I'm still gobsmacked at what our supposed PM, overseer of all the land and all it's people, attempted to pull off today.Thankfully, I've not read or heard one positive review. Clarity seems to have overcome those who sometimes have a tendency to consume what they are served.
Beyond the B-grade theatrics of it all, the content was absolutely appalling. Rah, rah, pep talk is not what I expect to hear from a PM on an economic update. Harper hit the notes his people wanted him to hit, but good grief, not one concrete fact came from that presser. I half expected to see chorus girls in the background, echoing his
I haven't gone through the document yet, well, at least not in full.
I hope Harper supporters were happy with this tacky display. How Duffy even shows his face to the media in this country is beyond me. He's every bit the hack we always knew he was.
Oh, if the questioners after the networks cut out weren't being paid, they should have been. It was live streamed and it was infomercial at it's finest/worse, depending on your perspective.
"Mr. Prime Minister, my husband and I are thinking of renovating our home...." Aack! You think self directed questions in QP are bad?
So, where are we? Well, we have to wait and see. The NDP and Bloc, who have nothing, to lose of course, didn't even read the update. They just came out in their typical fashion and said they would not support the document.
Ignatieff will read it and then decide. So we wait.
21 comments:
the content was absolutely appalling.
and
Ignatieff will read it and then decide. So we wait.
Dissonance much?
Iggy is waiting because he's got nothing...
But it did not stop him from saying:
"You have to have a PhD in economics to figure out whether [the money] has actually got out the door.'"
So you'd think that he did read it...
Those are quite the pronouncements to say that NDP and Bloc did not read it - care to give a link?
Mulcair and Duceppe at least had some rather coherent points to make...
Mulcair:
"Why did they make the announcement hundreds of kilometres away from Parliament and not in Parliament as they were supposed to do with a cream-puff interview with Mike Duffy, the former TV guy from CTV who's now a Conservative senator?"
And he added that there was nothing in the report that would justify the NDP supporting the budget - so Liberals can trigger that election....
Duceppe:
"Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' stimulus plan is a complete failure and the number of jobless is on the rise — that's good news for them, I imagine. The deficit is increasing on a daily basis," he said.
"And we have no choice but to vote against the appropriations under this inadequate plan."
So now we get to know if the Libs support the Cons...
And its obvious by all the criticism leveled by the Liberals that the budget sucks... unless that the sounds of Liberals blowing and sucking at the same time....
I do like Paul Wells take on this:
He’s gonna read the thing tonight and make a decision. Except all week I’ve been hearing from Liberals about their vacation plans. Those plans don’t involve door-knocking and debate prep. So if this whole election thing is still a live option, somebody forgot to tell the party.
Let us strain past the limits of this town’s attention span to recall a few simple things. The reason Stephen Harper was in Cambridge today was to update the country on the status of budget implementation. Excellent idea! Whose was it? Michael Ignatieff’s. The Prime Minister didn’t mention that, and yet it was really not long ago — the end of January — that Ignatieff cooked up this whole “probation” scheme. He’d vote for the budget, but he didn’t have to like it. In return the feds would have to report in March and June and December. There’s even a website. So you know it was a serious deal.
Now here’s the thing about probation. It is a daily state of binary possibility: Pass-fail. If I’m the opposition leader and I have Put The Government On Probation, then every day I do not announce the government’s failure is an endorsement.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/11/off-probation/
First, I read Wells take a couple of hours ago and surprise, surprise...I wasn't.
Second, I would dig for a link, except I won't because spokes people for the parties involved said they didn't need to read it. Mulcair responded before Harper appeared for gawds sake and Duceppe is gunning for Ignatieff, so what else is he going to say?
As to their integrity in the House, you may have missed the pre-show. As everyone was waiting for the Sham-Wow guy to appear, the House was up in arms on a Point of Order, all opposition parties btw, concerning the sham that was about to unfold.
Don't fall off that horse cwtf. It's an awfully long way down.
btw, you are very anxious for the government to fall, as am I, but if it did, who would you vote for?
btw, you are very anxious for the government to fall, as am I, but if it did, who would you vote for?
I helped ensured that some scummy Connie did not win here (Michel Fortier).
