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It’s not because of hair or niqabs. I’m not afraid of refugees in my back yard.

It’s partly because of the economy. The Conservative narrative, dictated almost entirely by Stephen Harper himself, says that the economy is so fragile, only the party that is the best economic manager can handle it.

Well, the “Harper Government” has been in power for a decade. After inheriting a $13 billion surplus and immediately producing a deficit, followed by seven more, the best they can boast about is a surplus so narrow it amounts to rounding error, according to independent economists, and engineering a recovery so fragile it needs massive transfers of wealth from the working class to the wealthiest people and corporations to make it last.

But there’s a bigger reason to oppose Harper’s Conservatives: Stephen Harper is anti-democratic.

Since his early days in politics, Harper’s hostility to the media has been well documented. He is the only Prime Minister not to have appeared on This Hour Has 22 Minutes since the show began 22 years ago. Even some of his cabinet ministers, notably Peter MacKay, have been frequent guests.

Harper rarely gives media interviews, with the notable exception of a holiday-season interview by a gushing Peter Mansbridge.

Listening to radio news, I get the distinct feeling that the most frequently repeated phrase is “We asked the federal department of X, but received no response before deadline.”

The Harper government muzzled scientists who work within the federal public service, which means they are not allowed to talk about their scientific findings with any member of the public, especially the media, unless they are accompanied by political.

Over their terms in office, the Harper government has squelched the release of a number of research reports, paid for by taxpayers. They have sent copies to Library and Archives Canada, which meets the legislated requirement for “publication,” but have not released copies to the media. Hint to news media: ask Library and Archives for some research reports “published” but not released over the past two years. You’ll find stuff that for some reason embarrasses the government. Oh, those pesky facts.

Speaking of facts, there’s the cancellation of the long-form census, something developed to provide facts to base policy on. It’s an idea that dates from the Roman Empire, for crying out loud! But apparently, the Harper government does not need facts to develop policy.

The control of the Ministers of the Crown has expanded to the extreme where virtually every single communication from any department needs approval by the Privy Council and the Prime Minister’s Office.

During the current election campaign, Conservative candidates have declined to participate in all-candidates meetings and debate across the country. In my own riding, Conservative candidate Walter Pamic is one who refused to go to an all-candidate debate in Kanata-Carelton. He’s been almost invisible, except for a couple of posters with his picture on it and an online exposé of his more questionable and extreme statements over the past couple of years. Oh, and the revelation that his business received $400,000 in federal government contracts after he declared his candidacy.

Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant also refused to attend an all-candidate debate in her riding of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke. A major issue was door-to-door mail delivery, something that the Conservative government ended. The next day, Gallant put an ad in her local newspaper, claiming that only a Conservative government could save Canada Post, and used a Canada Post logo in it, without permission.

The City of Ottawa held a city-wide debate on issues in the federal election that will have local impacts. All the parties sent candidates from different ridings, for a city-wide perspective—all but the Conservatives. Out of eight Ottawa-area ridings, and given flexible dates, the Conservatives could not find one candidate who could fit it into his or her schedule.

Staying out of debates is a Harper hallmark. Sure, there have been a number of leaders’ debates in this election, but their format was dictated by the Conservative Party. It seems that Harper did not feel comfortable in the debate format of previous elections, held by a media consortium of all the major broadcast networks. Instead, this election’s debates were narrowcast and had a fraction of the audience of previous years.

Harper is a dictator within his own party. Members repeat the party line and stay on message, or they’re gone. Every word out of every Conservative’s mouth in the current election has been scripted by the party, and echoes Harper’s pronouncements. This video on YouTube is a hilarious demonstration of that.

And the message? A series of half-truths and outright lies.

• The Conservatives’ economic ability I’ve already dealt with, as has the Huffington Post.
• Their characterization of the other parties’ economic and taxation policies is a series of outright lies. The Cons keep saying the Liberals and the NDP will raise taxes. A cursory look at their platforms proves the opposite. Anecdotally, I have not seen my income taxes fall in the past nine years. Quite the contrary. This year, the feds want more from me, not less, even though my economic situation has not changed appreciably. Under the Liberal plan, I’ll actually save over $1,200 next year.
• Then there are the BC ads in Cantonese and Punjabi that state that “Trudeau wants to sell marijuana to children, have injection sites in every neighbourhood and allow neighbourhood brothels.” That is so outrageous, I hope that no one would believe it.

But if we cannot believe something, why say it?

It all adds up to manipulation. And manipulation opposes democracy. Citizen in a democracy need to make their choices based on facts.

The fact is, the Conservatives’ behaviours and policies do not support democracy. And I cannot support that.