Those Who Believe In Individual Responsibility Have Similar Concerns...

Hugh MacIntyre: We live in hope of real conservatism

Posted: March 04, 2010, 2:00 PM by NP Editor 

 

I don't actually believe that the Conservative Party will make the sort of cuts that are needed to get rid of the deficit. This is partly due to my lack of faith that the government will behave as the fiscal conservatives that they claim to be. Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper have brought forth Canada's largest budgets and largest deficits. At this moment Paul "Dithers" Martin has more credibility as a fiscal conservative.

Click here to read more...

It's About Bloody Time...

Tories tilt Parliament to the right with Throne Speech

Patriotism, law and order, deep cuts signal strides toward small-C conservativism Mar 04, 2010

...now Stephen can go for a majority!

Surprise, Surprise.....It Is Called Partisan Politics

• Tory ridings eating up recreation cash
  Funds from a federal stimulus program designed to put hockey rinks and other recreation projects in communities across the country appear to be have been awarded disproportionately to Conservative ridings, an investigation shows.

• Tory ridings the winners from stimulus

PM defends stimulus payouts
Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government's use of stimulus money following a report that Conservative ridings across Canada received a disproportionate amount of big-money projects.

This Is NOT What We Voted For......

Taking a page from Chretien

When it comes to pork-barrelling self-promotion, the Tories look a lot like the Liberals

National Post Published: Saturday, October 17, 2009

The federal Conservatives were elected in 2006 on a promise to do better than the Liberals.

Stephen Harper pledged to end an array of Liberal abuses. No more care and feeding of Liberal-friendly lobbyists and cronies. No more fat contracts directed to Liberal firms. No more stuffing public bodies -- from courts to the Senate to the bureaucracy -- with Liberal fellow travellers. No more Liberal hubris, no more Liberal hypocrisy.

Instead, after a few early efforts, Mr. Harper's government resorted to co-opting the Liberal playbook and refining, rather than eliminating, its many tricks. The Conservatives proudly introduced the Accountability Act, but remain reluctant to hold themselves accountable for much of anything. On Thursday, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson dismissed the latest attempt to improve Canada's privacy and access-to-information laws, arguing that a collection of proposed reforms were unnecessary and cumbersome.

Cumbersome is an apt word for the system Canadians must endure in seeking access to public information. As journalists, we can attest that the delays are lengthy, the user fees are arbitrary and the information -- when and if it is eventually supplied -- is likely to be heavily edited. The Conservatives can claim to have widened the access program to include new Crown corporations, but extending a broken system is hardly a satisfactory improvement.

In other areas, the Conservatives have taken the worst of Liberal practices and adapted them for Tory use. Liberal dominance of the Senate has been eroded with a steady stream of Conservative appointees, with the Prime Minister often picking Tory bagmen and partisan faithful. Boards, commissions, advisory bodies and the gamut of rich pickings available for patronage appointments likewise have been "balanced" with obedient Conservatives.

A party that used to rail at the Liberals' willingess to direct public money to Liberal ridings, and its shameless toadying to Quebec, now pours money into Conservative constituencies and laughs off its own egregiously partisan activities in Nova Scotia as just the way the locals like to do business.

The latest uproar, over the government's propensity for including its party logo on giant ceremonial cheques used to distribute stimulus money, could be dismissed as just more of the same, were it not for the brazenness of the Tory reaction. The Prime Minister's Office sent out a memo to MPs advising that logos were not allowed, but chief spokesman Dimitri Soudas assured local MPs there was nothing to stop them putting their own names on the cheques, and defended their right to claim credit for successfully funneling public money to benefit their ridings.

That's an attitude we've seen before, from haughty and complacent Liberal regimes so accustomed to power they came to treat it as a right. After less than four years in office, the Harper government appears to have similarly lost sight of the fact the money it spreads around so enthusiastically belongs to Canadians, not to Conservatives. The aim of stimulus money is to offset the worst effects of a re-cessionary economy, not to win votes for the local Tory MP.

This government spends heavily on promoting itself. Canadians have become accustomed to TV ads presenting its economic program as a Conservative good deed, paid for with taxes that could have been put to better use elsewhere. When Conservative MPs hand over money, they not only put their own name on the cheque, the do their best to prevent MPs from any other party showing up to share in the credit.

