Grapeshot

Do you the remember the Mike Harris "Common Sense Revolution"? 'Cause I do.

I remember making a deal with God the day before vote in 1995- if I managed to get my last project of the year finished early, then the Conservatives wouldn't win, and my parents would stop looking so upset and worried. I guess God doesn't like presentations about Star Trek.

I remember marching up University Avenue with 10,000 people during the Days of Action; I remember Dudley George, shot because Mike Harris wanted "the fucking Indians out of the park"; I remember the 7 people who died in Walkerton because "common sense" meant cutting 700 jobs from the Ministry of the Environment.

I remember the homeless who froze to death on Toronto streets. I remember the suburbanites paralyzed by West Nile virus because the Conservatives refused to allow the Ministry of Health to warn people about mosquitos in 2002. And I remember Kimberley Rogers, who was 8 months pregnant and who died because the Conservative government refused her welfare.

Remember friends: John Baird and Jim Flaherty and Tony Clemente, all ministers under Harris, all serve a new master now. Remember that our federal government of vicious, cunning ideologues has the putative support of perhaps 30% of the population, but is doing 100% damage to the national fabric of Canada. And remember why it's called a revolution - because there's already been blood, and the casualties continue to mount.