Controversial
in Calgary, Alberta (AB), Canada

* Not Impressed by Warped Billing Scams, writes "In a follow-up to a concern I had about Shaw's practice of upgrading services on my street without notifying me that my plan (Warp Speed) was now obsoleted and replaced by Broadband 50 and continuing to bill me at $30 per month MORE for 50% of the actual speed now available from upgrade, I stopped in at my Shaw office today. I asked if any upgrade notification had gone out to affected customers who were paying more than the current price for the current system, and the answer was NO..."

* Feeling Cheated in Cumberland, British Columbia, writes "Telecom and internet companies in general don't seem to have the greatest reputation when it comes to their ever-changing packages/plans, and I'm VERY sorry to say that I feel a bit cheated by Shaw by the way in which my loyalty of several years was mistreated when they upgraded their services and pricing in my region and didn't automatically apply those changes, nor even inform me of the opportunity to save money and get better service..."

* Web Worker on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, writes "I LOVE Shaw Internet! I have been using their services for many years and compared to other providers, Shaw is number one for quality of connectivity, customer support, and pricing. Bumping up from ADSL to cable was a treat in itself, but the added perks of just being a Shaw customer just made the whole package that much sweeter..."

* Mixed Feelings in Courtenay, British Columbia, writes "I've been using and working with the Internet since its inception. Having endured the growing pains of so many different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) over the years, I was delightfully surprised and relieved by the exceptional quality of product and service by "Shaw". As an Internet Service Provider, Shaw has served my needs extremely well, and at competitive prices. BUT, when I tried to figure out, who owns Shaw (now) and what Shaw owns, I learned more about this company and its interests, than I wish I ever had..."

* Philip R in Richmond, British Columbia, writes "Weighing harper: For the average taxpayer, since harper got in power, what has been the loss versus gain. Obviously the republican sorry conservative party bends to the will of big global business. But surely there has been some benefit that the cons have layed upon the people..."

* Ann C in Ottawa, Ontario, writes "I have just sent this to Bob Rae and Nicole Turmel, and a similar message to Elizabeth May and Daniel Paillé. If the Liberals, NDP, Green Party and Bloc would all agree to UNOCCUPY Parliament until the government convenes a Royal Commission on voter fraud it could be a way of Stopping Harper..."

* Casey in Brampton, Ontario, writes "This CON government will not listen to reason and are making a sham of our democratic process. Harper needs to be stopped and now..."

* No More Double Duping Canadians, writes "When Stephen Harper and his Conservative corporate gang in Ottawa talk about making old folks work into later years before getting pensions, is he willing to extend the same pension qualification dates to Members of Parliament, elected and annointed officials as well? And is His Highness slating deep cuts into MP/Senate salaries and pensions too? And what about double dipping for brief goverment stints? Are MPs and other officials going to be cut back to just one reasonable pension, proportional to the actual years of their work history - like most other Canadians (who pay for all these pensions in the end)..."

* Robots Don't Get to Vote in My Canada, writes "This latest Stephen Harper Conservative scandal involving serious allegations of criminal voter fraud in the May 2011 election does not surprise me in the least. It has been my experience that individuals and groups which tend to talk about ethics the most seem to have the greatest lack thereof. Ethical people and organizations are known as such because they simply, are such..."

* Louisette L in Waterloo, Ontario, writes "Technically, the Tory Party can remove Stephen Harper as their leader even if he his the Prime Minister. I propose a massive email campaign or petition campaign so we can formally request the removal of Stephen Harper as Tory leader..."

* Of Hornet's Nests And Sticks, writes "According to a report by The Canadian Press on 2012.02.17, Conservative cabinet minister Tony Clement stated that the [Harper] government aimed to "protect society better" in the scrapping of the gun registry and the new online surveilance bill. If you poke a stick into a hornet's nest, and angry protective hornets terrorize an otherwise calm neighbourhood, one could make arguments to use expensive toxic poisons to "protect" the "hornet ravaged" community. But why not just DON'T poke sticks in hornet's nests in the first place..."

* Wendy H in Trenton, Ontario, writes "Stephen Harper is single-handedly destroying my Canada. I love this country but he is turning it into a place that I recognize less every day. Why are we allowing this dictatorship in a country that was strong and free, that was open and socially fair, that was kind and peace-loving..."

