Stephan Harper Criticism

[Guido]

How can you be an immigrant if you are born here? Do you know what immigrant means? Grab a dictionary and look it up.

I know what the definition of immigrant is, DD. My point is that the accident of birth in Canada doesn't give a person more rights or freedoms than someone who gains citizenship as an adult. Immigrants made this country great, and so long as Canadians aren't increasing the population with babies, we're going to continue to need the skills and knowledge of those who come here seeking a better life.

Is immigration still great when we have a government that refuses to recognize skills? We have this wonderful phenomenon of doctors driving taxis & electrical engineers flipping burgers....... Obviously all are not going to qualify but conversion courses & knowledge tests are rarely offered. And now this new & improved tory policy of short term labour imports; Lets just ship up some mexicans so we can pay them nothing and send em home when the season is over.
The system needs a lot of work.

Again, no argument from me - I agree that the system does need a heck of a lot of work - there are some doctors who seem to manage the conversion, though - what're they doing differently? Or where are they coming from that the standards match ours?

[North Shore]

I for instance in a First Nation community, (ie a smoke shop in MB) The place doesn't have alot of business period,

Ever looked at the rate of smoking related diseases in FN communities compared to the rest of the population? For the two or three people employed in that shop, it would kinda suck to lose your job, but on balance, 'greatest good for the greatest number', closing down the smokeshop is a good thing if it makes it more difficult for residents to smoke, or kids to start..

Going back again to the original question, Where is the Conservative election platform?

[rigpiggy]

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Sir Winston Churchill

[Widow]

Here's some Harper criticism for you.

Aarin Masson, the director of communications for the Transportation Safety Board, told The Canadian Press that the agency is complying with a request from the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council Office that no reports should be sent out during the campaign, which started on Sept. 7.

Story Here

In the last election campaign, a series of eight reports and news releases were released by the board.

<snip>

Donald Savoie, a professor of public administration at the University of Moncton, says the agency should have resisted the call for a blackout, adding it's "not appropriate" for cabinet ministers to influence the timing of investigatory reports.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article ... W2jcGKl5gA

All this from the maker's of the Accountability Act. I wonder if any of those squashed reports are critical of Transport Canada?

[Guido]

Here's some Harper criticism for you.

Widow, only you could somehow try and tie the election campaign to your paranoid and incessant quest of chasing the giant imaginary anti-aviation-safety conspiracy that you believe is present at Transport and the TSB...

What's next from you? Are you going to go even further up the chain of command and start insinuating that the Queen is somehow in on the big scheme?

You're a real class act, cpl_atc. Really.

Do you really think that it's not politically motivated for them to stop the TSB from issuing statements? Are you that naive? (That's a rhetorical question, btw, we already know you are) This is a decision coming from the same government that gets their fingers into everything they can and tries their damnedest to control every bit of information coming out of the departments, and you think they wouldn't go so far as to stop possibly embarrassing statements regarding TC? Get real.

[North Shore]

And with another exception - he promised not to call a premature election - oopsie !


That was not a campaign promise.

Correct! Actually, it was a recently passed law, and even more recently broken law...

[BibleMonkey]

In the midst of an intentional diversionary focus on a minor group of faux issues, most people haven't yet realized that Stephan Harper is just the branch manager ( Northern business division ) of the U.S Republican party.

The Man Behind Stephan Harper

That's not necessarily a reason to vote against him ( although it is a reason to limit the extent of his power ) , since this country really is run out of Washington-increasingly so, if anyone bothered to read the Free Trade agreement, the "Security and Prosperity Initiative " ( sounds like a good thing, eh? ) , or examine any of a variety of decrees which render government opaque, rather than transparent ( Widow points out one ) which are accepted-rather than being rejected as they would have in the past.

These guys don't like daylight. We should just elect two Senators from each Province and send them to Washington, instead of the current farce. At least that would be more honest.

[Dust Devil]

And with another exception - he promised not to call a premature election - oopsie !


That was not a campaign promise.

Correct! Actually, it was a recently passed law, and even more recently broken law...

Do you understand how elections are called? The PM does not dissolve parliament. He simply tells the Governor General that he is unable to govern due to whatever the situation is in parliament. It is her responsibility to ensure that there is a government in place and thus an election happens. What the law Harper brought in does is locks majority governments into fixed dates. Assuming a majority should have no issue governing to term.

This argument that Harper somehow "broke the law" is just left wing spin and throws reality right out the window (as the left seems to like doing. Just listen to one of Layton's speeches.) I actually don't like the idea of fixed election dates as you end up with a campaign style like the U.S where a campaign takes place over a span of 2 years. Thankfully our political parties don't have the funds to engage in a campaign of that length but I would guess we will see campaigns start 6 months before the election date.

[North Shore]

I would guess we will see campaigns start 6 months before the election date.

I guess that'll give enough notice to know when to turn off the TV!

[V2-OMG!]

I'm willing to give Jesus Christ a try. What's his platform and will he be on the ballot?

The Christian Heritage Party asked JC, but I'm afraid he declined their nomination.

But they somehow managed to round-up many willing and able candidates from the various fundamentalist churches.

Their platform? Despite the sixth commandment of thou shalt not kill, they believe every Canadian is entitled to gun ownership, as long as it is registered. If a crime is committed with a non-registered gun, seven years should be added to the sentence. And if that crime is murder, seven years X 3 above and beyond what the Criminal Code dictates for first or second-degree murder - except in the case where an abortionist is gunned down by a member of the CHP with a registered gun. In that case, the sentence should be no more than seven hours of community or church service.

I don't know where they got this rule of seven. Could it be that the seventh commandment is thou shalt not commit adultery and it's the numerical sublimation of a guilty conscience???

