PM has eroded his pride in Canada

Re The existential divide among Canadian voters, March 7 Life in Canada has been good to me as I approach my 60th birthday. A loving and carefree childhood in scenic, small-town Ontario, a good education that led to a steady, decent-paying job and a happy, healthy family I am forever grateful for are some of the realities responsible for my contentment.

Yet, the one ingredient in my life that has been a constant source of pride and delight is that I am Canadian, living in what I consider to be the greatest country in the world. That was until Stephen Harper came along to obliterate that notion.

Paying a little less in taxes every year as we watch our beloved country slide deeper into a Harper-greased pit of Conservativestyle totalitarianism is simply not acceptable.

If you have even a trace of the same sadness in your heart and fear in the pit of your stomach for Canada that I do, this coming election will be the most important you will ever vote in. Philip Junop, Newmarket

I felt pretty safe and financially secure during the Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin years, but Stephen Harper rode to power on a law-and-order horse, promising me I’d be even safer under his rule – and he would fix our economy, too.

Nine years later, he’s still telling me I need to vote for him so he can make me safer – and he’s still maintaining he’s the best manager for our economy.

Yet, now more than ever, he works hard to terrify me. And, while the U.S. markets roar into record territory, our own TSX has yet to return to levels it reached seven years ago.

Therefore, would it not be fair play in the coming election to ask two questions of the incumbent?

1) If you’ve dedicated nine years to making me more safe, why do you want me to feel less safe today than I did nine years ago?

2) Since you inherited a surplus budget, yet gave us seven years of deficits while adding $170 billion to the national debt, why should I believe that you are a good manager of our economy? Jim Lang, Thornbury