[mykalberta]

He has done 100X better than I thought he would have done when he first started.

He has been aided in no small part to the Liberals being in kind of a funk. I am fine the way he seems to have a hand in everything the government does, you cant have it any other way. If you are inevitable going to get blamed for something you might has well have a say in it in the first place.

I dont give the cons much credit vis a vi the economic downturn. I dont give the Libs much credit either, tougher restrictions were put on banks up here which is why none of them went tats up.

He is not the best activist for conservative causes but unlike in the US I think Canadian Conservatives can see that a slightly right of centre government is better than a Trudeau-Cretiean alternative. He has been one of the only Conservative politicians in North America to realize that countries always move left, they never move right. For times you can stall the movement and even get a slight bouceback but in the end democratic countries always move to the left and if you dont move with it your party will die.

Where he gets the most credit in my books is on the Foreign Policy stage. He has shifted money from causes where we were simply another line on the icome ledger to regions where Canadians have interests and which are closer to home. I particularilly like how he hasnt bent over for the Middle East Oil Oligarchy (mostly because we are one of the few countries in the world who dont need their oil). As expected it has cost us as the ME has used their considerable financial weight to create a puppet out of the Euro nations who are as addicted to their oil as Americans.

I do hope he tries to use what political muscle he has to get the gateway pipeline to BC built. While we wont see the rewards in the near turn, in the future it will allow us to have a significant bargaining chip with the US vis a vi relations with China if the US decides to put up walls on the 49th or tries to strongarm us into some bs agreement. Its time Canada realize that we have more political power available to us to use against the US if need be then the ME could dream of having.

Also, I think he has 1 more election to try to get the majority, if he doesnt I can see him stepping down a year or 2 after the next election if he is put in a minority position again.