Stephen Harper's critics are both loud and insulting. Some say he's too conservative while others say that he isn't conservative enough. My analogies are for the 'not conservative enough' crowd.
Socialism is like a burning building. We are in the building and we want to get out. Now I imagine Andrew Coyne running around with a Fire Warden cap telling everyone to "Jump!" Obviously safety exists outside the building and sure we want to get there fast, but you don't get there if you jump.
Mr Harper knows the way out. Lets take the stairs. What an idea. One step at a time nice and orderly. We'll all get out alive. No large pile of bodies needed to break your fall. You may even have to take a detour to get to a safe stairwell. Whatever it takes.
The point is the Prime Minister and the Government are taking logical, sensible and cautious steps to get us clear of this recession and its deficit. I demand an intelligent response to this and any crisis. I will not see this government shackled by strict adherence to some defunct economic theory. Ideology is a guide, not a rule. When theory comes before pragmatism its usually just a mistake.
We have our conservative compass, but we still have to steer around the rocks.
The folks who say that Stephen Harper isn't a conservative like to say that he just wants power. Well yeah. If you don't have power, you don't steer the ship do you? If our conservative compass leads us into rocks, their answer is let someone else steer. That someone else, "The Coalition," aren't heading to the same place as us. The Coalition thinks we will fall off the edge of the world on this course. The impatient childish and often insulting arch conservatives that think we should just hand the wheel to the enemy need to just grow up. So we can't follow our compass arrow straight sometimes. Go ahead and sulk.
If you want an explanation without the analogies then visit IceMan's Blog. This is all pretty clear to me but I thought that maybe some people need some help to understand it.
12 comments:
What a cute fiction. The reality is far more ugly. Harper is not leading us out. He's soaking us in gasoline and claiming that it's a fire suppressant. He is standing at the head of the fire escape and refusing to let anybody through. But don't let the reality of his crappy poll number and massive deficits get to you. Reality suck, so fight reality!
Sometimes people need a little ice water splashed in their face. If Harper weren't concerned about maintaining power, we would likely have Prime Minister Dion or Prime Minister Ignatieff right now. That's one alternative that I want no part of.
Nice post!
It is funny watching the right and left beat each other up over labels.
Rome was not built in one day, or Athens. Look how they both ended up!
We have it very good and if we can minimize the damage from the econuts who want to set up a socialist nanny state the CPC should have a nice long run.
I would prefer less spending but understand the political landscape and don't believe everything promised.
Under Harper the size of government is growing faster than at any time including Trudeau. If that is conservatism I want no part of it. You are all socialists now and this bubble in government is going to end very badly.
Of course the size of government (I assume you mean the cost of social programs and civil servants) has grown,
because so has the Canadian population plus Canadians are living longer.
The cost of healthcare is more expensive than in 1993, and new medicine and diagnostics need new money, and 30 year old infrastructure needs repair, national security costs have escallated since 9/11....this is not 1993.
Some people don't get it. In the past when there have been even the smallest of cuts the conservatives took a beating and the old hidden agenda smear was floated around by the media. Think SOW or the 'arts cuts' and what happened in Quebec with those; some say that the arts cuts were the reason there was no majority. If the conservatives had went headlong into cuts anytime in the last 4 years they would have been turfed, and we now be in much worse shape and be going downhill from there.
You cannot do anything from the sidelines in opposition, yes you may feel good about yourself for sticking to some bizarre principles that only a small percentage of other Canadians agree with, but you will not improve the situation and in fact will be responsible for making it worse by ensuring a victory for the Liberals or worse yet a socialist coalition.
Now that the recession looks to be over, for Canada at least (thank you Stephan Harper), Canadians are NOW ready to start doing some of the things that the naysayers are wanting, those things that could not be done from the sidelines or would not be done with a Liberal or coalition government.
Sure we want the Conservatives to be more conservative, but this is a minority situation and the opposition has been able to pass all sorts of ridiculous bills such as the support Kyoto bill. The real power is with the opposition, they have the power to pass any bill they want. Funny how they supported the budget by having 29 Liberals take a sick day.
We constantly hear tht 60% of Canada did not vote for the Conservatives, so why are the opposition supporting them and not going for an election, especially when it appears in the polls, that the Liberals and Conservatives are tied?
"feel good about yourself for sticking to some bizarre principles that only a small percentage of other Canadians agree with..."
In other words, "Shut up and do what we tell you to do peasant".
Right, just because the old "conservative governance from the centre-left" shtick has failed EVERY SINGLE TIME in the past doesn't mean we shouldn't through ourselves headlong off a cliff all while massively expanding government.
Conservatives get criticized for cuts? Oh noes, they might have to deal with adversity. What babies. Incompetent babies.
whew. I thought I'd get some angry comments. Look I'm a skeptic. I've had to comprise with the herd as much as any of you and yeah it sucks. That doesn't mean that I should act like a baby. Mr. Harper has at least thought my thoughts before and changed his mind. He can at least understand, if not agree. The Coalition scum would institutionalize that fanatic brand of green socialism, and you know what? Things are bad enough as they are already. I don't need to punish our team for doing the best job possible in these circumstances.
Now I know what you guys are saying. I'm listening and so are they, however I also know how you guys like to start howling when you smell blood.
People are actually ok with the idea of making some cuts. Can we please not wreck the progress we've made so far?
Anyway, the question still needs to be asked: when are we clear of the rocks? What sort of metrics should we see in order to safely make cuts and where? This is a lot harder than name calling and grand standing. We need your help with these things. Not your goddamn slings and arrows. Save it for the enemy.
Amen brother
"Conservatives are too stupid to be allowed to govern."
And yet we govern! So sad for the Groupthink Temple.
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