At first glance, Harper’s pledge to match donations to help Syrian refugees to a maximum of one hundred million dollars says that ‘we are doing something!’.  For a moment of time, it seems that he has ‘come around’ and Canada can be Canadian again.  It almost seems good.

It is not.  In fact, it is evil incarnate.  It is the epitome of ugly.  It is sick.  It is perverse.  And it is incredibly revealing of the cynicism and mental dysfunction of the man and the society he thinks we are.   This guy is sicker than sick.

Think about it – he won’t take any Syrians, actual people, (for security reasons) but he’ll pay to make the problem go away.  In fact, he won’t even pay fully (because it is our money he is using, after all) and he is only paying what ‘we‘ match.  In effect he is saying, “Well, you gave me $50M in tax dollars and, if you give me $50M more, I’ll spend $100M on your pet cause.”

But it says even more than that ugly cynicism – “We don’t want to help those people but we are happy to feed the ‘refugee machine’ (like Halliburton) and NGOs, especially Canadian NGO’s, because we can then tax the salaries of the workers and get some of the money back.  And all this while looking good and doing nothing.”   It also says, to Harper, everything is money.

Tragically, he is not alone.  In fact, most people think in terms of money-first and then what-can-my-money-do’.  Money, money, money.  When I was helping Vietnamese refugees back in the 70’s, I was very impressed with the Mennonites.  They have their own refugee and immigration system and they stepped up and did what needed to be done as human beings.  They followed the law, of course, but it was not an effort dependent on government and it was not an effort depending on money.  It was – as much as possible in a modern world – people helping people with hands on energy and caring.

Many religious groups at the time stepped up.  But none more so that than the Mennonite Central Committee.  They simply did the right thing.  Period.  Money had little or nothing to do with it.

Harper?  For him, money is the answer to everything.

Steve, the best things in life are free!

Love, friendship, family, loyalty, integrity, truth, joy, learning, health, nature….the list goes on and on.  He doesn’t get that.  And that is why he doesn’t ‘get’ the environment.  Harper doesn’t even really ‘get’ people.  Harper doesn’t ‘get’ that Canadians want to help real people in real ways and that money is not necessarily part of that.

In fact, Stephen Harper does not even really ‘GET’ the economy simply because the economy is nothing more than just a numerical metric of human behaviour.  It is a measure of our feelings and our emotions, our strengths, our fears, our values and our appreciations of life.  But money is only the measurement.  It is NOT the actual humanity.

Money is NOT who we are.  It is no more who we are as a country or a people than a tape measure is to a house being built.  A tape measure is just a tool.  It is not even a part of the eventual house.  Harper doesn’t ‘get that’.  He values only the measure.  He values the numbers. He values the money. And, because of that, he is missing the real picture – humanity.

THAT is why Harper has to go.  He doesn’t represent us.  And he never will.