12.30.2012 03:10 AM

In Sunday’s Sun: Harper, winner

Winning, in politics, isn’t determined by besting one’s opponent in just one contest. It’s emerging victorious in the one that comes after that.

Almost anyone can win an election once, by fluke. But it’s not so simple to win the second one.

That isn’t easy at all.

Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien: Not many have been able to win in the next go-round, and win big at that.

It’s an exclusive club. And so, in 2012, the undisputed winner on the federal political scene is Stephen Harper.

The pollsters tell us he is increasingly unloved, and he is, by all but his core. He remains as distant and as cold — and as unknowable — as he ever was.

He has broken faith on many of the things he once professed to hold dear: An elected Senate, accountability, frugality, smaller government, ethical standards.

But he’s still there. He still dominates the federal scene, in a way that no one else has since Chretien.

Opposition leaders come and go — and, in 2015, Thomas Mulcair will switch titles with Justin Trudeau — but Harper remains on top.

He’s going to win again in 2015. Harper won in 2006 — and again in 2008 and 2011 — because he has persuaded Canadians that he is more like them than the other guy. He is, he shrugs, just another Tim Hortons hockey dad with a paunch. Canada, he knows, is full of Tim Hortons hockey dads with paunches.

He was as much of an intellectual, an academic, as Stephane Dion or Michael Ignatieff. But his genius is his ability to get everyone to believe he isn’t one.

Just a Canadian Everyman, with the same values and the same lexicon as everyone else. He fits the times, and that is part of the reason for his success, too.

In an era when the rest of the civilized world is teetering on the precipice of economic calamity — and when men in caves still possess the resolve to murder us all — Harper’s plodding, boring style has an undeniable appeal. He doesn’t know how to put out the fires that rage all around us. But he remembers where all the emergency exits are, and that is plenty.

We’ll tire of him, eventually. We always do. Justin Trudeau’s father was impossibly flamboyant and cosmopolitan, and he came along during Expo ’67, the year in which we all aspired to be those things, too.

Mulroney was a specific response to Trudeau, and Chretien to Mulroney. Each one is never a continuation of what was there before. The winner is always a repudiation of what went before.

That’s why — barring some unexpected disaster, or some sea change in Canadians’ attitudes — Justin Trudeau will almost certainly be prime minister in 2019. (But not in 2015 — as long as progressives split their larger share of the vote, Harper will win with his smaller share).

Trudeau is the literal antithesis to Harper. Where one is mundane, the other is exciting. Where one seems older than his age, the other is the picture of youthful vigour. Where one is all about avoiding risk, the other is about taking them.

Thesis, antithesis: The synthesis is a few years away, but it is coming. Harper has created the winning conditions for another Trudeau.

For now, however — and until 2015, at least — the winner is the Tim Hortons hockey dad, Stephen Harper.

Luck has played no small role in it, as has timing. So too his political opponents, who persist in underestimating him every single time.

Mainly, however, Harper is a winner because he is still there.

He won, but then he won again, and again.

Vision? Charisma? Zeal? Those are the characteristics of men who start religions or wars.

Stephen Harper is a political survivor. That isn’t much — but, in Canada in 2012, it has been more than enough.

48 Comments

  1. GPAlta says:

    We cannot let him win again. No one who loves Canada should be working on anything today other than his defeat.

    • billg says:

      And that attitude in a nutshell is why he continues to win. There is such hate and arrogance in that statement.

      • smelter rat says:

        Not hate, just common sense and a love for our country. Harper is intent on destroying what we love. It’s that simple. He has no vision beyond serving his corporate masters.

        • Peter says:

          Not hate, just common sense and a love for our country.

          Nope, just hate. After more than six years, the bile is so fevered, rote and ingrained that it’s impossible to believe it’s grounded in a love of anything.

      • GPAlta says:

        Goddamn right I hate Harper.

      • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

        I despise the man…….He took my former party, and ran roughshod over everything that was good and decent about it……..His only saving grace was controlling the extreme right wackos who came from the Refoorm side, and the only reason this was done because he knew they would prevent him from forming govt.
        He will do everything in his power to protect and promote Alberta’s oil patch interests, as demonstrated by his continual changing or removal of environmental legislation.
        His treatment of First Nations is a disgrace, and one only needs to read the latest headlines for a prime example.(This could bite him in the ass, however, when BC First Nations say no to the Enbridge Gateway Project)
        A successful politician?….most definately, but at what cost to our great country’s soul?…..
        I couldnt agree with GPAlta’s statement above more….

  2. smelter rat says:

    We’ll see. If Chief Spence dies, all bets are off.

