Dear Mr. Harper

I will not vote for your party. Despite your efforts to put forth a more moderate persona and stance on issues, I still do not trust you or your party.

1) You have promised to re-open the same-sex marriage debate and hold a free vote in Parliament to restore the traditional definition of marriage. Yet you say you will not invoke the Notwithstanding clause to override any decision by the Supreme Court of Canada.

But the law will inevitably be struck down. Superior and appellate courts in almost all the provinces declared the traditional definition of marriage as unconstitutional. They will not change their mind simply because a reactionary Parliament has passed a new bill banning gays and lesbians from marrying. If the common law traditional definition violated the Charter of Rights, a legislative one will too. And the Supreme Court of Canada will not disagree with those courts, even if you get the opportunity to appoint a few right-wingers. You would have to use the Notwithstanding clause to keep the law functioning.

This issue is decided, Mr. Harper. How dare you propose to re-open it, and to move backwards, to take rights away from people. This is not acceptable from a person who wants to be Prime Minister of Canada.

2) I remember the nine years in Ontario of the so-called common sense of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, and witnessed how that practically destroyed the social fabric of Ontario by demonizing and attacking the poor and the vulnerable. Your party is cut from the same cloth. You and your colleagues don’t seem to get it that taxes are the price we pay to have a civilized society, and that we need a strong government to lead, to govern in the public interest.

So I will not vote for your party, Mr. Harper. I’d rather eat my ballot.