Harper Needs to Go
| 9/23/2008 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
Well, we’re two weeks into an election campaign here in Canada and so far I’ve not commented. I have some concerns about Dion as a potential Prime Minister, but I have ZERO doubts about the fact that Harper needs to go. As much as I don’t like Layton and his politics, I could live with him as the Official Opposition and Harper reduced to ‘also ran’ but that isn’t going to happen. At this point, it appears that we’ll do good if Harper manages to be kept to a minority government.
Ironically enough, some of my doubts about Dion have been quelled by Harper. See, first and foremost, Harper is a bully. Bullies often instinctively see value in their opponent that they want to flatten, quickly. Harper has been assailing Dion and his character from the moment that he was elected Liberal leader. That indicates to me, along with Dion’s unlikely win, that there is more to Dion than meets the eye.
Locally, for me, both candidates are pretty decent fellows which means I then have to look towards the leadership to determine where my vote goes. Harper’s bully tendencies is a major red flag for me. There is a line between being a bully and being a leader, a leader can lead without being a control freak bully. Harper is not a leader. Politics being the dirty game it is, those who are currently ‘following’ Harper are no different than those who follow a schoolyard bully. I wont empower a bully by voting for him.
As for the issues, I haven’t yet seen a proposal from the Conservatives that could sway my current conviction. I can’t say that I fully understand the Green Shift and have some uncertainties about it being good for Canada, but it is clear the environment has to be dealt with in a meaningful way. Previous governments (of all stripes) have failed at that challenge. Those failures are no longer acceptable and neither is smoke screens like the Cons are tossing up while nothing gets done.
Once again, Harper is actually managing to sway me towards Dion through his broad statements against Dion’s plans while offering no meat as to why Dion is wrong. Show me, don’t just tell me Harper. Dion is right, Harper took successive budget surpluses inherited from the Liberals and brought us back to the edge of deficit as the economy is starting to tighten up. I don’t trust what they will do with an opportunity to screw us further.
As much as I don’t want to see Harper get back into power, I suspect that short of a Hail Mary for Dion, that may well happen. The important thing is that thinking Canadians vote based on their educated guesses not because they want the perceived front runner and to be on the ‘winning side’ — if that side is Harper, we all lose.
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