OnTheIce OnTheIce:
In essence, it sums up pretty much every political party that's been in power.
Every government lies. Every government screws up and every government, Conservatives included, don't manage money all that well.
Yeah, but Harper was the new sheriff who rode into town urging us to "demand better" and that things were going to be different. The frustrations many Canadians felt about Liberal governments were going to be addressed.
And for that matter, I can't recall earlier Prime Ministers like Mackenzie King, Diefenbaker or Pearson having too much trouble managing public money. Nor leaders like Macdonald and Laurier, for that matter.
In fact, Harper's own Master's thesis credits Lester B. Pearson, of all people, for demonstrating fiscal conservatism.
$1:
Our tests also provided some explanation of the evolution of Canada’s fiscal position. Canada was an extreme case of fiscal conservatism until the early 1970’s. It had a very successful record in reducing high World War II debt:GDP ratios. The Pearson government during the long boom of the 1960’s was probably the pinnacle of this conservatism. Canada’s debt and deficit problems began with overstimulation following the first OPEC oil price shock.
That's a quote from page 135 of Harper's 1991 Master's thesis published at the University of Calgary, on pages 135-136, at least according to a draft of an article analyzing Harper's political views that I helped an old poli sci prof of mine edit a few years ago.
Pearson was the guy who initiated the Canada Pension Plan, the Auto Pact, the Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission, the 35-hour work week, Medicare and other things besides...
...and he's getting praised for his fiscal responsibility by Harper.
Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
Despite the commonality of corruption, nepotism, lying cheating and disrespecting everyone including Veterans this Government is more a clone of the Mulroney ones than any of the Liberals. It's really a shame that when this current crowd got to Ottawa they immediately started acting more like the 1980's version of the Progressive Conservatives than the Reform Party Preston Manning built them into.
Fair point-especially now that I think about it in light of my writing about how Harper came rolling into office depicting himself as the "new sheriff" in town to clean up the Liberal mess, much like Mulroney did 31 years ago.
Here's what I had in mind, though, when I wrote my previous post. This is an excerpt from the book
Radical Tories: The Conservative Tradition In Canada, by Charles Taylor. Taylor wrote the book in 1982, when Pierre Trudeau was still in office but at the tail end of his career. One passage is particularly relevant:
$1:
In the pursuit and exercise of power, Trudeau has divided us as never before, bribed us with our own money, and taught us that honesty and civility are for losers. As a result we have mortgaged not only our economic future, but also our self-respect. Trudeau's legacy to Canada is an increment in sleaziness, an alarming growth in our psychic national debt.
Substitute Harper's name for Trudeau's and you could easily say there isn't much difference. Trudeau did many great things for Canada, and Harper's certainly done some very good work on various issues too-Arctic sovereignty, arming our border guards, fixing issues with the gay marriage legislation, tightening the restrictions on big money in politics, addressing things like identity theft, and more-but at his worst Harper follows in the footsteps of Pierre Trudeau at his worst.
CKA Elite 
Tomorrow would suit me.
