, the removal of the public from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/neb-hearings-application-form-called-undemocratic-1.1364177\">public consultation<\/a> processes \u2014 the list is long and tragic.<\/p>\n<p>There is a common thread that weaves through all of these scandals: The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tarsandsrealitycheck.com\/\">Alberta tar sands<\/a>, Canada\u2019s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution. The Harper government made it a priority to ensure nothing stood in the way of its rapid, unfettered, and unregulated development. At a time when governments and world leaders were promising action on climate change, Canada was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2011\/dec\/13\/canada-pulls-out-kyoto-protocol\">abandoning<\/a> international climate treaties, and treating the first decade of the century as though the looming climate crisis was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/opinion\/commentary\/2015\/04\/20\/canada-an-international-laggard-on-climate-change.html\">non existent<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With Harper and his government turfed to the back benches of parliament, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals face some unprecedented challenges in rebuilding the Canada that Canadians want. A Canada that punches above its weight when it comes to global challenges like climate change, and a Canada that takes justice, equity, and human rights seriously.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/views\/2015\/10\/21\/high-stakes-cleaning-after-harper\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canadians couldn\u2019t have been much clearer on Monday when they hit the polls in numbers that haven\u2019t been see for decades: The Harper era is history after some ten years of Conservative rule led by outgoing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Elected with a decisive majority, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada have been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":193373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,17,1616],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-193304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-politics","9":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}