* Len W in Bowser, British Columbia, writes "Stephen Harper should be removed from Ottawa forthwith. There are absolutely NO constructive terms to describe what Harper has and is doing to the once soverign nation of Canada. I still cannot understand how 60% of voters voted AGAINST HIM and he is not the so called leader of the country. Something needs to change with our political system. This is not democracy..."

* Oil Energy is Crude, writes "Mr. Harper, you should cool your jets before rushing into lacing toxic tar sands oil pipelines across our Canadian landscape. The latest ExxonMobil pipeline spill of 42,000 gallons (I figure you probably understand American better than Canadian) into the Yellowstone River (Montana) should be proof enough that with "state-of-the-art" pipeline technology, your oil giant buddies cannot be trusted with the safety of our environment and economies..."

* 48,000 Canadian Workers DENIED Collective Bargaining!, writes "RE: Stephen Harper's conservative government siding with management, by introducing anti-union legislation, effectively denying 48,000 Canadian workers' their basic democratic right to free collective bargaining... This does not come as any surprise, especially with Harper's majority "mandate fantasy". Stephen Harper and his conservative government is pro-global-corporate and, as many of us know, Corporate America and Corporate Canada just don't like the idea of their workers having access to bargaining tools - especially if it threatens the bottom line..."

* Harper's $50 Million Spending Secrets Are Patronage In My Books!, writes "How is Stephen Harper's spending of our tax dollars in the tens of millions of dollars, and with virtually no paperwork/audit trail, not patronage? Even the Auditor General has officially declared that Stephen Harper's Conservatives withheld pertinent details about a $50 million dollar G8 fund..."

* "Potentially Illegal" is Definitely Unethical, writes "So what's $50 million tax dollars virtually "gifted under the table" - we're all Canadians aren't we? We know how important is is to ensure that squeaky wheels get greased. After all, if Canadians were told in detail how every dollar of their taxes was spent, they would not have any time left to watch American hockey players push a puck around the ice in Canada's longest (foreign-owned) beer and cell phone commercial - the NHL..."

* I Miss Sheila Fraser, writes "They say you can tell the character of a man (or woman) by their enemies. I'm not talking about Stephen Harper. I'm talking about former auditor general Sheila Fraser. Just read her reports, and now those of the interim auditor general, John Baird. The reports are virtual indictments (without quite enough legal proof) to cast suspicious light on the methods and practices of a conservative government which prefers to maneuver in the dark..."

* "Infrastructure" Equals "Miscellaneous" From An Audit Standard, writes "Anyone who has "enjoyed" the privilege of sitting eyeball to eyeball with Canada's greatest panhandlers of all, the tax auditors, knows how They feel about accounts classified as "Miscellaneous". So how is it that the same government which unleashes these insatiable thugs (by practice) on the people who actually make Canada work, get to use "Miscellaneous" in there accounting - in this case "Infrastructure" is the obfuscating term..."

* Left Out Again in Canada, writes "Regarding Stephen Harper pushing forward his agenda to lock down the Canada/US border, US Patriot Act style, I'm not surprised that our prince of proroguing is doing his best to keep Canadians out of the loop (one week comment period), but that does not make this Canadian sovereignty/trade issue any less critical. It's clear that Steve wants Barack to be his friend, now that his buddy George W. Bush is gone, but making concessions with a US President whose record seems to remain on track with George W. Bush's foreign and trade policies is no way to do it..."

* Why I Won't Vote for Stephen Harper, writes "Usually, choosing to pass on a politician may involve considering an aggregate of many small issues, but in the case of (hopefully, soon to be former) PM Stephen Harper, virtually every basic tenant of his record is seriously short of the satisfactory and seriously deficient in leadership..."

* Under Seige in Courtenay, B.C., writes "It WAS a beautiful quiet spring morning here In Courtenay, on Vancouver Island, until just a few minutes ago when a cluster of booming military jet fighters buzzed my neighbourhood. My livestock is still running in panic and I wonder if anyone has even told Stephen Harper that Canada under his leadership is BROKE! With gasoline at almost a buck thirty per litre, we cannot afford to waste our fuel on macho boys in their war toys ripping up the neighbourhood..."