This time, I will vote for the best candidate.
If who the Liberals presented here last time (she made Fortier look good), it will be between the BQ and the NDP...
Fair enough?
Duceppe is gunning for Ignatieff, so what else is he going to say?
Given that the Libs are doing well in Quebec, you'd expect the opposite from the BQ...
And another thing, lol...you totally took that first quote of Ignatieff's out of context.
Seriously...you are better at playing their game than they are.
What he said was:
But Ignatieff said the government's stimulus program has been so confusing that "you have to have a PhD in economics to actually figure out whether the (money) has gone out the door."
The whole ball of wax, not the update.
Honestly. You're making Duffy look like a slacker here.
You hate Ignatieff, we get it, but at least have the integrity not to play games with quotes.
Thus far, you have told me that you buy the silly out of context version of the man. I didn't realise that you'd also be content to adding to that fictitious volume.
Actually, I really like that Bloc MP. Sigh.
Ignatieff had just come out of doing a speech and I heard has an event tonight - so there you have it. He will read it as soon as possible and discuss with his collegues. Imagine that, a busy man and he's attacked. Wells seems to have something up his butt about Ignatieff - which is okay, everyone has an opinion. He said Ignatieff talked too much and didn't say anyting - well, duh, what can he say until he reads it? The media bitch if the PM won't talk to them, but if someone does - damn them.
You can't win for losing it seems.
So, we get it, CWTF hates Ignatieff and will attack at every opportunity - well, duh, he's only one vote.
I predict Ignatieff will want a Fall election. but after what I read about the Maple reactors..they may not be going anywhere.
I suppose I'll get attacked and called an Iggy lover or some other pathetic thing.
Well, I don't care.
Rural Sandi.. you do not have to be an Iggy lover, but a good Liberal.
Anon, I'm really trying but for the life of me I cannot make sense of your comment.
The first comment, that is.
Imagine that, a busy man and he's attacked.
So busy he was not even in the HOC....
Wait, did the Libbys not attack Harper for not being there?
Oh wait... I'm sure that will be different somehow - it always is...
So, we get it, CWTF hates Ignatieff and will attack at every opportunity - well, duh, he's only one vote.
I only attack the stupid....
I am quite serious when I say that there is little difference between the Liberals and the Connies...
A few years ago, KNB used to talk about the dummying down of politics because of the Neo-Cons... well it seems that Iggy is playing that game and somehow KNB seems sucked into that also... sad really, but entirely predictable...
C-WTF:
If you think there is little difference between the Libs and the CPC you are clearly deluded IMHO. If you said there was little difference between the PCPC and the Libs then you would be connected to reality, but anyone that claims there is little difference between the Harper CPC and the Libs under either Dion or Ignatief (whom I will add I never had any liking for either and did not want to see become leader) either doesn't understand the true nature of the Harper CPC or is someone that clearly hates the Liberals for some reason (possibly partisanship for another party or simply is a blind hater, either way though not someone seeing things objectively) and places that hatred ahead of facing reality squarely head on.
Do the Libs have their faults and poor policies? Of course they do, show me any major party federally that doesn't, there isn't one. Do they have some overlap with some CPC policies? Again, yes, but not as much as many claim, as there is a fundamental difference between supporting a minority government's policies because you aren't in a position to take them out in an election and actually agreeing with them and would have advanced the same policies as a government themselves. I have read your comments for a long time now and you are a remarkable one note Johnny when it comes to the Liberals, which leaves your comments regarding them more than a little suspect in terms of their factual accuracy and anything remotely resembling an objective criticism/critique.
Harper's CPC has done far more to undermine the fundamental institutions of government from the civil service to the regulatory framework of the nation to the legal system than any prior government. It has enacted the most horrible economic policy regime I have ever seen in my lifetime and possibly the worst in our nation’s history. It has flouted the law openly and brazenly repeatedly for partisan purposes more than any other government I have ever heard about in our history. It has set more new (and dangerous) unprecedented actions as a sitting government than any prior government. Yet you claim there is little to no difference between the Libs and the CPC?!? Get real!
