By Gary Shaul, Catch 22 campaign

Johannes Wheeldon writes an excellent piece in The Mark (and also posted on our fb page) about engaging the youth vote and reinvigorating Canadian politics at the same time.

How Can Canada Entice Young…

There now, if you’re a typical “undecided” Canadian, you just might believe our headline!



We may not like what the Harperites are doing, but we have to admit they know how to sell their ideas to the public: Repetition changes minds!



Recent opinion polls indicate that the majority of Canadians don’t like the idea of corporate tax cuts, but the Conservatives keep hammering away with their short, mesmerizing mantra.

“Astute politicians use repetition to…

Posted by Nick Fillmore of Catch 22



The Harper Conservatives are very fortunate to have convicted serial defamer and propagandist Ezra Levant and the Family Compact of Canadian right-wing newspapers in their corner.



The Harperites have been taking…

By Kathleen O'Hara, Catch 22 campaign

Stephen Harper’s reaffirmation last Sunday of his Tough on Crime agenda just days after conservative American Newt Gingrich’s public denunciation of the lock ‘em up approach…

By Nick Fillmore, Catch 22 campaign

Just about every day here at Catch 22 we shake our heads in bewilderment because of the ongoing antics, bullheadedness and incompetence of the Harper Conservatives.

Today we’re focusing again on the F-35 stealth fighter aircraft that Harper is determined to buy from the U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.



The government’s plans to spend perhaps as much as $21-billion to buy what some critics in the U.S. and Europe are now…

Posted by John Deverell, Catch 22 campaign

Paul Godfrey has turned his attention from promoting US baseball and football in Toronto to helping Stephen Harper remake Canada’s parliament in the Conservative mould. Godfrey, a lifelong Conservative and former chairman of Metro Toronto, this summer led Postmedia Network Inc. in the acquisition from the collapsing Asper empire of the newspaper assets of Canwest Global.



Godfrey, fronting a consortium anchored by…

Stephen Harper is a man who will stand firm in his convictions through thick and thin, provided there is absolutely no one who manages to question them. His ability to avoid questions regarding his more unpopular views is astounding. I like to imagine Stephen Harper in his office on Parliament hill, sweating bullets, ruing the day that some brave soul might publicly question him about the fact that he, the supposedly “progressive” conservative Prime Minister, ran the National Citizen’s…

Posted by Nick Filllmore, Catch 22

The spark that led a group of volunteers to set up Catch 22 Harper Conservatives just about a year ago was Stephen Harper’s rash and heavily criticized move to shut down Parliament for 22 days. This was done to prevent the public from knowing more about who in his government knew what about allegations of torture made prisoners turned…

Posted by Gary Shaul, Catch 22 campaign

The December 2009 prorogation of Parliament was one of Stephen Harper's major abuses of power that helped to launch the Catch 22 Harper Conservatives campaign. In our view, the only consequences that Harper understands are those at the ballot box.

Aaron Wherry at Macleans provides a timely summary of the Harper government's addiction to prorogation.…

Posted by Nick Fillmore of Catch 22

Canadians – known around the world as a friendly folk who are calm and collected – certainly take a lot of crap before they really get upset.



Considering the way the Conservatives have seriously damaged so many things that most Canadians value, it’s amazing that only a minority of citizens are seriously fed up with Harperantics.



Surprisingly, only 38 per cent of Canadians say they are worse off now compared to when…

Posted by Steve Ferris - Kitchener, Ontario

Against a backdrop of American soul searching over the Tucson shooting spree that killed six and wounded thirteen, the Harper Conservatives have launched a negative TV ad campaign against Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff. In so doing, the Conservatives have taken a step toward brewing a toxic political environment that, some…

Posted by Nick Fillmore, Catch 22

Stephen Harper says he personally favours the death penalty in some instances – but he has no plans to resurrect debate over capital punishment, at least not in the next Parliament.



Harper made the comment Tuesday night during a relaxed, chummy discussion with CBC-TV’s Peter Mansbridge.…

Posted by Nick Fillmore of Catch 22

The Harperites are playing games with us again.

The Conservative Party launched a new television advertising campaign today, “warning” Canadians that evil Michael Ignatieff is willing to go to any lengths – including cooperation with separatists – to force an election and win power in Ottawa by forming an unholy coalition.

The Conservatives explain on their…

Stephen Harper hoped to go into a spring election and “scare the beejeepers out of the audience.”

This is the opinion of Alberta blogger David J. Climenhaga.

Harper and the Conservatives are expected to continue their strategy of dividing Canadians, and they hope they can scare enough people into voting them into a majority in the House of Commons.

“ . . . the definitive sounding…

Posted by Nick Fillmore of Catch 22



Stephen Harper has a scheme that he hopes will cripple the ability of other political parties, particularly the Liberal Party, to mount strong campaigns against his radically right-wing Conservative Party in future elections.

Harper says he will campaign in the next election to eliminate direct public financing for political parties. If successful, Harper would…

Posted by Nick Fillmore of Catch 22

You have to give credit to Stephen Harper on one point. When it comes to political strategy and unethical behaviour he's tops in keeping his band of misfits in power in Ottawa.



For instance, Harper stood his ground in September 2009, watching Jack Layton and the NDP “blink” and, along with the Bloc, vote in favour of the budget. In effect, this allowed the Conservative gravy train to stay on the tracks.



At other times, he…

Posted by John Deverell of Catch 22

Stephen Harper’s prison expansion program promises to double in five years the cost of keeping Canadian criminals behind federal bars. What now costs $4.3 billion per year will be pushed to $9.3 billion per year.

Our minority PM is aping an American right wing law and order agenda which has proved to be a costly failure, and which is now rejected by one of the leading US conservative nutters, Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich…

Posted by Anne Crossman, Catch 22

Harper’s use of the word “ethical” is pretty far-fetched. Folks are not going to listen to this argument about how we are so much better than all those other guys. Here’s what he said in an article in Saturday’s Globe and Mail by Steven Chase.



Harper’s embrace of ‘ethical’ oil…