With the Senate scandal taking its toll, and the Lac Megantic disaster still fresh in the public mind, you would think that Stephen Harper might be engaged in a re-think. But, if one is to judge by the rhetoric he has been employing on his tour of the Far North, it would appear that his brain is frozen in time.
Michael Den Tandt writes in The National Post:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper used the occasion of his eighth annual Arctic summer tour to deliver a blistering, highly partisan and combative speech in which he defended his record across the board and hammered the opposition relentlessly.
“What I’m telling you is that with the NDP and the Liberals, what you see is what you get,” Harper told a crowd of party loyalists in this northwestern Canadian capital of 23,000. “Dangerous ideas and vacuous thinking, that would reverse the progress we have made.”
Vacuous thinking? Reversing progress? The man is talking about himself and his party. Harper trots out classic Conservative boiler-plate:
Hitting all the hottest-button themes on which he campaigned in 2011 — harsher treatment for criminals, greater personal freedoms, lower taxes — Harper accused Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats of having policies “so far outside the Canadian mainstream, they don’t want to talk about them.” He slammed Mulcair for having travelled to Washington, “where he lobbied against Canadian energy exports and jobs in private.”
Harper launched into the Liberals as well, saying they “don’t talk about their alternatives, because they don’t have any.” In a dig aimed at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who has promised to legalize pot, Harper cracked that “I guess I don’t count legalizing the marijuana trade as a serious economic policy.”
“Their instincts are all bad,” he charged of the Liberals and New Democrats. “Tax and spend proposals so extreme they would make the worst European budget look solid in comparison… big government bias that would build bureaucracy at the expense of families and communities. And would put the welfare of the criminal ahead of the interests of law-abiding citizens.”
With crime rates the lowest in forty years, the people of Lac Megantic must be heartened to know that public safety is one of Mr. Harper's main priorities. And, as far as serious economic policy is concerned, the prime minister makes no mention of the sputtering Canadian economy.
Mr. Harper should be written up in a medical journal. His brain is frozen -- but he can still walk and talk. Unfortunately, he's a little behind the times.
12 comments:
This country is finished if the CON's fight a highly partisan election in 2015.
Voters will be driven away in droves.
I don't see any alternative - either fight for ABC or go into hiding.
Harper is the weird guy we refused to vote for in the high school student council elections, and he is going to make all Canadians pay for that 'mistake'.
He has no moral base. He lusts for power, but has no idea what to do with power besides satisfying his continuing lust for power.
The man is a dangerous fool.
I agree, Anon. At the moment, none of the alternatives look appealing. But, if Harper wins again, he will demolish the country.
He is, indeed, dangerous, Anon. The man's raison d'etre is to get even.
Now that vile Harper is,, proroguing Parliament AGAIN.
Is their no end to Harper's bizarre behavior? How anyone with self respect can support Harper, boggles me.
Those who thought majority government would mellow Harper were sadly mistaken, Anon.
As he said of the NDP and the Liberals, what you see is what you get. And with Harper, what you get is more of the same.
Harper's single-minded resolve borders on maniacal. People don't see it behind his wooden mask but that is a common attribute of sociopathy.
As his former BFF Tom Flanagan stated, Harper will say whatever he believes it suits him for the public to hear and then proceed to advance his agenda, incrementally, in as small a measure as he deems needed to prevail.
It's been clear for sometime, Mound, that Harper has no conscience. Flanagan confirms what should be obvious to anyone.
It's fascinating, however, to see how many people can't -- or won't -- see the obvious.
Harper's comments on the other parties are just silly. Many of them he has made before. I see his comments reflecting his contempt for parliament as a place where different views need to be heard. I just read he is planning to prorogue parliament again, a move to put off dealing with criticisms from the honorable opposition over the scandals in his party. I get the feeling he would like to rule alone without parliament. . .it is so inconvenient to have to listen to other people's views.
Exactly, Philip. Mr. Harper finds listening to the views of others intolerable.
Like King John, he would much prefer to not recognize the Magna Carta.
.. the man who cannot recognize his own country ..
or see a reason why he should ..
This country elected a complete fool ..
unfortunately, a malicious and malignant fool ..
What does this say about us ?
We get the government we deserve, salamander. And, if we lose our passion for democracy, we get a malicious and malignant prime minister.
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