You want to oppose and be critical of the Libs, be my guest, it is your right as a citizen in our democratic society, but please try to stick somewhat near reality in the process, otherwise you come off as a hysterical hack incapable of differentiating reality from delusion. No matter how bad Ignatief is he is still nowhere near as inherently anti-Canadian values and beliefs as Harper and a Liberal government under his leadership would be nowhere near as destructive as the Harper CPC has shown itself to be. Indeed, at this point I would argue a BQ government would be less destructive than the Harper CPC if it were the government, something I would never have thought I'd ever say about any Separatist party versus any federal party prior to the Harper regime.
You really need to tone down the rhetoric if you want your criticisms to be taken serious by any other than those already predisposed to hate the Liberals, because making outlandish nonsensical claims as you do when you claim little to no difference between the Harper CPC and the Liberals shows you to be no different than Harper himself when he comments about the Liberals. Specifically more interested in their destruction than in anything remotely resembling factual accuracy and intellectual honesty.
"I only attack the stupid"
Stay away from mirrors then, cause it's sure to get ugly. The funniest thing, angry little kneejerk guy actually thinks he's virtuous. What a hoot.
KNB:
Sorry about the diatribe, but this nonsense about how the Libs and CPC are essentially the same is really getting under my skin. It is an old NDP rhetorical flourish which did have some connection to reality when it was the Libs and the PCPC one was talking about, but lost all connection to reality once the Harper CPC was created. Anyone that cannot see that after watching the Harper regime govern for the past few years clearly is more interested in cherishing their Liberal hatred (whatever the root of it being) than they are in being honest opponents of the Libs IMHO.
There are many things I dislike about Ignatief and disagree with him about, but there is no way I would claim he is anything like Harper in how he would govern and the policies he would enact versus what we have seen from Harper. Indeed, there is only one politician federally that has any similarity to Harper in my opinion, and that is Layton, and that narrowly in terms of placing ambition above principles when it comes to trying to replace the Liberals before stopping Harper from his long stated goals of destroying all the social justice/welfare/policy and infrastructure that Canada has evolved over the past several decades. The NDP stopped being a party that placed principles before seats under Layton, and worse Layton did so without ever actually asking his party whether it wanted to make that change and in the process has seriously damaged the long term credibility of the NDP as an honest principles first party, especially since the leadership of the NDP went along with nary an outcry at such a fundamental shift in the nature of the NDP from a core position it had taken since its inception.
As to the topic of your post, what else to expect from the Harper regime, not to mention the shill that became a Senator Mike Duffy. This is a government that is all about image presentation and not actual substance, because the actual substance of their agenda and actions if made known to the general public would get them thrown out of office in nearly as bad a wipeout as what happened to the PCPC after Mulroney. Indeed, I never thought I'd see a government that made me wish we had Mulroney and his group back in power, at least they governed with some sense of responsibility and with some sort of overall philosophy that they could present to the Canadian public unlike this bunch of destroyers of the Canadian way of life that currently hold the reigns of power.
I want Harper gone, as soon as possible, but after the last election I don't want another until Harper is going to be defeated, we have already suffered incredible damage from his reelection as it is, to give him any chance at a majority no matter how slim is something we simply cannot afford. Which can still happen so long as the opposition parties are more concerned with carving each other up than they are at presenting a common front against Harper, which is especially a problem where Layton is concerned IMHO.
Layton's track record on this front is one that simply cannot be ignored, he claims that Harper is the true monster/enemy but his actions show that he is more concerned with fighting the Liberals for seats than he is in removing the Harper CPC from power, which underscores what I meant about how he transformed the NDP from a fighting for principles first party to one that places electoral gains before principles making it no different than any other federal party while claiming to still be the NDP of old. Which is why Layton offends me so much and why I am frustrated with so many Dippers that defend Layton and his choices despite the consequences which have come from those choices regarding the enabling of the wins of the Harper CPC in the last two elections and if we are not careful a third time despite all Harper has done to make him seem unelectable (he looked that way last year too, and look what happened, he got a larger minority and nearly a majority).
Scotian, It's wonderful to hear from you again! It's been awhile since I've seen anything from you & always appreciate your insights, your "diatribes". They are always worth reading. Hope you are well & that you will post again soon at your blog.
No worries Scotian...Make yourself at home.;)
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