Why Harper must love the loony left.

[Rerun]

I had a chuckle when I read this article.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion...971/story.html

Last spring, Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick described Canada after a Harper majority. “Guns on the streets, gated communities, rampant drug use, unlimited anonymous corporate political donations, no government safety standards for food and medicine, classrooms that resemble holding pens more than civilized safe rooms for the young to learn ...” Deep breath. “Womens rights would retreat, including abortion rights, access to medical advances, and the right to go to court to protest inequality. Everything would be up for privatization, from roads, parks, and parking meters to schools and hospitals.” There’s more but you get the idea.
Hardcore conservatives love hearing stuff like that. It means Stephen Harper is hated to the point of loopiness by people they loathe, and so they conclude that the prime minister must be doing something right. Even if they can’t identify what it is.

Today is the one year anniversary of the election of a Conservative majority government... and surprise, surprise... the sky hasn't fallen. In fact, I think Canada is doing quite well under Stephen Harpers leadership.

But here's the National's slant on Harper's first year with a majority...

Promises kept, promises broken: How Stephen Harper’s first year with a majority surprised Canadians
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05...sed-canadians/

[Cole436]

Two can play at this game

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Cole436

Two can play at this game

I don't recognize this guy as being a member of the Conservative government? What riding does he represent? What influential ministerial position does he hold?

Please enlighten me.

[burn_this_city]

Heather Mallick isn't a MP either, I think that's what Cole was getting at.

[Slava]

I wouldn't point to the past year as a glowing success for Harper either though. Sure, the sky hasn't fallen, I'll give you that. Is that really the bar for success though? Is it enough to say "well they didn't bugger things up at a time when the economy has been fairly stable and there haven't been any major issues to deal with? I hardly think so.

Then we take a look at some of the policies and procedures they've implemented:

- The entire F-35 debacle was of their doing. The misleading of parliament and the ridiculing of MPs who suggested that the costs were higher than the government would admit.

- The omnibus crime bill in general

- OAS and the fact that this could've been known long before the last election, but the CPC didn't want to have this brought out.

- The entire robocall scandal which might've helped them get this majority in the first place.

So while the government didn't screw things up, I would hardly praise them for that.

[CaptainCrunch]

Its a shame, I was looking forward to the guns in the streets, I was looking forward to getting that contract to build labor camps for unruly teenagers.

Unemployed people being trudged off to the work farms.

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by Slava

- The entire robocall scandal which might've helped them get this majority in the first place.

Robocalling should be banned entirely. We're getting inundated with calls which everyone hates and the potential for misuse is high. CPC robocalling scandal, the Wildrose claiming someone else was callign using their name, the seven messages I got over a weekend. Enough already.

[GP_Matt]

I don't want to defend robocalling either because I don't like getting the calls. But if you ban robocalling it will hurt the smaller and upstart parties a lot more than the major parties. Robocalling is a quick cheap way for a new/small party to get their message out there.

Slava, do you really think that the calls in Guelph affected the outcome of the election or are you just fanning the flames?

[c.t.ner]

To add to Slava's post I don't think many Canadians are at all happy with C-11 and C-30. The back bencher who brought up the Abortion issue is also something that most Canadians don't want to discuss.

Harper's first year hasn't been anything to brag about. I think since it's still only year one of his majority and the economy on a whole is doing pretty well, I think things are looking somewhat calm for most Canadians. But bubbling underneath the surface I think there is a growing amount of discontent with Harper and the Federal Conservatives.

Individually the items that the are being discussed in Parliament aren't really connecting with the average Canadian, but I think as a whole issues like the F-35, Crimebill, C-11, C-30, Robocall scandal and what ever else is on the horizon will start building into backlash. I think you're starting to see Harper's image slipping, as evident from the recent poll that showed Muclair with a higher approval rating than Harper.

My gut says that in three years we won't see a Conservative Majority again. Realistically it's the live cycle of Canadian politics where after having a party in power (through minority or majority) it just comes time for a switch, eventually the small little things catch up and people start looking for a change.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I don't want to defend robocalling either because I don't like getting the calls. But if you ban robocalling it will hurt the smaller and upstart parties a lot more than the major parties. Robocalling is a quick cheap way for a new/small party to get their message out there.

Slava, do you really think that the calls in Guelph affected the outcome of the election or are you just fanning the flames?

I don't know whether the robocalls in Guelph changed the outcome (the Liberals won that seat), but there were hundreds of calls across Canada. In the robocall thread someone posted an affadvait which is pretty compelling evidence if its legit (I have no idea whether it is, but it was reported by a few news outlets).

To me though, no party should be engaging in this kind of behaviour. Whether it affects the outcome isn't the test in my opinion. Maybe they "only" caused a few hundred people not to vote....but that is inexcuseable to me and a non-defence.

