Blue Rodeo tells King Stevie and his monarchy to eff off!

Blue Rodeo blasts Harper government in pre-election song

Band feels the current administration has taken Canada down the wrong path

Peter Edwards Star Reporter
Tuesday, September 29, 2015



Veteran Toronto band Blue Rodeo pulls no punches against Stephen Harper’s government in its newly-released song and video, Stealin’ All My Dreams: A Modern Day Protest Song.

“I didn’t want to talk about it, so I wrote a song about it,” Rodeo’s Greg Keelor said in a prepared statement.

Blue Rodeo has recorded 13 studio albums in more than a quarter century. Their album encourages their fans to get out and vote . . . against Harper.

The release of their protest songs a couple weeks after a cross-Canada sing-a-long of Harperman, an anti-Harper protest song written and recorded by suspended federal scientist Tony Turner.

Harper’s campaign office could not be reached early Tuesday afternoon for comment.

Like Harperman, Stealin’ All My Dreams is a wide-ranging, caustic attack on the Harper government.

Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, 2050. "We do not seem to be the compassionate and environmentally conscious nation we once were," said Cuddy. "We felt it was time to speak up and add our voice to the conversation." (Harrison Smith, Andrea Grant/Toronto Star File Photo)

It was also a necessary one, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo said in a prepared statement.

“Blue Rodeo does not always speak with one voice,” Cuddy said. “However, we feel collectively that the current administration in Canada has taken us down the wrong path. We do not seem to be the compassionate and environmentally conscious nation we once were.

“As respectful as we are of the variety of opinions held by our audience, we felt it was time to speak up and add our voice to the conversation.”

The song lambasts “King Stevie and his monarchy” on CBC cuts, refugee policy, protection for Native women, greenhouse gases, scientific research, election fraud, Senate scandals, and pretty well everything else a voter could think of.

Among the lines are, “I love the forests and I love the trees, have you forgotten that you work for me?”

Filmed earlier this month, the video includes statements like “90 per cent of Canada’s waterways are now unprotected” and “Fact: Stephen Harper is the first Prime Minister since the 1950s to oversee a decline in the employment rate.”

The protest song is available for a free download off the band’s website or on YouTube.