We all know that Stephen Harper hasn’t been very accessible. I’m pretty sure his party is worried that if people actually got to know Mr. Harper and what he stands for, no one would actually support him. So the Conservative flacks limit his exposure.
He only takes five questions at a time from media that he trusts. When he’s done his five answers, he’s whisked away. A Stephen Harper Town Hall? Forget about it. He certainly doesn’t take questions from average Canadians.
We also know that the Conservative Party only invites Conservatives to their campaign events and rallies. Even if you have an invite to one of their events, they have campaign staff on hand to check your Facebook. If they don’t like that they see you get the ole Harper boot.
When it comes to candidate’s debates, the Conservatives are often absent. Just look at the headlines: “Tory a no-show at poverty debate”. “Conservative incumbent a no-show”. “Missing: Another Conservative Candidate in BC”. “Town Hall meeting proceeds despite Minister no-show”. The Globe and Mail did a story, which I can’t find right now, but I’d say 95 per cent of their listed no-shows were Conservative candidates. Shame!
Most notably, they’ve been no-shows at some of the highest profile First Nations-organized events.
Harper’s soldiers were absent from an AFN Town Hall held earlier this week in Toronto. They skipped out on a recent Assembly of Manitoba Chief’s debate organized in Winnipeg. They we also no-shows in all-candidates events held in Wasauksing and Edmonton.
Why would they skip out on trying to court the First Nation vote, I wonder? Are they not proud of their record? Are they not proud of their Aboriginal platform? Are they not afraid of questions and accountability?
Or are they ambivalent about First Nations issues? Are our issues not important to them? Perhaps they don’t care about First Nations poverty, education, health status and our aboriginal and treaty rights?
Perhaps they are like Harper and are afraid we’ll actually get to know them, and find our what they stand for.
