Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Harper: "NDP brings bad ideas.. where Liberals bring none"

Full story here.

In the 90's, back in my U of A political club days during the annual Model Parliament, I noticed how easy it was for us on the Reform/Canadian Alliance opposition bench to debate the Liberal gov't (who were the gov't in power during that time).  They lacked any real passion other than happy they were in power.  But more significantly, they lacked ideas.  They even admitted it to me in the evening parties that their party was not about original ideas, it was about taking them from the left or right and being pragmatic to the n-th degree.  It was classic linear ideology 101.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Liberals were the most successful political party in the the democratic world.  They were masters of balancing the politically astute ideas from the left and right, whether good or bad, whether it solved anything or not, and sold them to the public as sound policy all for one primary purpose... power.  NDP came up with universal health care, Liberals enacted it.  Chretien tells everyone he's getting rid of the GST, but keeps it, although it was good Conservative policy.  Oh sure, the Liberals had their Red Book of 1993, but really, it was more for show that they did have ideas.

The Liberal party of the last 10 years or so has had a massive policy vacuum, even if that policy means stealing them from the left or right, they don't appear to agree with either side.  The only real original idea came from former Liberal leader Stephane Dion with the carbon tax.  Sure it was supposedly original, but Canadians rejected it as a bad idea and elected the Conservatives again instead.

The Liberals continue to swoon for a dauphin leader to pull them out of the vacuum with some grand ideas, when their ideas should be coming from their membership or at least enhanced ideas from the left or right,  it is seemingly so that Liberal support across Canada (and other western nations) appears in a hole.  It will take much more than young Trudeau to save them.  At least his father had ideas, although very bad ones.

With the NDP seemingly moving to the centre and the Conservatives having moved to the centre a while back, the Liberals got pushed out... especially on ideas.  And so Prime Minister Harper is bang-on:  “The one difference between the NDP and the Liberal Party is at least the NDP brings bad ideas to this debate, whereas the Liberals bring none.”

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The NDPQ brings bad ideas" yes and also a very bad temper in Mr Muclair.
Really does not matter what the Liberals bring, they signed Kyoto, didn't get it done.
Thank goodness for that!
Who can forget the "Red Book" " GST gone" body bags, dancing on the coffins of our troops.
Shameful little commies,MP McCallum did not know the name of the horse he rode in on.
Then there was Saint Jack's coup attempt.
What a bunch their Mom's must be proud.

ForestCreature said...

Seems to be more sour grapes & trash talk than real substantive problem solving here... The Progressive Conservatives collapsing into the Reform/Alliance by way of a cheap parlour trick pulled by the last so-called Leader of the Progressive Conservatives was unfortunate, but it looks like lying to disband Sir John A's Progressive Conservatives was acceptable... But still kind of creepy, even after all these years that have passed...

Ergo, the current Conservative Party of Canada is just a 'refried' Reform/Alliance Western Party of Canada..With a little twang of Social Credit kicked in for flavour...

Arrogance in any political party nauseates the Canadian voter. How about a little less partisan howling and a little more problem solving for the Whole country & not just what seems to go for Canadian, or, ah hem, Western patriotism these days... "I'm Alright & That's All That Matters"... Eastern Canada can go *Frell* itself.

This Trudeau might be a game changer.. who knows... and the NDP .. again who knows... But, to assume that the current party will hold onto their majority without consultation with all the Canadian People & not just the Western & Prairie Provinces, & those that own Oil Rights... is a mistake...

Believe it....

There exists Canadians who don't grab onto one political party & just keep mindlessly ingesting the Lifer 'Kool-Aid' .... There are many many independent Canadians that are far smarter than that... And oh, yeah, there are those that Love Their Country, Canada so much that they have put themselves in harms way to protect our country... Unsung Heroes...

So how about a little more reason & a whole lot more respect for All the Hard-Working Canadians that make up this Canada .... And how about a little problem-solving, just for the heck of it and deep-six the petty griping....

Mike B. said...

ForestCreature... in one breath you call the CPC "refried".. "with a little twang of Social Credit" (which it isn't by any means), the next you say "how about a little less partisan howling" and "petty griping."

Kettle.

And as far as problem solving, the Canadian economy is doing quite well comparatively to the world with some smart policy and stewardship from Mr. Harper. Quebec will continue to go down the tubes even though they receive billions in transfers.

Anonymous said...

Hatrock...
I find it strange that you should niggle at 'refried', but not redress the issue of the Leader of the Progressive Conservatives misleading the PC Party to where there was an agreement to collapsing it into the Western Party of Manning and Harper... An Ethical issue.

Being a Conservative is not a monopoly of the CPC.

There are many proud Conservatives in Canada Friend, who do not ascribe to or appreciate the doctrine of the obvious.

Now back to You. You seem to be preoccupied with the minutiae & not the point, which was problem-solving and respect... And that was directed at your Web Log, Friend...

What was expected was an intelligent discussion.

Further, you don't seem to know the historical roots of all the players involved with the CPC final resultant Party...

It seems you missed the issue of Eastern Canada & the policies that do not include the East Coast and Ontario...

You seemed occupied with Quebec... Yes, Quebec & Alberta & Saskatchewan & British Columbia...

But there many more to be understood & assisted... Prince Edward Island & Nova Scotia & New Brunswick & Ontario & Yukon...

What's the problem... Is this Web Log so partisan-based that there is no room for any other type of thinking? Come On... Get Real.

... So No, Friend... There is no Kettle here to speak of... But a poignant piqued anger at your not addressing issues here instead of trying to strum up some type of trite iteration of useless...

And since you have brought up the economy... Yes, the Canadian Economy is doing much better than other countries on the Planet, but then, Canada has Oil and lots of Resources that other countries do not... There are areas in the Economy that need improvement... and that does not mean Social Engineering...Our Banks are better regulated.. Remember Paul Martin, the Progressive Conservative in Liberal mantle who clean-up Canada's debt & honoured his Father...

Smart policy? .... How about a little less spending ... Fewer Consultants ... Grandfathered Pension Reform to All Parliamentarian Pensions ... Old .. Current ... New.... therefore a reduction in the existing Pensioned Bunch... especially Debra Grey who moaned about 'Pigs at the Troughs' for years and then quickly bought back her 12 years.. Yeah...

Finally... The first earlier commentary was pointed straight at your writing... Your biased Web Log... Period.

Good Luck with That...By the way, given that you disabled ForestCreature & did not like the rebuttal, will not bother to post anymore... Cheers...

Mike B. said...

Time to move on from 10 years ago there friend. My blog addresses politics and policy. That post was highlighting that Harper said the current Liberals have little to no policy where the NDP do. Must hurt knowing that, eh? Seems that it does. Is my blog biased? Sure, but that's because it agrees with many of the policies of the Conservatives. But not all the time, that's for sure.