The surprising Stephen Harper (He's Canadian)

[quote]The surprising Stephen Harper
The Canadian Prime Minister has the power to allay fears of a ‘hidden agenda.’
By Rondi Adamson, January 23, 2007

TORONTO - Tuesday marks one year since Stephen Harper led Conservatives to power, becoming Canada’s first right-of-center prime minister in 12 years. In late 2005, Mr. Harper was possibly the only Canadian who believed he would win.

A wonk extraordinaire, known for his love of policy debates and classic “Star Trek” – rumor has it that as a youth he attended Trek conventions and competed in costume contests – Harper didn’t seem the type to set voters’ hearts afire. And with his blunt approach, robotic exterior, and awkward smile, he didn’t. But thanks to his ability to learn from past mistakes, and to a reigning Liberal Party mired in scandal, he surprised nearly everyone with a triumph.
Even Harper’s foes bow to his political savvy, focus, and intelligence. He has navigated the past year with only a minority government, meaning he needs opposition support to pass legislation. As a result, he has done little domestically that could reasonably be called radical. He has replaced left-leaning spending and social engineering with centrist spending and social engineering. For example, a national day-care plan proposed by his liberal predecessors was scrapped in favor of issuing monthly $100 checks to parents of children under the age of six. He has cut Canada’s goods and services tax by 1 percent. And while he has made cuts to social programs, he has steered clear of touching the “third rails” of Canadian politics – socialized healthcare and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Time magazine named him Canada’s top newsmaker of 2006, noting his emergence as a “warrior in power.” The terminology is telling, since the area where Canadians have seen the most change has been in their country’s foreign policy. Notably, Canada’s new prime minister has not engaged in any gratuitous anti-Americanism. That’s a standard Canadian political tactic, guaranteed to please the “blue-state” denizens of Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto.

Where the war on terror is concerned, he has been, by Canadian standards, revolutionary. For decades, Canadians have loved the image of themselves as “neutral,” peacekeeping do-gooders who don’t actually fight. This is an image difficult to reconcile with past reality, and with the present reality in Afghanistan, where approximately 2,300 Canadian soldiers currently serve. While it was a Liberal prime minister, Jean Chrétien, who committed Canada to the war in Afghanistan, neither he nor his successor, Paul Martin, were as vocal and steadfast in their support for the mission as has been Harper.

Harper has shown similar strength in his support for Israel. After the Palestinian elections last January, Canada cut off relations to the Hamas-led government. When Hizbullah rockets began pummeling Israel last summer, Harper affirmed that Canada stood with Israel. Gone were the usual mealy-mouthed statements coming out of Ottawa, the vestiges of the Trudeau-era romanticizing and courting of terrorists and dictators.

This kind of principled stance and impressive leadership has earned him some respect, and cost him some support. It has also earned him the nickname, “Bush Lite.” Many who know Harper call this unfair, saying these have always been his ideals, not something newly acquired to please Washington.

Which is not to say Harper is above political pandering. He threw red meat to his socially conservative base by revisiting the same-sex marriage issue. The law stayed in place, but this was widely believed to be Harper’s attempt to say to supporters, “Hey, I tried. Now let me get on with governing.” He is also not above breaking promises – such as his campaign pledge to leave income trusts alone. A tax was slapped on trusts in an autumn decision dubbed the “Halloween massacre.”

In December, the Liberal Party elected a new leader, Stéphane Dion of Quebec. He trails Harper in polls, but not by much. Dion is a supporter of the Kyoto Protocol (which Canada has ratified) and seems to mention global warming with each breath. He even has a dog named Kyoto. This puts Harper, a cat lover and not a Kyoto supporter, in a bind. His power base is in oil-rich Alberta, where Kyoto is unpopular.

That won’t be Harper’s only challenge. Canada is a country without significant conservative infrastructure, or conservative media. The result is a peddling of hysteria about Harper’s alleged “hidden agenda” – a conviction that, with a majority government, he would destroy Canada’s social safety net, sell our mothers to oil companies, and sign us up as the 51st US state.

Those fears, however unfounded, are what stopped Canadians just short of giving Harper and his Conservatives a majority last time, and are what he needs to allay. If anyone can do it, it’s Stephen Harper. He’s certainly surprised us before.
csmonitor.com/2007/0123/p09s01-coop.html[/quote]

1 year in and his reviews have been good across the board.