[Topspin]

I'm willing to give Jesus Christ a try. What's his platform and will he be on the ballot?

The Christian Heritage Party asked JC, but I'm afraid he declined their nomination.

But they somehow managed to round-up many willing and able candidates from the various fundamentalist churches.

Their platform? Despite the sixth commandment of thou shalt not kill, they believe every Canadian is entitled to gun ownership, as long as it is registered. If a crime is committed with a non-registered gun, seven years should be added to the sentence. And if that crime is murder, seven years X 3 above and beyond what the Criminal Code dictates for first or second-degree murder - except in the case where an abortionist is gunned down by a member of the CHP with a registered gun. In that case, the sentence should be no more than seven hours of community or church service.

I don't know where they got this rule of seven. Could it be that the seventh commandment is thou shalt not commit adultery and it's the numerical sublimation of a guilty conscience???

Minus the abortionist part, my god, a religious political party I agree with!

[North Shore]

Well, thanks to CPL's link, I stand corrected on the legality of the election. Nonetheless, Dust Devil, it is interesting to see Stephen Harper make a rare political blunder by enacting a fixed election law, and then (realising that then gave the opposition the power to force an election by defeating the government on a confidence motion) going against the spirit of the law, by calling this election.

BTW, could one of you moderators following this please correct the spelling of the title to 'Stephen' - it is his real name, after all. Thanks.

[Dust Devil]

Well, thanks to CPL's link, I stand corrected on the legality of the election. Nonetheless, Dust Devil, it is interesting to see Stephen Harper make a rare political blunder by enacting a fixed election law, and then (realising that then gave the opposition the power to force an election by defeating the government on a confidence motion) going against the spirit of the law, by calling this election.

BTW, could one of you moderators following this please correct the spelling of the title to 'Stephen' - it is his real name, after all. Thanks.

It's only a blunder because of the spin being attached to it. The spirit of the law is about stopping Politicians from calling elections at opportunistic times such as what the Liberals used to do. Now I know some will suggest that Harper did the same thing by calling this one. I think it depends on how you interpret the situation. I think the stunts the Liberals pulled by not showing up to work helped show the disfunction in Parliament. We should consider that as far as Minority governments go this one lasted long enough.

[Widow]

Sorry, but Widow's experience does not make her impervious to criticism, and I'm not the first one (nor the only one) on here who long-ago grew tired of her searching for a conspiracy at every turn.

There is a difference between "searching for a conspiracy at every turn" and recognizing the inadequacies of the current systems of governance. Please read the quotation in my signature.

[...]

I'd love to jump in here...but I fear I will have a double aneurysm on this topic...

Instead...go here for a real solution.

http://www.communist-party.ca/



Much Love

[North Shore]

Are you actually suggesting that Harper didn't realize a failed confidence motion would trigger an election?? That has always been true, and this law did nothing to change that.

No, I'm not suggesting that - it's Politics 101. I'm saying that Mr. Harper brought in a law that was sold to the Canadian people as giving us fixed election dates. If he had abided by the spirit (or what many of us assumed to be the spirit) of that law then we wouldn't be having an election now. However, with that law, he gave the 'power', so to speak, to the opposition to bring down the gov't in a confidence motion - and I feel that was an unintentional move on Harper's behalf..

Harper is a master tactician, and he has preyed on Dion's poor leadership skills in order to govern as though he had a majority. It was brilliant politics.

I'm not so sure about Dion's poor leadership skills. He took the reins of a party that was divided after the last leadership convention and also in debt. Dion himself is in debt due to the convention (~$600k IIRC, as of about 6 months ago) So, trying to hold off on a costly election as long as is possible is smart internal Liberal party politics. Preying on that indebtedness and division is, indeed, smart politics.

[sigmet77]

Birddog I was thinking the same thing, so I'm just going to post this.

[Siddley Hawker]

http://www.communist-party.ca/

Why not, a billion Chinese can't all be wrong.

[niss]

Ya, I feel bad that people are using the fact that english isnt his first language against him.

[niss]

It seemed to me to be a person who obviously does not master english and wants to make sure that he was clear on what was being asked and that he was clear that his answers were relevant. I would be curious to see how this would have went had the interview been in french.

Interesting that the CTV broke their promise to not broadcast this.

But I guess that makes me an idiot.

[AuxBatOn]

niss, I speak French as my first language, I'm nowhere near being perfectly bilingual and I was able to understand the questions the 1st time around. IMHO there are 2 possibilities:

1- He is nowhere near the English proficiency level he should be at to lead this county;
2- He just wasn't able to answer the question he was asked and tried to blame his lack of reply on languages barriers.

Eighter way, very weak for a "leader"

[Rockie]

I don't think it was a language problem because it was repeated several different ways and he even had an aide explain it for him. It sounded like he just couldn't make the mental leap to a hypothetical situation. Personally I would much prefer the language explanation because I don't really care if the PM can speak English or not. As long as he can do the job.

[niss]

Again I would like to see how he handles an interview in french. It is unfair to use someones language skills against them like people here are doing. It certainly shows a lack of class on alot of peoples part.

[AuxBatOn]

niss, would you elect a PM that wouldn't be able to defend your interest in English without the help of his aides? It's not only a matter of understanding the question but also a question of image. Yes, image is important in politics.

[niss]

The only time I expect our PM to get in a live debate for our country is during election. Either way name the last time a pm had to make a snap decision based on what someone told him in english?

There is always time to think things through or atleast have someone translate it to you.

We have to official languages in this country Dion just hasn't mastered the one the majority of Canadians speak. This in itself does not make him any less effective.