Many wondered how much of Stephen Harper's legacy would live on after he left office. Certainly, Harper did everything he could to cast his footprints in stone. As it turns out, Tim Harper writes, a great deal of what Harper tried to do is disappearing:
It started early with the announcement of the restoration of the long-form census.
Liberals have overturned the closing of veterans offices, pledged to reverse funding cuts to the CBC, overturned two pieces of legislation it considered punitive to labour and restored funding to First Nations which had been frozen under the previous government’s transparency act. It also suspended all court action against First Nations which did not comply with the legislation.
It changed the way the Conservatives dealt with sick leave for federal employees, has given permission to federal scientists to speak to the media and is ending an audit of charities by the Canada Revenue Agency, which was seen to be payback for advocating for the environment.It has changed the way senators are appointed — although it is behind schedule and has a long way to go before there can be any clarity on this initiative.It will fully restore health-care coverage for all refugees and asylum claimants to the pre-2012 levels, before Conservative cuts.It is revamping the environmental assessment process — a major Harper initiative — while keeping the right of cabinet to make the final decision on pipeline projects.
On the foreign policy file, the Liberals have lifted some sanctions against Iran and will engage that country again, and they have warmed relations with Washington.
Trudeau's real test will be his first budget, where he'll put money to his promises. And that's why the Conservatives are howling so loudly. Harper's prime strategy for transforming government was to starve it. Trudeau says that now is the time to feed it.
We'll soon see what Mr. Trudeau is made of.
4 comments:
i liked creeksides angle on liberals continuing the harper legacy
http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2016/02/cons-struggle-to-find-their-opposition.html
she missed promised pension increases
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/01/new-canadian-government-breaks-promise/
harper signed over 40 trade agreements for us to suffer under for years
so far we are changing paint and furniture
harper gutted and bulldozed and burned
those 14 research libraries can never be restored
parliament and elections will never be the same
the harper damage regrettably is very deep and we will witness it a long time
I agree, lungta. The damage Harper did went to this nation's core. It will take a long time to recover. Trudeau has a lot of work to do -- if he follows through on his promises.
I fear the "Glory" is already going out of the Liberal world; yet they are still in power! Except for paper work decisions and an upbeat style of public presentation of themselves, they have done very little that's really difficult. In the meantime, air is escaping from some of their election promises. Consider two. While we have an estimated 16,000 Syrian refugees, CBC News reports up to 70% of them are still migrants, moving from one temporary shelter to another, still rootless. But the sore point is the budget deficit promise which had the country balancing its budget within four years. Now we learn it may be longer, much longer before that happens (if at all), and that we're going much further into debt than we had expected when we voted. Many Canadians might feel they've been duped by this government already, a government that's just getting started! It took somewhat longer for Canadians to feel they were being duped by the Conservatives. Indeed, we will soon see...
The deficit will cause them problems, Anon. But things have gotten worse, nor better, since they made that promise. The OECD verifies that fact.
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