Hell, even I’ve said he’s been doing a pretty good job. Not perfect by any stretch, but a hell of a lot better than Martin. To soon for a comparison to Chretien.

(Overall, not the best article either.)

Canadian Politics bores the hell out of me.
Like watching minnows in action.
That said, the whole wacky absurdity of the Canadian Political environment(s) eventually will spew up such a renegade as Harper.

I hope he can bring more funding to the CF.
Starve The Rideau UnCivial ServanTs.
Equip The Troops!
For The Job!
That the palsy politicos send them out on.!
Out.
:grandpa:

[quote=“TainanCowboy”][quote]The surprising Stephen Harper
The Canadian Prime Minister has the power to allay fears of a ‘hidden agenda.’
By Rondi Adamson, January 23, 2007

1 year in and his reviews have been good across the board.[/quote]

Across the board? You mean across the extreme right wing board of course.

Blue state? Perhaps you have heard that we have what is called “Provinces” in
Canada and inside those provinces something called “cities.”

Idiotic. Do gooder is a pejorative term.

So a liberal sends them but a conservative is praised for supporting the mission?

Real strength would not involve support for Israel but support for peace and the justice that would require.

Oh sure, go on with the notion that the terrorists have no legititmate grievance whatsoever. It has been a successful strategy so far.

Principled. Sounds the opposite to me.

Red meat? I like it as much as the next cowpoke but it is hardly an intelligent use of imagery here is it?

Cat and dog lovers? :unamused: Brilliant political analysis there.

Sell our mothers to oil companies?

Where do you find such slanted bullshit anyway? Don’t tell me, I don’t care. If there is time in a day I’ll use some of it to point out the dangerous one sidedness of your posts and links in case anybody failed to notice it for themselves, which isn’t likely.

He found that particular poorly polished turd in the Christian Science Monitor. I couldn’t believe it would be published by anyone other than the Western Standard.

But the point made about Harper growing into his office is fair; he’s done reasonable well most of the time, and very well on occasion. Taken as a package, I wouldn’t vote for his vision of the country, but none of the other parties are worth voting for either. Maybe that’s why the Green Party is now up at 9%… they’ve become everyone’s protest vote.

Harper and the Tories are the breath of fresh air Canada needed after 13 years of Liberal rule that turned into corrupt ineffectual governing. The Liberals ended up fucking their shit up so bad, they’ll likely be on the outside looking in for a few terms now. Dion? Ha…good luck.

Voters will reward the Conservatives in the next election with another minority government at the least. I’m looking for a majority of course, but there is some work to do yet.

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]The surprising Stephen Harper
The Canadian Prime Minister has the power to allay fears of a ‘hidden agenda.’
By Rondi Adamson, January 23, 2007

This kind of principled stance and impressive leadership has earned him some respect,

He is also not above breaking promises – such as his campaign pledge to leave income trusts alone. A tax was slapped on trusts in an autumn decision dubbed the “Halloween massacre.”

Harper, a cat lover and not a Kyoto supporter, in a bind. His power base is in oil-rich Alberta, where Kyoto is unpopular.
[/quote]

Ok, so he is a principled and impressive liar (falsifier, perjurer, prevaricator)? He supports world wars and pollution. Not a real Canadian role model if you ask me even is he likes cats. I like cats and dogs, does that make me by-petisan?

Why were many posts on this thread turfed?

Those were over the line?

Geez…

[quote=“Mer”]Why were many posts on this thread turfed?

Those were over the line?

Geez…[/quote]

Touchy Canadians?

Well, he gets a few things right.

[quote]Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will give a formal apology to Maher Arar, the Canadian software engineer whom the United States detained and extradited to Syria, where he was brutally tortured.

The announcement, which appears to be a public rebuke of the official U.S. position that Arar may be a terrorist, is set for 12:15, according to Harper’s office. Arar will hold a separate news conference at 2 p.m.

Arar’s case has caused a deepening rift between Canada and the United States, which has to date refused to apologize for their treatment of Arar and will not remove him from its terrorist watch list. Yesterday, the National Post reported that the U.S. ambassador to Canada “scolded” a top Canadian offical for insisting Arar’s name be removed from the U.S. watch list.

Bush Administration officials have delivered secret briefings to the Canadian government in the hopes of justifying Arar’s presence on the watch list, but Canada continues to press the U.S. to clear Arar. “It simply does not alter our opinion that Mr. Arar is not a threat, nor is his family,” Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said.[/quote]

tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002418.php