Stephen Harper is bad

So I've seen a lot of people asking 'why is Stephen Harper so bad?' and it's really quite a good question with a lot of answers, so yeah.

Here’s a bunch of reasons to not like Stephen Harper:

He’s absolutely terrible at managing the economy - has actually pushed us into a worse recession… while claiming he did things that he has never actually done to prevent the recession (http://canadaonline.about.com/library/weekly/aa121498.htm, http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=81b4e168-5b2f-42fa-946e-b5f5fafe1542, http://www.bbc.com/news/business-16911298, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/08/us-crisis-canada-tame-idUSTRE77766I20110808)

He planned a budget terribly, and has been increasing the Canadian deficit since 2008 (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:32j6-7rLRBoJ:v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080227.wbudget27/front/Front/Front/+small+change+for+tighter+times+globe+and+mail&hl=en&client=safari&gl=ca&strip=0)

He eliminated the Canadian Census (which was - worldwide - considered one of the best of it’s kind) just because he didn’t like it (http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2010/10/canadas_statistics-gathering)

When asked if he was going to bring Canadian troops back from overseas after 2014, he actually responded by saying ‘the NDP didn’t want to fight Hitler in 1939’ which is absurd for so many reasons, including the fact that the NDP didn’t even exist in 1939 (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/27/pol-kady-harper-history-storify-ndp.html?cmp=rss)

He has slowly been removing rights of people in Canada, in order to silence political dissent. He is also taking massive cues from the Patriot Act in the states that looks to remove the power of Canadians in order to protect against ‘terrorist acts’ (http://voices-voix.ca/sites/voices-voix.ca/files/dismantlingdemocracy_voicesvoix.pdf, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-c-51-passes-in-house-of-commons-1.3064235, https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/canada-targets-tar-sands-critics/)

Openly stated that same sex marriage should not be allowed in Canada and that it is not a human right (http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=Hansard&Mee=58&Language=E&Parl=38&Ses=1)

When a gunman came into the parliament building he hid in a closet, while other senators grabbed flag poles and other weapons to at least try and fight back (and the sergeant at arms actually confronted the gunman and killed him) (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-attack-mps-fashioned-spears-while-harper-hid-in-closet/article21278580/?click=sf_globefb)

Went deliberately out of his way to block protections for transsexuals and homosexuals for no reason other than he doesn’t morally agree with them (https://news.vice.com/article/documents-reveal-efforts-to-block-protections-for-trans-people-in-canada?utm_source=vicenewstwitter)

Introduced a bill which makes it much harder for people to obtain a Canadian Citizenship, and easier for Canadian Citizens to lose their citizenship. The bill also includes a triple of the rate of fees to apply for one, and removing the ability to appeal a refusal. (http://www.straight.com/news/645271/if-bill-c-24-passes-canadian-citizenship-will-be-harder-get-and-easier-lose)

Was found in contempt of Parliament for the first time ever in Canadian Politics, going back to the time of the entire British Commonwealth (http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110325/wpg_election_110325/20110325/?hub=WinnipegHome)

Used a majority government to force a 400-page budget bill through Parliament damages from everything to social protections of people's rights, to the environment; and was opposed by nearly every scientist and constitutional expert in the nation (http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=dc782ba7-653f-4660-a8c7-061d0338fe6b, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/06/19/pol-budget-bill-passes.html)

Sent out massive robocalls to Liberal supporters in rural areas that were likely to vote against him, to tell people their voting stations had been changed. This prevented people who had voted for the Liberals in previous elections to vote for them again, claiming the Conservatives a majority government, and then used similar robocalls to try and manipulate the public opinion into supporting changing Saskatchewan’s electoral boundaries to favour the Conservatives. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/05/04/pol-robocalls-ip-address-traced.html, http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/02/24/robocall-fallout-haunts-tories/, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/02/05/pol-conservatives-admit-robocalls-saskatchewan.html)

Is currently attempting to impose the American ‘tough on crime’ laws, (despite it being proven they are useless) and was caught lying about how much it cost to taxpayers. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/tories-judge-evidence-of-falling-rates-inadmissible/article2106974/5/, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/huge-price-tag-for-provinces-attached-to-crime-bill/article2271769/)

Intentionally lied about the cost of F-35’s to Canadian taxpayers when the projected costs were known to be as much as 10 billion more than announced to public. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/19/usa-fighter-lockheed-idUSN1913876120110519, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/ottawas-fighter-jet-estimate-all-hogwash-us-watchdog-warns/article1971274/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Politics&utm_content=1971274)

Directly copied the script from a 2012 Presidential Ad from Tim Pawlenty for no real reason other than because he can. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/tories-accused-of-following-tea-partiers-script-in-new-ad/article1972359/)

He ordered the shutdown of a ‘groundbreaking’ freshwater research facility for no publicly disclosed reason. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/tories-shut-down-groundbreaking-freshwater-research-station/article2436094/)

His policies are starting to very closely emulate those of the GOP in the United States. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadian-troops-trained-by-blackwater-without-us-permission-court-records/article4469472/, http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/national/article/99489--harper-says-he-ll-support-israel-even-if-it-hurts-canada-politically, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/02/07/pol-cp-torture-csis.html)

Attempted to overthrow the Gay Marriage law in Canada immediately after becoming elected, for moral reasons. (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/12/07/vote-samesex.html)

Ordered McCarthy-like witch hunts on political dissenters. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/meet-the-tory-hit-list/article1677414/, http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/936704--tories-accused-of-digging-up-dirt-on-liberal-profs)

Instated rules about the Canadian Press which prevented reporters from asking anything other than soft-ball questions from approved reporters, preventing anyone they do not like from asking questions, because they may have ‘bias’.(http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=89eafbaf-ddbe-45b6-aff9-f33ec9cb20a3, http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20060524/harper_media_060524/)

An absolutely terrible record on Global Warming, including silencing climate scientists, and calling The Kyoto Protocol “A socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth producing nations,” before removing Canada from the Protocol, making us the first and only of 191 nations to do so. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/harper-s-letter-dismisses-kyoto-as-socialist-scheme-1.693166, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-16153800, http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100929/full/467501a.html, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16861468, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/tory-senators-kill-climate-bill-passed-by-house/article1802519/, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/radical-groups-spur-tories-to-speed-pipeline-review-process/article2295542/, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/08/04/pol-environment-job-cuts.html)

His ego is massive and terrifying - he replaced the Parliament lobby which had pictures of past Prime Ministers with pictures of only himself, continues to have the Government of Canada listed as “The Harper Government” in official communication, in Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill, he insisted that he should receive the Royal Salute ahead of the former Governor General (illegally). (http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=9c6b53f6-f0a2-4eca-93bb-559023144731, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/documents-show-harperization-of-government-communications/article2253080/)

Attempted to (and succeeded in) preventing a United Nations resolution to declare water as a basic human right, has drastically cut foreign aid to Africa, and stated that it’s a waste to bring the United Nations to poor/starving regions of Canada. (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=b65b35fd-477f-4956-98f4-c17a46fe3e26, http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Politics/20101125/canada-foreign-aid-africa-latin-america-101125/)