Mr. Harper is fortunate for the moment in facing a disorganized and ineffective opposition, but Michael Ignatieff may yet figure out how to offer a viable alternative. Hypocrisy and hubris lost the Liberals the support of Canadians, and cost them their hold on power. They could do the same for the Conservatives if they continue disregard the principles they were elected on.

Leftists, not conservatives, are the ones nostalgic for the past.

Win or Lose Harper has to get us back to the center....

Star gets it wrong

A couple of days ago, James Travers of the Toronto Star wrote a column suggesting the Ontario Progressive Conservatives had erred in selecting a conservative like Tim Hudak to lead them.

The Tories were looking backward said Travers.

I wrote a letter to the editor to set the record straight. It was published today:

"Star columnist Jim Travers has got it all wrong.

Leftists, not conservatives, are the ones nostalgic for the past.

It's leftists who are eagerly embracing and promoting the failed socialist policies of the 1960s and '70s – bigger government, massive deficits and industrial planning.

Clearly, they have forgotten how such policies led to only thing: economic stagnation.

That's why we need conservative leaders who will stick by their principles.

Somebody has to be there to pick up the pieces."

Posted by Gerry Nicholls at 9:14 AM

Thought On The "Leaders" by CEOs

The CEO Poll: On recovery

Most Canadian CEOs think the country's economy is in good shape.

By Joe Castaldo

The start of a global economic recovery is more than a year away, according to a group of Canadian CEOs polled recently by COMPAS Inc., but at least the Canadian economy is in relatively decent shape.

The consensus among the 114 respondents was the global economy would begin to turn around in July 2010. Most of them believe the Canadian economy is in “fair” condition, and that the dollar will hit US$0.87 by next year. Only 2% of the CEOs said the economy was in “excellent” shape, compared to 22% back in July 2006.

The Bank of Canada’s handling of the economic crisis received high marks from the panelists, who awarded the central bank a score of 77 out of 100. “Events in the Canadian economy are largely driven by events in the U.S. and global economy. To the extent that the Bank of Canada can influence these events nationally, they have done an adequate job,” wrote one respondent.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also received a high mark for his performance, earning a score of 70 out of 100. But if Michael Ignatieff were prime minister, the Liberal leader would not fare so well in terms of managing the economy, according to the CEOs, who gave him a score of 57.

A few respondents took issue with various government responses to the crisis. “Massive government bailouts of broken international corporations will only prolong the inevitable at taxpayer expense,” wrote one. “Let them go under and the market forces will sort things out a lot more quickly and effectively than anything government can do.”

Time Will Tell.....

• Bringing the curtain down on Harper

  April 28, 2009| By Duncan Cameron|

  Coming out of Vancouver, with the choice for leader ratified by delegates, the Liberals will be looking for the right time to bring down the Conservative government, and force an election. more

Lets Leave The Past...

....and get on with the future of the country.

'Callous ... sad and unnecessary'Brian Mulroney was "hurt" by what he perceived as a personal attack from a woman he thought was his good friend, Senator Marjory LeBreton, a cabinet minister in Stephen Harper's government.

The Tory feud
MACPHERSON: Ignatieff hopes to exploit Conservative divisions over former prime minister Mulroney. "When your enemy is in the process of destroying himself," Napoleon is supposed to have said, "never interfere." A politician who meddles.. MORE...

If You Take Part In The "Game" You Win Some And Lose Some

You win some, you lose some
Three years after his government's first throne speech, Stephen Harper can boast of some substantial accomplishments, but he's also lost his aura of invincibility..

Harperization = Success

Kelly McParland: Ontario gets 'Harperized', Ignatieff gets victimized
osted: March 31, 2009, 8:00 AM by NP Editor
Filed under: Full Comment,Kelly McParland,Canadian politics

If you’ve been having trouble keeping track of who’s pals with who on the federal-provincial front, you’re not alone.
The alliances can change with bewildering speed. A year ago Ontario’s Liberal government and Stephen Harper’s Conservative government were at each other’s throat. Mr. Harper seemed to get a kick out of slighting the Ontario premier. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty brought much opprobrium on himself when he declared Ontario was “the last place” in Canada to start a business. Ottawa appeared to delight in offering regular bits of advice on how to run the province.
Not any more. Ottawa and Queen’s Park are now such close buddies that the Toronto Star, Liberal down to its last headline, is upset at the “Harperization” of Ontario’s government.

