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Originally Posted by nik-
So they push for it, and as a result there's a deficit which they bang him on. So do they want to take partial credit or use it as a negative point? They can't do both, and as a result of crying about the deficit they forfeit their rights to any credit for the stimulus imo.
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The GST cut and spending increase BEFORE the recession (motivated by an ideology that sees a surplus as overtaxation, rather than caution) put us into a position where stimulus pushed us into deficit. Likely we'd have still gone into deficit but it would have been smaller.
The opposition may try to have their cake and eat it too (as pertains only to the stimulus only), but so could Harper. He's already claiming credit for the economy (which only got stimulus because the opposition forced it), and may go after the opposition for the cost of the stimulus package.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Doe
I think that the coalition issue has a huge potential to backfire on Harper if he can't come up with an adequate answer to the claim (and clear evidence) that he wanted to form a coalition in 2004. How can he claim it is so bad now when he was going to do it in 2004?
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Harper's strategy will most likely be to deny as much as possible, ignore as much as possible, and count on people's short memories and his superior war chest.
It will be much like McIver's "Eliminate the Park and Ride fee" ads in the Calgary mayoral campaign. It wasn't a unique position, but I'd bet he got a few votes for it anyways, because other candidates didn't have the resources to get the same message out. In this case, Harper will tell us that the Liberals wanted a coalition with the Bloq and the NDP. The Libs will also tell us that Harper wanted a coalition with the Bloq and the NDP, but it won't be as loudly. Advantage Harper, even though Ignatief is not Dion, but Harper is still Harper.