Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Changing What Canadians Care About and Bragging About It

With the Cadman affair taking up so much space, this story seemed to sneak by.

Tom Flanagan, yes the same guy who apparently met with Cadman, wrote an article crowing about what a genius his ex-boss has been.

He begins with this.

Perhaps the most significant act of the Harper government is being conducted so slowly, steadily, and silently that it has raised barely a whisper of public debate.

Translation: Harper is changing the country while no one is looking.

After three Conservative budgets, the Government of Canada has been made financially incapable of offering costly new social programs or significant tax cuts for the foreseeable future.
Remember the national day-care plan the Liberals talked about when the country was awash in $13-billion annual surpluses? Or the Kelowna treaty to deal with aboriginal poverty?

Those surpluses are now almost gone.

You can almost hear him giggling can't you? He's literally thrilled that he's destroyed the fiscal capacity of this country with the specific intent of making future social spending programs an impossibility.

To launch any big-ticket initiatives over the next few years a prime minister _ whether Harper or a successor _ would either need to risk political suicide or hope for an economic miracle.

That's because raising taxes, returning to a deficit or slashing existing programs could be the only ways to pay for new spending, barring an unexpected economic boom.

His pride is palpable, isn't it? Harper and Flaherty frittered away a $13 billion surplus and are now projecting that surplus will be $1.3 billion by 2010 and Flanagan is on his feet shouting Bravo! He then makes the following bizarre comment.

With only a minority government, says Flanagan, Harper could never have taken the instant slice-and-dice approach of the Mike Harris Tories during Ontario's Common Sense Revolution.

He obviously thinks the way Harris destroyed the province and left it with a $5.2 billion deficit was a good thing. So good in fact that he's thrilled that Harper is slowly but surely accomplishing the same thing across the country.

What is it with these people? I understand of course that their fiscal ideology support what Flanagan is saying, but why is it that they don't recognise the damage they do?

``Harper really didn't have the option of the cataclysmic approach because you can't do that without a majority,'' he said in an interview.

``So he's made the incremental approach work _ all the time having the insecurity of a minority government.

``It's really quite a performance, I think . . . Over a period of a few years they've got all this in place and they never appeared _ at any one point _ they never appeared to be making a radical shift.

``But the cumulative impact of all these together is creating a new profile.''

Not only are the Conservatives boxing in the federal spending power in general, said Flanagan, ``they're also boxing in the Liberals from being able to campaign on expensive promises.''

Cataclysmic approach!? I do believe this is the first time I've ever seen this word used in quite this way. The author seems to attach a positive definition to it.

So there you have it folks. The Con's are on a mission to destroy what this country has become and Flanagan freely admits that it's being done by stealth. His arrogance is staggering really. Writing an article like this takes an incredible amount of gall and is tantamount to thumbing his nose at 66% of the population who do not support the Con view of the world.

That said, it's hard to blame him. After all, the media don't cover this stuff. They are more concerned with unnamed senior Liberal sources who are gunning for Dion and repeating the same story over and over again. Pathetic really.

For more about our small minded, visionless leader, here is the whole article.

9 comments:

Gayle said...

I am actually not convinced the next government cannot raise taxes like the GST. The liberals certainly cannot campaign on it, but I suspect when they win the election and examine the books we will here that Flaherty lied to Canadians about Canada`s financial picture and the only choice we have is to raise the GST in order to keep us out of deficit budgets. People will grumble and then they will forget about it.

That is my prediction.

Anonymous said...

I am sure Harper will hound the Liberals during an election on the question of whether they will raise the GST. Personally, I think the Liberals should keep this open as an option and admit to keeping it open. Otherwise, they will be in McGuinty's situation where he labelled a liar although he had no choice after the mess left behind by the Harris era. McGuinty came out okay only because the opposition self-destructed. Otherwise he may have lost on this one issue alone. I am not convinced that Canadians will not tolerate a tax increase, but it is a point which requires some strategy during the election.

Jay said...

I'm not too worried about the mess harper has made because once we switch to a green economy with carbon taxes combined with cuts to the income tax, what Harper did will be lost in the old system of finacing the government.

Thats been the entire problem with these neo-tories, they are stuck in the past while the opposition is looking to the future.

Karen said...

gayle, I don't disagree entirely, but McGuinty paid a price for that. I think there could be a way to steel the masses to support a one point increase.

They could run on honesty, meaning they will do everything in their power to avoid raising the GST, but if it turns out that Flaherty left the country in the same shape he left Ontario, they may have to and go on to explain what that would yield.

That said, I don't think the debt pay down is booked until March 31st. so, if there is an election before that, that surplus still stands I think.

The NDP have announced that they are bringing forward 3 confidence motions and they look like they will be tough for the Lib's to vote against.

Geesh, this is ticking me off. The damned NDP are so hell bent on being relevant, they are prepared to play games that may very well result in another Harper win. It makes me sick.

Karen said...

You have a point Jay, but I am kinda worried.

What you highlight will indeed make a difference, but that will take time.

Gawd I hate what these idiots have done.

Karen said...

clh, it seems that we agree.

Susan said...

Good post - we need to remember where this man came from - born, rasied and educated in the U.S. of A. He's a bloody infiltrator, he's Harper's Cheney, - he makes me sick and I agree "where the hell is the press on this?"

RuralSandi said...

So, Harper/Flanigan - the whole purpose is to destroy other parties rather than what's good for Canada.

They are playing chess with our futures.

I dont' know about anyone else, but whenever Flanigan is on TV he creeps me out. He's weird, never smiles - he's just plain creepy.

Karen said...

susan and sandi, I agree with both of you. He's both creepy and a republican.