Click here to read more...

Busy Time For Our Leader

PM begins a busy week with two summits and a US media tour
Prime Minister Stephen Harper begins a busy week today that will see him travel to four countries in seven days, attending two summits along the way.

Very ImpressiveI have been watching HM PM Stephen Harper on Fox News Sunday. He was very impressive. He held his own with Chris Wallace. He repeatedly said he was a conservative. He avoided criticizing obamessiah, but did talk about the differences between the US and Canada. Canada will have the lowest taxes in the G8 by 2012. We will ahve the freest financial system in the G8 at the end of this. That's a veryDr Roy's Thoughts

Hand-wringing to hand-shaking

Have Charest and Harper kissed and made up - or is the recent spring thaw in their dealings with each other a case of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

McGinty"s Saviour?

Chris Selley's Full Pundit: Can Jim Flaherty save Ontario?
Posted: March 28, 2009, 8:00 AM by Chris Selley Filed under: Full Comment,Full Pundit,Chris Selley

The man comes aroundDalton McGuinty’s budget could have been written by Jim Flaherty. But will it save Ontario?
The Globe and Mail’s editorialists have only minor quibbles with the budget—such as its “unsettlingly vague” promises of infrastructure spending, its politically motivated rebates to taxpayers to offset the harmonized sales tax and its “minimal investment in research and post-secondary education”—but overall they are impressed, not just with the content but with McGuinty’s ability to actually do something reasonably bold for once.
The Toronto Star’s Jim Coyle believes “the buckets of cash and exemption flexibility the feds ponied up” has much to do with McGuinty’s newfound flare for the dramatic. (Indeed, as the Globe’s Adam Radwanski notes, if the Liberals had liked the HST idea all along, they probably wouldn’t have let the opposition frame it as an insidious plot to jack up the price of onesies and tampons.) Still, says Coyle, McGuinty’s reasoning doesn’t diminish the risk he faces: if the economy continues its hellward slide, he “might well have signed his death warrant”; if it turns around, “he might have written himself a place in [the] history books.”
Click here to read more...

Public Service For Those Who Are Left Headed

Nobody wants to talk to you anymore, Stephen
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF
Fewer Canadians are writing or calling Prime Minister Stephen Harper to vent, praise or pass on suggestions.

Harper aims to kill long-gun registry
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Prime Minister Stephen Harper renewed efforts yesterday to generate support for his party's policy of scrapping the federal long-gun registry.

Harper Not A USA Apologist

Reckless U.S. consumers caused recession: Harper
David Akin, Canwest News Service

Stephen Is Getting More And More Support

It's time to lower our expectations
Don Martin: Even Harvard pundit is lining up behind PM's pessimistic view. He's a leading international authority on Afghanistan -- and he's speaking Prime Minister Stephen Harper's language on the country's never-ending insurgency as a conflict.. MORE...

Truly national parties serve us all well
Gaz: Stephen Harper will try, Le Devoir reports, to revive his party's moribund Quebec wing, with a new organizational effort, doubling the number of organizers from four to eight and working through a dozen new regional groupings of ridings. MORE...

