Stop Harper? Or Stop Democracy?

Most of you reading this will not be from Canada. So I will give you a quick rundown. For the past several years the Canadian Prime Minister is a man named Stephen Harper. He became Prime Minister as he leads the Conservative party which has the most seats in parliament. Though the Conservatives had the most seats they did not have most of the seats. Most of the seats were split up amongst three other parties. All this changed on May 2nd. The other three parties got together at the end of March and decided to force an election, which was set for May 2nd. Stephen Harper and his Conservative party then ended up with most of the seats in Parliament through a process known as "democracy" Canadians vote for the party they want in power. There is a very vocal, small, minority in Canada who have a hard time accepting democracy and the fact the Conservatives won the election. That is what this post is about.

Last week a Senate page named Brigette DePape stood in the middle of the senate floor holding a cute sign that said "Stop Harper" while the Governor General was making a speech. You can read about what happened here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/06/03/pol-senate-page.html

The Conservative-hating CBC news was quick to give Ms DePape plenty of publicity for her stunt. She talked of Canada needing an 'Canadian Spring' similar to the Arab Spring going on the in the middle east. Some people have tried to compare her to the person laying in front of a tank in Tienanmen Square. As Chad Ochocinco would say, Child Please!

The tank guy and Arab Spring protesters were/are fighting for democracy. They are fighting for what we have. To choose their leaders. Like we did. On May 2nd. When Canada chose Stephen Harper. If anything Ms Depape has more in common with the person driving the tank than the guy laying in front of it. By holding up a sign saying "Stop Harper" you are encouraging the overthrow of a democratically elected leader. Someone who was elected a MONTH earlier.

Now, I am not a Harper supporter. I actually vote Libertarian. I do respect democracy though. And, contrary to what Ms DePape and her narrow circle of activist friends might think, in a democracy power goes to the one who gets the most votes. Not to the one who yells the loudest. The fact is Stephen Harper became Prime Minister the same way every other Canadian Prime Minister came to power. More Canadians see Harper as less undesirable than the other candidates. Those other candidates included a Quebec separatist, an egotistical socialist, and an even more egotistical ivory tower academic who spent most of his adult life outside Canada.

So what brings someone like Brigitte DePape to do what she did. Well, it is obvious she is an attention seeker. She even admitted her little stunt would not accomplish anything. Why does she have such a hard time accepting democracy though. I have an answer for you if you are prepared to read between the lines. If Ms DePape were truly being honest with herself and the country this is the sign she would have been holding: