04.08.2011 02:49 PM

The Con platform: Wherry asks the key question

Here.

We all know the reality, anyway.  The reality is that these guys are making it up as they go along, and are hoping no one will notice.

I guess we did.

28 Comments

  1. nic coivert says:

    The budget is fake, the platform is fake, the rallies are fake, the lake is fake, Harper’s tiny smile is fake, the marriage is fake. Just like economics is a fake science, like Harper is a fake economist and Flaherty isn’t even that.

    So who is going to take the fake?

  2. Namesake says:

    In part 2 of that post, a commenter notes:

    the economist Stephen Gordon has Tweetted:

    “As best I can tell, budget was going to eliminate defict with magic. The CPC platform will spend more & eliminate it faster using more magic.”

    Hence, the name for the rest of the Harpocrisy Campaign 2011:

    The Magical Mystery Tour

  3. Ottlib says:

    What’s changed: A tanking Conservative campaign that’s what.

  4. Dan says:

    they’re throwing hail mary’s way to early in this campaign.

    At least Paul Martin had the dignity to wait till the debates in 2006 with his “removing the notwithstandin clause” fiasco

  5. Namesake says:

    So, if I were in the actual war room, I’d want to put out a poster of this pic from his platform reveal today, with the slogan harkening back to one that nearly sunk his spiritual guide, Tricky Dicky:

    Would you buy a used budget from this man?

    http://www.cbc.ca/photos/galleries/316/316_3763_web_8column.jpg

    He looks like the world’s worst ticket scalper. Buyer beware!

  6. TDotRome says:

    Straight out of the Rob Ford playbook!!………what a coincidence that Harper is in the GTA………….promise them we can “find” waste! We don’t actually know where it is, but we’re sure it’s there! People will retire and won’t need replacing! The computers! I’m sure we can save something there! Btw, no major spending cuts……….promise! And, we’ll cut your taxes, too!

    How does anyone believe Tory math? It never adds up.

  7. Bell says:

    If Iggy keeps performing as well as he is done to date he just might be able to hold Harper to a minority government. He will then prove to everyone, why forcing this election was so important! Of course the majority of Canadians are not paying attention anyways. In fact many people might wake up in May, see we have a minority Harper government and not even realize we have had an election.

    Iggy is demonstrating he can actually run a campaign. Too bad he doesn’t know when to call one.

    • nic coivert says:

      I don’t think he did call one though.

      Harper called it by backing the opposition parties into a corner. Iggy and the Libs where clever to dump the government on other than the budget. And its been game on ever since. But you are correct, if this where amateur boxing, Iggy would have won on points, unanimously.

      • smelter rat says:

        Bullshit Gord. The only government in the history of the Commonwealth to fall on a contempt finding. You can try to spin iftany way you want, but it doesn’t matter how your slice a pig’s ass, it’s still pork.

      • nic coivert says:

        Gord, you are too much. “A trumped up Contempt charge.” How come that has never happened in any Westminster Parliamentary system in the Commonwealth ever then? How is it no one has ever been able to trump up a Contempt charge. I’ll tell you why.

        IT’S BECAUSE THE CONSERVATIVES ACTED IN CONTEMPT OF PARLIAMENT THAT’S WHY.

        They are guilty because they did the crime, but they don’t want to do the time. They figured Canadians would overlook the crime. And that is another kind of contempt. Contempt for Canadian Democracy, for the electorate.

        Harper’s Conservatives refused to divulge financial information for major fiscal projects; planes, prisons, corporate tax cuts. Parliament deserves to know what the Conservatives are doing with the Canadian’s money. The money of the government of Canada does not belong to the Conservatives. It is the job of the House of Commons to oversee and approve spending, especially in a minority situation.

        Harper was called on Contempt because he had contempt for the workings of parliament. Pretty simple really.

        He is just banking on the fact he’ll get away with it. Just like he got away with calling an election and breaking his own fixed election law. It is so incredible what this guy has gotten away with. About time it caught up with him.