* Media Fraidy Cats Don't Impress Me, writes "The sign of a great leader is being able to face the unexpected full on. This is a trait which Stephen Harper clearly DOES NOT HAVE! His campaign rule limiting reporters to five (safe) questions per day is just the latest in a series of demonstrations of his POLITICAL COWARDICE..."

* MY Canada is NOT America, writes "Regarding the political record of Stephen Bush, um I mean, George W. Harper. Oh I just have trouble telling the two apart. I remember now. One has a silly perma-smurk and the other hides from the press and shuts down government whenever things don't go his way...."

* The US Has Already Figured It Out, writes "The striking similarity in policies and practices of Stephen Harper and George W. Bush are not lost on most of the "thinking" population in Canada and abroad, and yet, while our American cousins have already figured out what kind of devastation ultra-Conservative policies lead to, we just sit back and let Harper grind the Canadian economy and OUR international reputation into the ground..."

* Why Do I Have to Pay For ILLEGAL Wars, writes "Let's be clear about this - Stephen Harper's wars are ALL of George W. Bush's wars PLUS ALL of Barrack Obama's wars. This includes the war against and occupation of Afghanistan, the illegal war and occupation of Iraq, and the (not-so)"secret" war on Pakastan where US drone attacks have been killing civillians for years..."

* Praying Hard on Vancouver Island, B.C., writes "A good politician does not let a crisis go unexploited - or so seems to be the modis operandi of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper..."

* WORKING Class Canadian, writes "I was wondering what Stephen Harper would do when his ideological soulmate George W. Bush was bumped out of the picture, but given Obama's track record of "getting along" with both sides of the isle, it looks like the global trade agenda continues unhampered..."

* Canadian Democracy is NOT a Game, writes "Many of us know how well "schooled" Mr. Harper is in the ways of politics, but playing hard ball with MY Canadian democracy as though it were some sort of theoretical game, is completely unacceptable and reflective of a dilusionary, rather than visionary "leader"..."

* Canadian TAXPAYER and VOTER, writes "Support our troops, FIRE Stephen Harper! When even Members of Parliament are stating publicly that "Stephen Harper has a disdain for democracy", it clear that this rogue Prime Minister should have his proroguing priviledges withdrawn..."

* Embarrassed Canadian, writes "Once again, the willful ignorance of Stephen Harper and his conservative party brings shame and embarrassment to the people of Canada! Canada should be a be a respected leader in environmental policies - not the laughing stock of the global community..."

* War Crime Watch in Canada, writes "It's official - the United Nations (UN) HAS found that Israel committed war crimes and even possibly crimes against humanity during its assault and massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza (2009). While Israeli soldiers were intentionally killing civilians and demolishing vital Palestinian civillian infrastructure, the Stephen Harper conservative government willfully and arrogantly IGNORED the loud concerted demands of outraged Canadians from across the country to condemn these attrocities..."

* Concerned Canadian Taxpaying Citizen, writes "What is it with Harper's obsession to bind Canada to bad trade deals with countries holding terrible records on humans rights, labour relations, and environmental policies? With all his "Made in Canada love" rhetoric, it is impossible to ignore the disconnect between his words and his ACTUAL record..."

* I DEMAND CRITICAL Media Coverage of This PM, writes "When "Canadian" Prime Minister Stephen Harper explained that His choosing to require Ottawa press gallery reporters to submit their names on a list to be "considered" for being permitted to question the PM, was to bring some order to what is otherwise a typically chaotic practice, I thought I had heard it all..."

* Concerned About Government Media CENSORSHIP in Canada, writes "When Stephen Harper complained that the Ottawa press gallery was biased against him and declared that he would speak primarily to media of his own choosing that should have been (yet another) clear example of how this "Canadian" Prime Minister was following the George W. Bush's guidebook on how to run an opaque right-wing government without upsetting the "nice people" who elected him..."

* Tough Questions Are GOOD, writes "Someone has to stand up for the rights of Canadians, and given this Prime Minister's attitude to the press, we need tougher in-depth coverage of this secretive PM and his "new" conservative government..."

* Democracy is Broken Without a FREE Press, writes "I commend the journalists who had the strength of character and conviction to walk out on PM Stephen Harper's "press conference" when he refused to answer questions from reporters not on "the list"..."