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
Harper may have moved the Conservative Party incrementally as Prof. Flanagan theorized; however, to do so he plunged the Parry to the left by dumping his small-c principles.
As was the case in the last parliament, the Conservative Party’s myriad of authentic small-c fiscal and/or social conservatives will once again not be represented in the next Parliament.
Harper must promptly learn that that genuine conservatives loathe his plunge to the left, his enormous, and often superfluous spending increases, his lack of social legislation, his surrender in Afghanistan, his refusal to sell the left-bias CBC, his non-conservative judicial appointments to the Supreme Court, his refusal to downsize government and his Quebec ass-kissing.
Many legitimate small-c fiscal/social conservatives are now demanding a leadership campaign in which we would elect a unadulterated indisputable conservative leader, rather than just another ambitious politician disposed to sell his small-c principles for the third floor office on parliament hill.
Comment by machiaveli — October 14, 2008 @ 11:51 pm
@ machiaveli. I agree with most things you said, except Harper’s spending increases were mostly transfer payments, payments to reduce surgical waiting times, and military spending which was well needed and finally tax cuts.
Remember that there are a large number of Canadians who don’t comprehend the strong evidence behind economic liberatarian principles. You have to bring people over to your side with evidence, understanding and cooperation. If you elect a strongly conservative person as a leader (like Harper is innately) but who doesn’t have the patience to persuade the rest of Canada slowly then you will doom the Conservative party to the backwaters again.
For example, while I agree that the CBC needs to be massively downsized to the shape of public broadcasting in the US, doing so in a minority parliament with the media so entrenched - well you may as well shoot yourself in the head if you cannot see the way that would play out.
Comment by langmann — October 15, 2008 @ 12:00 am
I think Quebec will never ever be satisfied. I think that the PM must focus on the strongest points of Canada other than Quebec not to say ignore it but focus on BC and Ontario.
Quebec I don’t know, I’m just sick of them.
Comment by Rick — October 15, 2008 @ 12:27 am
But what exactly was the point of the election… the Conservatives are still a MINORITY… did they just waste $@%0000000 to leave the government as the status quo? Sure they have a few more seats, but they need 13 MP’s to defect to their party for a majority… that’s a lot of seats…
I, personally, do not like the Conservatives (Harper especially), but if they are going to jump the gun on an election, they should have had a better plan to get the majority! It was just a waste of money… The 3 other parties can still bring down the government any time they want - just like last time… Not saying they will, but the option is there… we’ll just be back at the polls in 2 years, wasting more money on another early election…
Canada and Canadian politicians have to learn how to work together… maybe form coalition governments… works for most of the democratic world… Hell, the US even does it to some extent (Democrats and Republicans teaming up to pass bills that other Dems and Reps don’t want)….
Comment by Darrell — October 15, 2008 @ 10:43 am
btw that was supposed to be $250000000 - not$@%0000000 - my browser doesn’t show entire comment box as I type…
Comment by Darrell — October 15, 2008 @ 10:44 am
Well European countries that form coalitions seem to go to the polls quite often. See Italy.
I disagree about the waste of money, people got to dump Liberal MPs that were useless to them and vote in more NDP and CPC who are more attuned to their thinking. Secondly government was stagnating and people needed to show that they felt more in tune with Conservative and NDP ideals. Thirdly to let the Liberals know they need a good rethink and to get back to libertarianism instead of socialism.
I think the point was to see what Canadian’s thought about the new issues, and it was fair enough. In fact it was close enough to a majority. Now Parliament will have to work on the goals the Conservatives wanted to work on. Harper managed to hold off an election for longer than most minority governments so he has done much better than most and done well.
If you don’t like Harper or the Conservatives you should explain why. Just not liking something for the sake of not liking it is quite frankly childish. I personally do not like everything the Conservatives do, and I explain why.
Yes I do think we need a US style republican system so that MPs work together and the legislative and executive are separated. Moreover since most MPs are uneducated in the Ministries they get assigned, a President can choose educated people to fill cabinet.
Does the election of more CPC mean Canadians are learning that the fairy tales they thought regarding economic issues (ie minimum wage, subsidies etc.) are wrong? No I don’t think so, unfortunately. Canada is still a country of religious-socialism thought based on feelings rather than evidence.
Comment by langmann — October 15, 2008 @ 3:24 pm
Darrell - I blame Dion: if he didn’t wnat to “waste” (a characterization I disagree with) $250M he could have just agreed to continue going turtle. He didn’t do that, for whatever reason - likely because he thought he could win a majority. So why is it Harper’s fault? He was prepared to govern, Dion (and Layton) publicly stated that they would do whatever they could to prevent him from doing so.
Comment by dcardno — October 17, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
@ dcardno,
In Dion’s defence, how long could be continue to go turtle for, before looking like the “not a leader” he was so clearly portrayed to be?
Comment by langmann — October 17, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
So it is justified to spend a quarter Billion or so on an election because Dion doesn’t like his image?
Comment by dcardno — October 20, 2008 @ 11:27 am
Nice article. Thanks.
Eugene
Comment by Eugene — October 21, 2008 @ 7:49 am