We On The Right Have Made Philosphical Concessions...How About T$he Left

Politics will hamper our recovery
Mar 19, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (5) James Travers
OTTAWA—First the agony of recession, then the pain of recovery. Day by day the evidence mounts that climbing out of the fiscal depths will be every bit as hard as the fall.
It's not just that unemployment is now expected to average 10 per cent across sophisticated world economies. It's not even that it will take years to recover the lost wealth of Canadian families that in the last quarter alone dropped by a record $252 billion. No, what's really troubling is the debt burden this and other generations will lug far into the future.
Before anyone contemplates a jump from a high ledge, with lots of luck and good management this country will stagger back to boom in better shape than the early '90s when it really was about to go bust. Back then, Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio was a chilling 70 per cent and odious comparisons were being made with Mexico's peso crisis.
More than a wake-up call, International Monetary Fund alarms finally jolted ruling Liberals into doing what they and Tories had been yakking about since the '80s. By 1998, more discipline and better times turned deficits into surpluses. They lasted until last fall's meltdown, rolling debt back to a comfortable 30 per cent.
So even if Prime Minister Stephen Harper is overly optimistic in predicting Canada will lead the way out of recession, the country is more able to cope with the additional $81.5 billion the Toronto-Dominion Bank anticipates deficits will add to the national debt. For those still keeping score, that's an astounding $18 billion more than the federal government forecast just two discouraging months ago. If accurate, debt will rise to $540 billion in 2011.
In itself that's worrying, not cause for panic. What does push that button, though, is a parallel trend. In good and not so good times, tax-and-spend Liberals and tax cut-and-spend Conservatives have been rifling the public purse with greedy vigour. Some of that spending was justified: Liberals restored social services sacrificed to balanced budgets, and Conservatives accelerated military renewal. But it's also true that the soaring, often politically driven largesse didn't do enough to ready Canada for today's and tomorrow's harsh realities.
Deficits give the federal government a second chance to correct that error before the priority of digging out of debt makes big discretionary spending a distant memory. Sadly, conditions for wise investment couldn't be worse. Altruistic pursuit of national interests is jeopardized by October's inconclusive election, the distrust still oozing from December's constitutional crisis and the political positioning consuming all parties.
Minority governments have in the past risen to pressing occasions. But, barring a surprise change of course, this one will miss the opportunity that comes with every crisis. Rather than peer farther ahead than the next election, rather than test the country's strength and will, those who flatter themselves as leaders are content mucking in the political margins while Canada is dragged along by what is self-evidently an economic revolution.
What Canadians need is a transparent, collective and collegial effort to find the most creative responses to the most destructive economic events in 80 years. What they're getting is more of the same: spending wrapped in secrecy, power concentrated in fewer, less accountable hands, and adversarial passion for partisan advantage.
Should this continue – and who will find the political courage to stop it? – Canada's recovery will be every bit as problematic as its current predicament.
James Travers' column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Only conservatism can lead Canada forward
Stephen Harper
Mar. 17, 2009
What follows is an excerpt from a speech delivered last Thursday by Prime...

Finch quits Liberals, calling partisanship 'inclusive, destructive force' "I have come to the conclusion that partisanship is an inclusive, destructive force," Finch said in the email, "and the party's perception that the average person is too stupid and too undeserving to understand what (the Liberal Party)

Good! We Have Enough Doom and Gloom

HARPER STANDS BY OPTIMISTIC ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

Elevated To The Cover Of MAD Magazine

Harper must be doing something right! But I will admit I would be a little happier if he would get closer to the center.........

Reality Check For Left Wing

61%oppose federal funding for parties

Majority of Canadians want Harper to lead nation: poll

Majority prefers keeping Conservative government

Support for Tories up amid House crisis, CBC-EKOS poll suggests

Political power struggle scaring Canadians: Poll

New polls show huge Tory gains:
Ipsos: CPC 46, LPC 23, NDP 13, BQ 9, GPC 8
Ekos: CPC 44, LPC 24, NDP 15, BQ 9, GPC 8
Compas: 72% biz leaders see worse economy under Dion coalition

The Canadian On The Street Speaks Out

'This is a coup d'etat'

Sun readers share their views on the showdown in Ottawa

By SUN READERS

We asked torontosun.com readers what they thought about the showdown in Ottawa. We were overwhelmed with responses. Here's a sample of what they had to say. To join the discussion, go to torontosun.com/showdown:

- "This is a coup d'etat. Nothing less. In my opinion it is undemocratic for some "back room boys" to get together to appoint a leader of Canada. If Prime Minister Harper has lost confidence, then put it to an election and let the people decide."

-- Stephen A. Holmes

- "I am so happy the opposition parties are planning to lead this country.

Harper needs to pull his head out of the sand and start acting in our best interest -- that is, co-operation with political parties within Canada and with other countries to address this global economic crisis we are in."

-- Charlotte Richardson

- "It's like a bad episode of the Three Stooges."

-- Rob Santarelli

More, Much more.....