Our Prime Minister
Stephen Harper will be the leader of the Canadian government for a long time to come, I'm afraid. He is an ideologue of the far right but, as he is leading a minority government, he is posturing as a moderate and carrying it off with some success according to the latest polls.
Someone close to me insists he is stupid, but I disagree. His ideas and policies may have sad consequences for the average citizen, but the average citizen is not his concern. He is a brilliant strategist. He is cagey and cunning, unscrupulous, amoral, his promises mean nothing. He will resort to sleaze if necessary, as the party has done in the aspersions concerning Liberal leader Stéphan Dion's dual citizenship, as if it matters. (His mother was born in France.) He has split the Liberal party on the issue of the Afghan mission, winning Ignatieff to his side, and on the same sex marriage issue. The Bloc Quebecois set a trap for him by proposing Quebec as a nation, hoping to embarrass Harper's Quebec members, but Harper turned the tables on them by proposing a Quebec nation within Canada. There was an article in Saturday's Globe and Mail which explores his tactics and modus operandi.
Despite his progressive posturing, his true colours show. He canceled the Liberals' legislation which had money for more day care centres, instead giving $100/month to parents of small children. This does nothing to create more care centres, but caused some of them to raise their rates even to the whole hundred bucks in the odd case. And the money is taxable. Then there's the GST. Lowering the rate from 7% to 6% or 5% will save very little for the poorer citizen, but will be significant on the price of a new Mercedes. And the GST establishment will be as large as ever but collect less money. That's efficiency? And then he quietly canceled the Liberal income tax cut while reducing the basic exemption.
But the electorate doesn't seem to mind. They like Harper because he is strong and decisive. (So were Stalin and Hitler.) He has a "Prime Ministerial" bearing. God help us! I think it was Lincoln who said you could fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Well, I don't know. I'd say that you can fool most of the people most of the time. When they finally wake up, as they did with Diefenbaker, as they did with Mulroney, as they're doing now with Bush, it's too late.
Stephen Harper will be the leader of the Canadian government for a long time to come, I'm afraid. He is an ideologue of the far right but, as he is leading a minority government, he is posturing as a moderate and carrying it off with some success according to the latest polls.
Someone close to me insists he is stupid, but I disagree. His ideas and policies may have sad consequences for the average citizen, but the average citizen is not his concern. He is a brilliant strategist. He is cagey and cunning, unscrupulous, amoral, his promises mean nothing. He will resort to sleaze if necessary, as the party has done in the aspersions concerning Liberal leader Stéphan Dion's dual citizenship, as if it matters. (His mother was born in France.) He has split the Liberal party on the issue of the Afghan mission, winning Ignatieff to his side, and on the same sex marriage issue. The Bloc Quebecois set a trap for him by proposing Quebec as a nation, hoping to embarrass Harper's Quebec members, but Harper turned the tables on them by proposing a Quebec nation within Canada. There was an article in Saturday's Globe and Mail which explores his tactics and modus operandi.
Despite his progressive posturing, his true colours show. He canceled the Liberals' legislation which had money for more day care centres, instead giving $100/month to parents of small children. This does nothing to create more care centres, but caused some of them to raise their rates even to the whole hundred bucks in the odd case. And the money is taxable. Then there's the GST. Lowering the rate from 7% to 6% or 5% will save very little for the poorer citizen, but will be significant on the price of a new Mercedes. And the GST establishment will be as large as ever but collect less money. That's efficiency? And then he quietly canceled the Liberal income tax cut while reducing the basic exemption.
But the electorate doesn't seem to mind. They like Harper because he is strong and decisive. (So were Stalin and Hitler.) He has a "Prime Ministerial" bearing. God help us! I think it was Lincoln who said you could fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Well, I don't know. I'd say that you can fool most of the people most of the time. When they finally wake up, as they did with Diefenbaker, as they did with Mulroney, as they're doing now with Bush, it's too late.
posted by puzzled @ 12:32 PM
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