The Harper government's growing say-do gap

We Canadians are a forgiving lot, we elect governments all the time that back track and flip flop on election promises...then we elect them again.

Pierre Trudeau campaigned against wage and price controls, then brought them in.  Brian Mulroney  said he had no interest in pursuing a free trade agreement with the United States before negotiating one.  And Jean Chrétien of course pledged to erase the GST before leading the Liberals to power.

No matter that all three said one thing and did another, Canadians re-elected them.  All three however were smart enough to go out on top, resigning their leadership while occupying the  Prime Ministers office.  Eventually Canadians get fed up with hypocrisy, and long stints in power often sees ruling parties becoming both tired and arrogant.  

Which brings us to the Harper Conservatives.  

Our current Prime Minister hasn't yet enjoyed the longevity of Messieurs Chrétien, Mulroney or Trudeau.  And it might just be the gap between Mr. Harper's rhetoric and the actions of his government that will keep him from repeating past electoral success.

Canadians have already witnessed a large separation between the words and actions of Harper's Conservative governments.  

He promised to leave income trusts alone, sounding off on the Liberal plan to tax them, then after getting elected...yep, he taxed them.  (Article Here)

After riding to power on a wave of voter disgust over Liberal waste with the Ad-Scam scandal, the Conservatives turned around and built a $2 million dollar fake lake during the G8 summit.  (Article Here)  

More recently they were found to have doled out  close to a million bucks to a meat processing company to help them buy new equipment that will keep sausages from exploding.  (Article Here)

There's more of course, turning a large surplus into a massive shortfall after pledges to never engage in deficit financing.  Or becoming the king of patronage after deriding the Liberals for so long about Senate appointments.

Will Canadians reach the tipping point over the next four or so years?  Hard to say, its a long  time.  

In the interim they can consider the Prime Minister's pledge to let science make the decision regarding the Northern Gateway pipeline.  Stephen Harper 'says' science will decide.  But what does he do?  He guts the very agencies charged with conducting the science so that it can't be done.   (Article Here)

We Canadians are a forgiving bunch, but eventually we do get fed up.