Guest Blog by Connie Fournier: With the TPP, Harper has “betrayed the core principles of conservatism”

Here is a guest blog from principled conservative Connie Fournier, co-founder of Free Dominion and long-standing supporter of OpenMedia. Connie looks at how the Trans-Pacific Partnership contravenes core conservative principles, and how the government’s refusal to publish the text means Canadians are forced to vote blindly on October 19. A few months ago I wrote an article where I said that Canadian Conservatives don't deserve a majority government.  I based that opinion, in large part, on the Harper government's "anti-Terror" legislation, Bill C-51. Now, as we close in on the final hours before election day, I feel even more strongly than ever that Stephen Harper has betrayed the core principles of conservatism that he purports to represent.  This is evidenced once more by his support for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

Despite having assured Canadians that, before the election, we would have a chance to read the agreement-in-principle that the Harper government signed without the knowledge or consent of the other parties, Minister for International Trade Ed Fast has now reversed his position and stated that the text will not be available to the public until after the election.  Instead, they have offered to share it with the Liberal and NDP leaders if they sign a confidentiality agreement.

Obviously this flies in the face of the openness and transparency that is supposed to be a cornerstone of the Conservative Party.  We will be forced to vote blindly on October 19th, and a win for Stephen Harper will give him a mandate to push this "pig-in-a-poke" agreement through the House of Commons just like he passed the unpopular and dangerous Bill C-51.

To make matters worse, without providing any details of the agreement, Stephen Harper is promising $1 Billion in subsidies to the auto industry and $4.3 Billion to farmers to help them stay afloat after the TPP comes into force.  The fact that Harper feels it is necessary to pre-emptively offer this assistance does little to comfort those of us who are worried about exactly what our government has agreed to give away.  There is nothing conservative about signing an agreement that hurts our industry and then using billions of taxpayer dollars to try to artificially prop them up for the aftermath.

We do know some things about the TPP agreement because parts of it have been leaked on the Internet.  One of the things we know is that our own Copyright Act will no longer be the law of the land.  The TPP will extend copyright for an additional 20 years after the death of the author, so it will be 70 years instead of the 50 years that our Copyright Act allows.  It will criminalize more kinds of copyright violations, and could force Canadian ISPs to block content based on the order of a foreign court.

This list is not, by any means, exhaustive.  But, the point is that Canada just recently overhauled our own Copyright Act and now, based on the will of 11 other countries, many parts of our own law will no longer apply.  We have no way of knowing, at this point, how many of our other laws will be affected in the same way.

In short, what Stephen Harper has done by agreeing to the TPP is to give away our national sovereignty on an unknown scale, and he is refusing to let us know exactly how bad it is until after we cast our votes.   

It's time conservatives realized that, once again, the Harper government is not acting in our best interest.  He's acting in secret.  He's giving away our money without explanation.  And, most seriously of all, his government signed an agreement that takes away the ability of Canadians to govern ourselves and gives that privilege to 11 other countries.  They did this without any kind of public consultation, and the agreement they signed is binding, so there will be no negotiations after the election.  Our next Parliament will have to simply take it or leave it.

At this point in time Justin Trudeau will not say if he will support the TPP.  Thomas Mulcair has said he will oppose it. Obviously Stephen Harper will push it through by any means necessary.

Once again it looks like conservatives are forced to look to the NDP to stand up for the very values we thought our own party would represent!  It is time we denied Stephen Harper another majority, conducted a leadership review, and replaced him with someone who actually believes in a strong, free Canada with an open, transparent, honest and conservative government.

If we elect a government that supports the TPP, real power will be given to other countries and we will be starting down the dangerous path of becoming subject to international laws instead of our own.  If this happens, October 19th will be the last meaningful election in the history of Canada.

Get out and vote.  The stakes have never been higher!

Connie Fournier is co-founder of the principled conservative website Free Dominion