Time to Govern Like The Government
It’s time for Stephen Harper to govern like a government. The glaring mis-step in the Conservative strategy this time around is trying to pander to Quebec, they ignored the ancient advice that wars are won battle by battle. Rather they should have focussed strongly on the Atlantic, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia instead of their tunnel vision on the large number of seats in Quebec.
Newfoundland and Labrador is ripe and ready to vote Conservative, they have an economy that appears by all rights ready to turn around, and have a Premier who holds a lot of sway. Quite honestly even though Harper is right, that Newfoundland and Labrador manages to take much more than their fair share of federal payments, Danny Williams could be a strong ally if an actual effort was made to patch things up.
Saskatchewan is another place ripe to stay Conservative. The Saskatchewan Party has done good work removing barriers to trade, and now it is time for the Conservative Party to closely examine exactly what they can offer Saskatchewan and Manitoba other than just a way out of the contentious Wheat Board.
In Ontario gains are made, but the areas of Mississauga and even Hamilton are ready to go Conservative if the right gestures are made. It’s not Toronto, but it’s close. British Columbia is also an area where gains can be made if the Conservatives focus on more libertarian issues as well as issues of increasing trade overseas, reducing barriers to trade, and cleaning up the disaster that is transit/roads in the Greater Vancouver area. Crime is also a huge issue there, as well as drugs which stretches to the areas of Coquitlam and Burnaby. The Conservatives claim they want to focus on crime, prevention and rehabilitation of drug users so give it a decent shot with a focus on real evidence they can document against the crazy evidence the left cites.
Quebec, in my honest opinion, will not ever be pacified by any particular national party for long any time soon. There is too much animosity and cultural difference. It is not the place to stake your government on.
In my honest opinion that was the failing of the Conservative strategy.
However that being said, the progress the Conservative Party has made is enormous. Encouraging people to change their vote and dump long standing Members of Parliament is not easy to do. Removing the Liberals, who have governed for much of people’s recent memory, is no easy feat. Removing any long sitting MP is by no means easy at all. As Harper himself has said many times, change is incremental.
Moreover the Conservatives have done it during a time when people are more interested in the election in the United States, and most people seem to be behind anything that isn’t related to George W Bush whether valid or not. And against a mainstream media which clearly hates the Conservative Party.
So hold onto the Libertarian values that I think most Canadians innately have, don’t ignore the small battlegrounds where every riding counts, and the Conservatives could have a majority chance.
Predictions:
- Liberals dump Stephane Dion (duh)
- Bob Rae takes Liberal Party Leadership
- Michael Ignatieff defects to the Conservative Party where he belongs
- Harper manages to get some other Liberal libertarians to defect to the CPC bringing in a majority without an election
- Harper then gets screwed by his law which mandates an election in 4 years
