BCL mentions that the Conservatives are still pumping out 10 percenters on their crime agenda. This translates to using public money to highlight how you've squandered public money, by killing your own legislation in Parliament. Bizarre and a flagrant WASTE of money.
The actual cost of prorogue is subjective, but you can ascertain the broad strokes. One example, the Agriculture Committee had commissioned a study relating to one piece of legislation. This study was a seven figure endeavor and it has now been rendered useless, given the prorogue decision. There are countless examples available that amount to public money being flushed down the toilet in the name of political expediency.
When Harper or his Ministers march toward the cameras, preaching fiscal restraint, "every dollar counts" as Day argued yesterday, maybe a quick question about the cost of prorogue. How can you have the audacity to position yourself as protector of taxpayer money, when you so FLIPPANTLY waste OUR money? It's like a drunk preaching sobriety.
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That's because the Conservative party is no longer conservative. They are populists plain and simple. But they keep preaching about how they're the better fiscal managers, and the MSM just laps up it with no investigative journalism to show that the Harper regime is in fact the biggest spending government in Canadian history. Oh, and that claim to fame was before the EAP. The CPoC are the better economic managers? Not this gang.
They've spent 3 times the previous gov't on advertising. They've spent 3 times the money polling Canadians to manipulate messaging. The PMO expenditure is way up. Everywhere you look, they are big spenders, with this prorogue being the latest example of waste. How they are allowed to re-position themselves without any scrutiny is mystifying.
It's no different than the Mike Harris government, who despite all their tough financial talk ended up being even worse economic managers than the NDP. And I'll give the dippers some extra credit because unlike Harris at least they had a severe recession to deal with. How the Ont PC’s went into deficit during booming economic times despite mass tax shifts to the municipalities, and wholesale sell-offs of crown assets is beyond me. And now half of these jerks are working in the Harper government. Be afraid, be very afraid!
It will be the average Canadian they'll want to tighten their belts.
I think it was Al Sharpton that said - how can you tighten your belt when they've left you standing in your underwear.
The last couple of days I've seen the new Economic Action Plan ads....saying that now that we are recovering...blah, blah, blah.
They have no shame.
I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on fiscal management and political parties in Canada.
There was one in the US that proved that since Roosevelt/Harry Truman to today (other than Jimmy Carter) the Democrats have done better historically.
That's a great line.
The Mike-Harris comparison is dead-on.
Not surprising considering the lack of talent the Harpenator attracts and the ready-to-use Harris retreads who got chased out of Queen's Park. The fact that this bunch can get more than a rump of seat in Ontario is good proof of collective amnesia.
My guess is that one of the "austerity items" in the coming budget will be killing the party funding - yes the move that caused the coalition.
Folks say he will avoid this issue given the near-death experience from Nov 2008. On the contrary ... He would love to be defeated on that measure - at this point.
The Con base will eat it up and the Harpenator will use the fact of the united opposition to revive the coalition-bogey-man. All he needs is approximately 38% of the active voters to get his majority ... and methinks that with the help of the corp. media and low voter turnout and a very divided opposition (on the campaign trail, not in the HoC) , he will achieve that.
"The last couple of days I've seen the new Economic Action Plan ads.."
I haven't seen any new ones, but have noticed the older ones being rebroadcast. All in the name of damage control, I would imagine.
I have a suspicion you are correct PoV, Harper has said the party funding issue isn’t over. In fact I’m 100% certain it would have been the ‘poison pill’ in the upcoming March budget, probably mixed in with one or two voter-friendly initiatives, all designed to maximally skewer the opposition parties if they defeat it and trigger an election. That is I was 100% sure until prorogation blew up in Harper’s face.
He may yet try it again and take a chance that he can still up the coalition backlash again on the election trail, except there is no coalition and you have to wonder after all this time how affective the argument is anymore.
As far as Harper ” would love to be defeated on that measure - at this point”, I doubt that. Harper has only one option left, to win a majority at all costs. Any other result means his time a leader of the CPoC is in jeopardy. A minority, even if he gains a few extra seats or only looses a few, means 4 elections without a majority. At some point the party will finally figure out he can never win one, and look for new blood that does not polarise Canadians, nor carry any of Harper’s old baggage.
I get the feeling the prorogation backlash was really unexpected, and they’ve been caught flat-footed. The reruns of the EAP commercials, and ‘tough-on-crime’ 10-percenters is proof of that. They have nothing new in the arsenal. Haiti is giving them some cover right now, but they can’t drag that out over the next two months.
Once the prorogue holiday is over, I think Harper is going to try something from a totally new angle to change the game entirely. Watch for senate reform as the next CPoC rallying cry. It can be his answer to whatever policies the Grits come up with regarding prorogation, and can put the Libs back on the defensive. But of course it is totally undoable since it requires negotiations with the provinces and re-opening the constitution …but he just needs to change the debate, not actually follow through on anything.
It may not be senate reform, but somehow he will change the channel. That’s the way these wingnuts ‘win’ an argument. If they are loosing, change the argument.
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