It is impossible not to ask: What was Harper thinking? For a man with an allegedly high IQ he has been behaving remarkably unintelligently of late, picking totally unnecessary fights. My supposition is that he thought the fear of precipitating another election would keep at least one opposition party, and probably the Liberals, on-side and the Tories in power. Which likely would have happened, if Harper, in a fit of hubris, had not only failed to offer an adequate financial plan (proposed spending cuts would have sucked $6 billion out of the economy at exactly the wrong time), but also attacked civil servants' right to strike, and proposed cutting off all public funding for federal parties.
The latter must have seemed a fiendishly clever ploy at the time--a measure which many Canadians might support (initially, at least) because they don't like money going to the Bloc. [However, that money keeps the Bloc in Parliament, and as long as the Bloc is in Parliament, Quebec has no need to separate. True, the Bloc looks out for Quebec's interests first; however, since they are a progressive party, what they consider good for Quebec is very often good for Canadians in other provinces as well; I'd certainly rather have them in Parliament than more Conservatives. And the irony of a separatist party helping to keep the country together delights me. But I digress.]
What Canadians don't need is a Prime Minister who plays political war games instead of (as Obama has been doing), consulting with the brightest and best from all sides, and bringing people together to address Canadians' concerns.
If the Tories had had the country's best interests at heart, they could have won the opposition parties' co-operation by bringing forward a package which showed real concern for laid-off and low income workers by including measures such as relaxing EI eligibility rules and expediting pay equity. Had they done so, (and had they omitted suspending civil servants' right to strike) the opposition would very likely have accepted it, and been willing to wait until next year for a major stimulus budget. And if the Tories had been sweetly reasonable about the economy, they might even have gotten away with cutting the subsidy to political parties, without eliminating it entirely.
But the Tories are incapable of being reasonable, sweetly, or otherwise. Instead, they had nothing positive to offer; attacked pay equity, and the right to strike, and then, in a blatant attempt to stifle all opposition, proposed to eliminate public funding for political parties. More recently, by taping and releasing an NDP caucus meeting (acts which are possibly criminal, and entirely unethical), Harper again demonstrated his fatal propensity to always go too far in his zeal to intensify his grip on power.
I'm amazed by how many people continue to support Harper and his colleagues. They should take a long, hard look at this man who never fails to take the meanest, most divisive course of action; a man who will say whatever he thinks will work at the moment, and blandly contradict positions he held not so long ago. For example, he found nothing wrong with being part of a coalition to topple Paul Martin; the process only becomes 'undemocratic' when Harper is the target.
Harper puts this pernicious spin on the actions of the opposition parties, when he knows perfectly well (if he doesn't, he's too ignorant to hold office) that they are operating in the finest of British and Canadian Parliamentary tradition--which is that the government is the party, or parties, which has the confidence of the House. Period. The Tories have squandered the confidence of the House with their crass partisanship, and now must pay the price.
Harper is a man who always puts personal expediency before his word, as when he decided to defy the spirit, if not the letter, of his own legislation fixing election dates (legislation which was expressly intended to prevent prime ministers from calling elections for their own political advantage) by calling a totally unnecessary election this fall because he thought he could get a majority.
Harper is a man who condones unethical, if not criminal acts, by allowing the release of an unauthorized taping of an NDP caucus meeting.
How can any self-respecting citizen want this man for Prime Minister?
Another viciously divisive ploy of the Tories is to foster the notion that the coalition is an eastern 'take-over'. As one who lives in British Columbia, I know it's nothing of the sort; there are members of the opposition parties in every part of the country, including Newfoundland and Labrador, and even Alberta.
The Conservatives are not competent to govern the country because they create trouble where none need exist; they divide Canadians instead of bringing us together; they are incapable of working with the other parties in a constructive and co-operative manner; they have no honour or ethics and they consistently put their lust for power ahead of the public good.
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