  8. well says:

    There is so many keys can open the so many doors
    we are not to door step yet
    keys still too far from door knobs

    Imagine very soon we do not need any gas for fill our cars
    and all cars changed to solar roof electrical and we become independent of so many cost
    we become independence air polution

    as long as each human able to live independent and pay their bills as they desire from poor to rich all has their differnt cost

    as government to baby sit their children from child to young from rich and poor again

    then we call that day Independence Day

    from so many things include middle east gas import if solar system for cars can work fine

    http://www.presstv.ir/detail/173613.html

    http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=515&q=shell+canada+petro+canada+is+not+need+to+fill+gas+for+cars+because+of+solar+cars+is+come+to+markets&aq=o&aqi=&aql=&oq=&fp=94888e22225cd06f

    Then we do not need any more Shell Petro Canada and Sunoca high bills may so many loose job need review advantage and disadvantage
    http://www.inewsone.com/2011/04/08/iranian-students-design-solar-powered-car/41866

  9. Bell says:

    Looks like Well just made this thread “unipadable”. Or at least unipadable for the technically challenged.

  10. Dan says:

    I mean if they really thought they could have eliminated the budget one year earlier from “efficiencies”, why weren’t they doing it after they created the largest budget deficit in history….

  11. smelter rat says:

    Harper, running like it’s 2015.

  12. nic coivert says:

    Nobody knows what the real figures are, the Conservatives are hiding everything, even from themselves.

    Ever get the feeling that Harper has entered the realm where others are afraid to give him bad news because of the shit storm it could ensue so they give him not so bad news instead/

  13. So the Speaker of the House of Commons fell for a “trumped-up contempt charge” ? That would certainly make for interesting history Gord. No the Harper minority government fell due to it’s own management . Before any vote took place there was an investigation and as information this week shows, Canadians deserved full disclosure then and now.

    Mr. Harper says the F-35’s will cost $75M a plane but US experts say that’s unlikely. Kevin Page and the Pentagon say the number is off by $45-75M per plane. Sen. John McCain this week called the F-35 overruns a ‘disgrace’. Will they kill the program? Will there be an investigation? Why would we not take a step back and look at all our options under this situation? (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20110330/harper-disputed-fighter-jet-estimates-110330/20110330?s_name=election2011)

    Then there was Afghan detainee questions and the whole In-and-Out scandal. The Federal Appeals Court rules against the CPC on the In-and -Out scheme. You know a normal guy would think this is a big deal but the CPC refers to it as a ‘difference of opinion”. Okay…

    And what about those budget projections? As WK pointed out, Aaron Wherry’s summary gets right to the point,

    “In October 2008, Stephen Harper promised his government would “never” go into deficit. In November 2008, the Harper government projected budget surpluses through 2013-2014. In January 2009, the Harper government projected deficits through 2012-2013 and a surplus in 2013-2014. In October 2010, the Harper government projected deficits through 2014-2015 and a surplus in 2015-2016.

    Two weeks ago, the Harper government projected a $300-million deficit in 2014-2015 and a surplus of $4.2-billion in 2015-2016.

    Today, the Harper government projects a $3.7-billion surplus in 2014-2015 and an $8.2-billion surplus in 2015-2016. (http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/08/what-changed-in-the-last-17-days/)

    The last bit is an amazing leap of faith, budgets won’t be cut but we’ll somehow manage all of the expedited expense reductions through attrition. The civil service is already straining under unfilled head-count. Go back to November of 2010 and you can see PBO Page couldn’t even get details on the Harper government’s cost reduction measures that they said would reign in the deficit.

    (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-to-rely-on-public-service-attrition-for-lions-share-of-spending-cuts/article1805169/ and http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-wont-share-cost-cutting-plan-budget-watchdog-complains/article1784121/)

  14. James Curran says:

    Sure Gord. The budget will be balnaced whe those f35 ‘s can fly….and when these torpedoes can be launched.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/04/08/ns-submarines-torpedoes.html

  15. George says:

    Tories, NDP get top marks for their national campaigns
    http://www.canada.com/Tories+marks+their+national+campaigns/4589580/story.html

    “Canadians give the federal Conservatives and the New Democratic Party the best grades for their national campaigns, with the Liberals trailing behind, results of an exclusive poll for Postmedia News and Global National show.”

    looks like Ignatieff’s peaked too soon and Layton’s got his mojo back.

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