That's like saying "I only took a little bit, so its not a big deal." I know that this is hard line, but I think that you might as well help yourself to as much as you like and just call yourself a thief in that case.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Slava

I wouldn't point to the past year as a glowing success for Harper either though. Sure, the sky hasn't fallen, I'll give you that. Is that really the bar for success though? Is it enough to say "well they didn't bugger things up at a time when the economy has been fairly stable and there haven't been any major issues to deal with? I hardly think so.

Then we take a look at some of the policies and procedures they've implemented:

- The entire F-35 debacle was of their doing. The misleading of parliament and the ridiculing of MPs who suggested that the costs were higher than the government would admit.

- The omnibus crime bill in general

- OAS and the fact that this could've been known long before the last election, but the CPC didn't want to have this brought out.

- The entire robocall scandal which might've helped them get this majority in the first place.

So while the government didn't screw things up, I would hardly praise them for that.

Yes, the Conservative party has stubbed their toe a couple of times, I admit. But you also have to admit that toe stubbing in not the exclusive territory of Harper' team. One could point to multiple examples of past Liberal goverment failures... but I won't go into that as its all been discussed quite thoroughly in the past.

I also think that people on the left should start admitting that they were wrong about all the doom and gloom predictions of what would happen if the Conservatives got a majority. Overall Canada is doing quite well. You have to give some of the credit for that to Stephen Harper & Co.

Oh, one other thing.. I don't include the Omnimous Crime bill as toe stubbing. Its something they promissed during the election, something people voted for, and something the government has followed through on.

And as for the OAS problem... it had to be dealt with. We have an aging population and the current system was just not sustainable. I have no problem with Harper's solution.

[Slava]

The only ones pointing to this "doom and gloom" are the CPC supporters as far as I can see. Show your work: is there a single post on CP that shows that other parties supporters thought that the CPC would drive the country into the ground? I know its odd...but maybe we just didn't agree with the way forward. That doesn't mean that we think they'll be an unparalleled train-wreck though! Again, that is hardly the standard we need to set for politicians though.

The OAS issue actually irritates me to no end. We knew this was a problem and it never came up once during the campaign. I know that I posted about that during the election and I'm positive I wasn't the only person wondering about our demographics and how they would be dealt with. While something had to be done, the way to handle this was to be above board all the way and address it as an issue during the election. Making major changes to decades long programs without any legitimate public consultation is just wrong. I'm not talking about the solution here, but the how this solution was arrived it.

[Coach]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the OAS?

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the OAS?

Old Age Security.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Slava

The only ones pointing to this "doom and gloom" are the CPC supporters as far as I can see. Show your work: is there a single post on CP that shows that other parties supporters thought that the CPC would drive the country into the ground?

You are right... CP supporters of other parties haven't being saying these things. I wasn't referring to them. I was referring to people such as Heather Mallick and company.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Slava

The OAS issue actually irritates me to no end. We knew this was a problem and it never came up once during the campaign. I know that I posted about that during the election and I'm positive I wasn't the only person wondering about our demographics and how they would be dealt with. While something had to be done, the way to handle this was to be above board all the way and address it as an issue during the election. Making major changes to decades long programs without any legitimate public consultation is just wrong. I'm not talking about the solution here, but the how this solution was arrived it.

During the last election campagne, did any party actually talk about the OAS issue and their proposed solution?

[CaptainCrunch]

The F-35 is a big one, but you can point to several failures in procurement of military hardward like the subs, the Iltis jeeps that directly benefited one of Chretien's relatives. The bitter jacka$$ Chreitien and his handling of the helicopter purchases.

The one good thing coming out of it is that there was no money spent on it and no hard signed contract.

[CaptainCrunch]

I don't think that the Robocall scandal did a dramatic shift in the election results, I'm intersted in the investigation, I do think that its something that needs to be changed in the future.

[zuluking]

I like how the NP article suggests that anything that wasn't an election promise is automatically a "surprise". Like a government should only execute on election promises regardless of what is happening in the national and global arena. It's silly.

I also found it interesting how Mulcair and Goodale pretty much had the opposite perspective on the CPC. Mulcair says they still act like they're the opposition and feign victimhood and Goodale says they're behaving like conquerors and doing whatever they want. Are they going to two different Parliaments?

As per Mulcair-as-leader rating, dude is an unknown commodity to Canadians and is riding the "fairy tale that has become Jack Layton" legacy to great leadership ratings. I expect it won't take many trips to the national stage to see his rating drop way back. He strikes me as a loudmouth with a broken filter between his brain and his lips.

[blankall]

The major issue that is looming is a potentail housing bubble. This has the potential to destroy the economy. So far the Conservatives have managed this well, but they've ran out of room to lower interest rates. Time will tell if they can continue to keep their heads above water on this one.