Take back democracy

Harper's government has fallen, the first in Canadian history to be found in contempt of Parliament. With insiders saying the opposition parties are finally willing to cooperate, this election could at last bring an end to this government's abuse of power, environmental destruction, and dismantling of democracy.

A majority of Canadians strongly oppose Harper, but our votes are split across 3 main opposition parties here in Nanaimo-Alberni, allowing James Lunney (C) to win with less than a majority of votes. 

Avaaz and Project Democracy are offering a tool to help fix this problem, which tells us which party has the most chance of defeating Harper in each riding. Only about 10% of us live in a close race, but if we vote strategically using this tool, all the opposition parties together could win a huge majority of Parliament!

With just two weeks to go before the election, we need to get the word out fast. The tool will be ready in a couple of days, but first we need the funding to launch a nationwide advertising and media campaign that rallies Canadians in close races to come together to use this tool. Avaaz used a similar tool in the 2008 election that opposition leaders said swung 6 seats away from the Conservatives! With just 10 seats separating Harper from the unchecked power of a majority government, small donations from just 5000 of us could make a massive difference to our country's future. Click below to donate:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/canada_take_back_democracy/?vl

Harper's government has launched a full scale assault on our democracy. He abused an arcane rule to shut down our parliament for months, bullied and fired civil service whistleblowers, ignored lawful requests for financial information, created a handbook on how to disrupt parliamentary meetings and processes, and flooded the airwaves with vicious attack ads. His cronies have cheated election laws, altered official documents and used their public office to raise money for re-election. Harper needs to subvert democracy because he knows the Canadian people do not support his ideology. His contempt for the Canada we've built is best summed up by what he called us when meeting with a group of radical right wing Americans. He said: "Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term."

For too long Canada has been ruled by the heavy-handed leader of a radical minority. At a time when democracy is on the march around the world, it's time to take back ours.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/canada_take_back_democracy/?vl