Stephen Harper deserves to become Canadian Prime Minister

Dracko · January 24th, 2006, 02:55 AM

Harper deserves to become PM
22 January 2006

Section: Comment
Page: C1
Outlet: The Toronto Sun

**Excerpt**

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has earned the privilege of becoming Canada's 22nd prime minister.

Millions of Canadians sense it -- after 12 years in power, the Liberal party is tired, stale, arrogant, corrupt.

We need a change.

Liberal PM Paul Martin has devoted far more time and energy in this campaign trying to demonize Harper than he has on outlining a coherent vision for Canada.

We think the reason is obvious. Martin doesn't have one.

By contrast, Harper has reached out to hard-working, law-abiding Canadians.

He has learned from his past mistakes. He has presented a moderate, policy-heavy, fiscally conservative platform -- no "hidden agenda" to be found. Next to his sensible plan, Martin's wild ideas -- like scrapping the notwithstanding clause (?!?) -- seem irrational, even disturbing.

Harper has been short on rhetoric and long on solid ideas such as cutting the GST and helping parents with the cost of raising their children, while not forcing them to worship at the Liberal shrine of institutional daycare.

Harper recognizes that Canadians are fed up with a justice system that, under the Liberals, has cared far more about the rights of criminals than protecting law-abiding citizens and helping the victims of crime.

He knows that Canadians, regardless of whether they live in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, or anywhere else, simply want their federal government to work better for them.

They do not want it to brag, as Martin and the Liberals have, about record "government" surpluses, while Canadians wait months and even years for necessary medical treatment.

Harper has shown he appreciates that there is no such thing as a "government" surplus -- that it is all taxpayers' money, which should either be put back into the pockets of taxpayers through tax cuts, or be spent responsibly and accountably on making the lives of Canadians better. Not mismanaged, wasted and stolen -- the Liberal legacy of AdScam and so many other appalling scandals.

In endorsing Harper and the Conservatives, we are not suggesting they're perfect. They're rookies. Should they win tomorrow, they'll make mistakes.
We are concerned that the costs of some major elements of Harper's fiscal plan -- such as solving what he calls the fiscal imbalance with the provinces -- remain unknown.

And while we support the traditional definition of marriage, we are opposed to wasting valuable time revisiting this issue in Parliament, as Harper has pledged to do.

After 12 years of Liberal rule, there is so much more important work to do, from fixing health care, to developing an adult relationship with the Americans, to rebuilding our military, to cementing the ties that bind our nation together, which the Liberals have frayed by their arrogance and corruption.

It's time to kick them out and give Harper and the Conservatives a chance to repair the damage the Grits have done.

SVZ · January 24th, 2006, 02:58 AM

Quote:

Liberal PM Paul Martin has devoted far more time and energy in this campaign trying to demonize Harper than he has on outlining a coherent vision for Canada.

I did notice that and I find it kind of pathetic.

yesss... we know that they've done bad things, but it's time to focus on the positive not the negative.

Grimmlok · January 24th, 2006, 07:48 AM

There's nothing positive about neocons. Never has been, never will be unless you're rich.

Dracko · January 24th, 2006, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

There's nothing positive about neocons. Never has been, never will be unless you're rich.

Just cuz you aren't no reason to be jealous of those that are.

Grimmlok · January 24th, 2006, 07:59 AM

I'm not jealous of being a mouthbreathing idiot too wrapped up in my own selfish concerns and unable to read beyond a third grade level.

Old money doesn't equal smart money.

Dracko · January 24th, 2006, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

There's nothing positive about neocons. Never has been, never will be unless you're rich.

Hmmm....

Pierre Trudeau - multi millionare, lawyer from Quebec
Jean Chretian - multi milllionare, lawyer from Quebec
Paul Martin - multi millionare, lawyer from Quebec

Stephen Harper - not a millionare, not a lawyer, not from Quebec

Grimmlok · January 24th, 2006, 09:42 AM

Stephen Harper: More in bed with big business than either of those 3, not to mention right wing fundie organizations. To whit:

"For a blueprint for change, Canadian conservatives need look no further than south of the border. A well-funded conservative infrastructure, acting as a support network for the Republican party, has been instrumental in that party's victories in the U.S. Over time, this infrastructure has successfully made conservative ideas a major force in the national discourse. It did not develop out of thin air, however, but only because American conservatives were willing to make it happen.

The result was a vast conservative network that spent more than $1 billion in the 1990s alone. Money went to fund such influential policy organizations as The Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute—all of which played crucial roles in the advancement of conservative ideas in the eighties, shoring up support for Ronald Reagan's presidency (the current Bush administration would later loot the think-tanks to fill various government posts)."

Daifallah does a very good job of summarizing the coming together of this formidable apparatus that will end up in what we see today in the Bush Administration. But Daifallah does not tell us that such an apparatus is already installed and fully functional on Canadian soil, parts of which have been established with seed money from US conservative think tanks (1) and money from the Donner Foundation (2). Indeed, such financial input appears to be much prized, to wit this excerpt from the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies:

"The late Tony Fisher presided over our efforts in spirit. We opened our doors on the strength of [a] $15,000 cheque from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation that he helped to found. That was soon followed by a major grant of nearly a half million dollars, then the largest single grant ever given by the Donner Canadian Foundation, one of this country’s largest charitable foundations, and we had the financial resources to get going. $5,525,000 in 10 years!"

In 2001, in an article entitled AIMS major generator of new policy thinking, Michael Bliss wrote:

Three power centres are capable of generating the energy Canada needs to renew itself politically. The first is the national network of think-tanks and media. The phenomenon has not been well studied but for some years Parliament, the universities and the national civil service have been increasingly upstaged as centres of political discussion by organizations such as the C.D. Howe and Fraser institutes, the Conference Board of Canada, the Institute for Research on Public Policy, the Business Council on National Issues, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Donner Foundation, the two national newspapers and the more thoughtful radio and TV shows.

Now when we take into account that the US conservative think tanks supporting those operating on Canadian soil, to all intents and purposes as their outposts, that those US think tanks are for the most part behind the conservative movement’s hijacking of the Republican Party, that genuine republicans like Christine Todd Whitman are trying desperately to reclaim their party, that their efforts are being countered by organizations such as the RINO Hunters Club, it is not difficult to understand why Stephen Harper and his brand of conservatism scare the hell out of me! Is it so far-fetched to extrapolate that the same strategy used to overcome the Republican Party in the US will be used to get rid of the true Conservatives who have chosen for now to put their trust in Harper? Once those have been booted out, who is to stop Harper and his group from implementing here in Canada all those fearsome policies espoused by those US Far-Right think tanks and rich donors that have been dishing out their ideology and funds to them all those years?

In The Man Behind Harper, Marci MacDonald ended thus:

"To those who are unnerved by that prospect, Byfield offers no cheer. "Those people who said they're dangerous -- they're right!" he says. "People with ideas are dangerous. If Harper gets elected, he'll make a helluva change in this country."