Why disgruntled Conservatives are hanging with Harper

Pity the Conservative minded Canadian voter.  Tired of waste, secrecy and mismanagement they finally got hold of the big prize in Canadian politics...and were forced to watch five years of Stephen Harper. 

• Five years of funding for dubious projects, the most recent example being revelations about spending on the G8 Summit in Huntsville.  (STORY HERE)

• Five years of withholding information from Canadians like the Veterans Health Services Review. (STORY HERE) 

• Five years of watching a 13 Billion dollar surplus turn into a massive record setting deficit.

Yet despite the scandals, controversy and all that red ink, a significant minority of Canadians still seem willing to vote for Mr. Harper's party.  Why?

Part of the reason is attributable to the Tory war chest and their ability to turn voters off of Michael Ignatieff.  In something of a juvenile move, Harper's machine managed to convince the kids on the playground that the new guy wasn't cool.  Not exactly classy, but effective.

Then there's the perpetuation of the myth that Harper's government has done a good job managing the economy.  Granted Harper did inherit a very stable balance sheet, and Canada was better poised to withstand an economic crisis than our neighbours to the south.  But none of that was the doing of Harper's Conservative governments.  In fact, Brian Mulroney deserves more credit than Stephen Harper for putting this nation on solid financial footing....but perception always trumps reality in politics, especially during an election.

So where's a disgruntled Tory to turn?  The Liberals???  Yeah right...not with that globe trotting egg head in charge.  The NDP?  Oh yeah, right!!!  Green?!?!  Let's be serious. 

And then of course you have those who fill the fundamentalist pews every Sunday who are thrilled at having one of their own in the Prime Minister's office.  Sure he hasn't done anything about outlawing gay marriage and about putting abortion back in the criminal code...but give him a majority and then we'll see what happens.

In my opinion Michael Ignatieff needs to talk more about the need to return to surplus, and the path he intends to take to get us there.  Grandiose national programs are all well and good, but first let's get our financial house in order.  In Ralph Goodale the Liberals have a strong card to play against Jim Flaherty's dismal performance. 

There are plenty of Conservative voters out there who are less than pleased with Harper, with good reason, and many who fear a Conservative majority.  Dirty politics and smear have kept many on-side, but a strong end to the campaign could yet still bring some around. 

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Stephen Harper - Taking us back to the Trudeau-Mulroney years

Some might find this a strange admission, but I actually consider myself something of a conservative, certainly in terms of all things fiscal.  I have in fact voted Conservative in the past, I take a bit of pride in being able to say that I've voted Conservative, Liberal and NDP at different times.

While there are a legion of voters out there who will vote Liberal or Conservative EVERY ELECTION, no matter what, to me that is the ultimate in stupidity.

The Conservatives are not always the party to vote for, (in my opinion certainly not now, and not with Stephen Harper's disdain for our democratic traditions and his secretiveness).  And neither are the Liberals.

But Canadian voters can be stupid.  The electorate of this nation continually voted for both Liberal and Conservative governments in the seventies and eighties that put this country in a huge financial hole.  Of course I'm talking about Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney.  You can argue about the differences between the two until the cows come home, but in one respect they were indisputably joined at the hip.  Racking up huge deficits which meant Canadian tax dollars being wasted on debt service instead of anything of tangible value.

When the Chretien-Martin Liberals came to power in the early nineties about 25 cents out of every tax dollar we sent to Ottawa wasn't going to Health Care, the military, transfer payments or anything useful...it was just paying interest.  That is just plain stupid.

A lot of the credit for bringing our fiscal house in order belongs to Preston Manning.  He campaigned playing a one string banjo, and the note he hit over and over and over was the need to balance the books.  And while the Liberals actually did the deed, I doubt they would have had the political will without Manning's presence on the political landscape.

And now we have Stephen Harper, ugh. 

Its right back to the Trudeau, Mulroney years.  Spending billions more than government revenues will support. 

And Stephen wants a majority???  Yeah right!!!

Will he get it?  I don't know.  I like to think Canadian voters are intelligent, but history suggests otherwise.  We kept reelecting Trudeau and Mulroney despite the financial disaster they were creating. 

Hopefully voters will be smarter this time around, future generations will thank us. 

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Dismantling Canada's social safety net, one tax cut at a time....

Health care, CPP, education, programs for the needy and disenfranchised.

Canada has for a long time maintained an enviable position in the eyes of the world based on how we look after the most vulnerable and poorest members of our society.  The strength of a chain is measured by looking at the weakest links, not the strongest.  Likewise a nation should be judged by the wealth of its poorest citizens, not the richest.

Are we perfect?  No, of course not.  There never has been and likely never will be enough money available to solve all of Canada's social failings.  But we try, and more often than not, we succeed.  Or at least we have until now.

The Conservative governments of Stephen Harper have done yeoman's work in chipping away at the fringes of Canadian identity, looking to mimic the neo-conservative views of their American cousins.  And with a massive deficit we'll be paying more and more for debt servicing with less and less available for things like health care. 

While the overall size of government has been growing during the Harper regime, tax revenues have been declining thanks to big tax cuts to our wealthiest citizens and businesses.  And Harper and his crew just keep running up the Visa bill...ensuring that more and more of the tax dollars they do collect will be thrown down a black hole of interest payments. 

Already those unable to afford access to the courts have had their standing in Canada's democracy weakened.

Your rights are being trampled?  Ahhhh, that's too bad, hope you have the cash to be able to afford some justice.

We'll find out if the slick advertising on the veneer of Conservative economic mismanagement will be enough to garner Harper a majority government and the ability to pursue his Libertarian agenda and to make his old bosses with the National Citizens Coalition very very happy.

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Afraid to debate Iggy, Harper finds another way to score...against kids

Stephen Harper is looking an awful lot like Sean Avery these days.  An annoying pest who likes to stir things up, but doesn't have the stones to back his words up with action. 

If you missed it, and no doubt many have....our Prime Minister challenged Ignatieff to a one-on-one debate, which the Liberal leader readily accepted.  Now Harper's backing out, saying he'll only take part in the traditional format, nothing in addition to that. 

Hardly surprising.  Harper even  limits the number of questions friendly corporate news media can underhand at him. 

So why won't Stephen debate Iggy mano-a-mano?  Simple...Harper may be many things, but he's not stupid.  And it takes smarts to know when you're over matched.  With the Conservative record of the past 5 years Ignatieff would wipe the floor with him. 

Many Canadians don't pay close attention to all the noise coming from Ottawa about the Harper Regime's secrecy, the waste of tax dollars, the accusations of fraud, the association with individuals of dubious character. 

A Harper-Iggy faceoff would draw a lot of attention, and with the Conservative record being what it is...suffice to say that Conservative organizers are likely hoping voters stay asleep until after the election is over. 

That's not to say the Prime Minister is going to be invisible.  Today's Globe & Mail reports on Harper joining a bunch of kids for some street hockey.  He even scored a goal!!!  Playing some hockey against kids sure beats dropping the gloves and battling someone his own size. 




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