    • Bill says:

      The majority (80%+ )of people support Harper on this issue. We live in a civilized society, threatening suicide if you don’t get your way is not logical and will not gain any support from Canadians with common sense. This situation continues to display Harpers leadership skills and lack of from other party leaders that are trying to win political points. These other politicians are actually creating the narrative for a negative outcome and should be held accountable. Rule #1, never negotiate or meet with anyone that threatens violence on you or themselves….

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Bill,

        Honestly, there is really no way anyone can know how this situation will break with Canadians. Let me turn the question around — is it common sense to proceed in the same manner which has led to nothing but miserable failure? Will we somehow experience different results if the main stakeholder simply holds the line? Innovative leadership is required here and the buck stops on the Prime Minister’s desk. Harper is the ultimate federal authority with negotiating power. Only the PM can chart the relationship in a new direction.

        Chief Spence is much more than a specific representative of her people. She speaks for First Nations situated well beyond her actual municipal jurisdiction. This isn’t about one reserve. If the Government of Canada can’t see that, then only God can help them.

      • smelter rat says:

        You live in a dreamland, but I expect nothing less from harperbots. The idlenomore movement has the potential to be a watershed moment in Canadian history, in that it is exposing the harper government for the con men that they really are. Harper’s hubris will be his downfall.

        • Bill says:

          I understand that you must spin this as a Harper issue, but really…..

          Read my comment carefully, I’m specifically talking about the hunger strike. In my view suicidal tendencies have no place in charting a new direction and starting fresh.

          I really hope that we can have a watershed moment and have everyone work hard towards a future where First Nations benefit greatly.
          Accountability, great management and eventually being completely self reliant will create amazing results.

        • smelter rat says:

          Um, because he’s the current PM?

          • Bill says:

            Is that liberal logic? Harper has done more for First Nations then any modern day PM. In truth the Grant Chief should be discouraging Spence from this reckless act. She and the opposition our setting the narrative for the worst possible outcome. The general public is squarely behind the government on this…regardless of the outcome, with is pretty scary stuff.

          • smelter rat says:

            Bill, at one point I thought you were a rational human being, but if you believe that Harper has done more for 1st Nations people than any other PM, well, you’re just delusional. If she dies, the consequences of Harper’s intransigence will be catastrophic for this country. And just for the record, that’s not liberal logic.

          • Bill says:

            Majority of Canadians have my view, you are in the minority. Spencer’s suicidal hunger strike is well….suicidal. It will only divide people on the issue and raise tensions to dangerous levels. Nothing construction can or will occur under these circumstances. When violence occurs between Fist Nations and the general public (at some blockade), it will be Spencer that should be held accountable.

          • smelter rat says:

            Spencer should be held accountable? Are you fucking kidding? Jesus, you’re stupider than I thought. BTW, the majority of Canadians are completely uneducated about what’s going on. That will change. All you’re hearing now is the echoes of the most outspoken racists. Great company to be in, I’m sure.

          • Bill says:

            I’m not kidding. You underestimate the majority of Canadians. Liberals have a tendency to do this, specially for the last decade or so. Are you pulling the “you are racist” card? I love Fist Nations people, their culture and their respect for mother earth. What I have said is nothing good comes from Spence threatening to kill herself. It’s completely crazy and very dangerous for all Canadians. It very stupider as you would say. The real issues, accountability and better management need to be addressed, it will greatly improve the lives of so many people…..but not possible when crazy people make demands.

          • smelter rat says:

            Bill, if you don’t see the inherent racism in the CPC’s position on 1st Nations issues, then you’re not paying attention.

  3. ‘Harper is a winner because he is still there’ .. Harper exemplifying ‘winner’ .. I can’t swallow that ..
    Do you see Canada’s environment or democracy as ‘winner’s under Stephen Harper’s dark stewardship ?
    Do you see the First Nations as ‘winners’ as a result of Stephen Harper’s unconstitutional omnibus ‘budget’ stratagems ..

    You omitted pathological public liar, omnipotent manipulator, electoral fraud, proroguer x 2, obstruction, secrecy, smearing, denial, media suck-up prayerful smarm bag .. and a pack of political scum evangelical jackal MP’s and unelected back room war room robo poli sci thug boyz that do a mighty good job of emulating all of those twisted Harper capabilities.. with a thick veneer of sanctimonious sneering incompetence as well.

    I’ll simply cite Mackay, re the F-35 lies, Keith Ashfield abandoning wild salmon for farmed salmon, John Baird for shouting ‘we’ll prorogue and go over the heads of Parliament and the Governor General’ and for dishing money off to Tony Clement, Peter Kent’s zombie pathetic anti environment actions, Jason Kenney’s ranting judeo christian Christmas fable message to Canadians, Jim Flaherty – economic messenger boy of so called ‘budgets’ to extinguish First Nations Treaties and swing the barn door open to China ..

    How am I doing .. ??? Eh ?

    If that’s ‘winning’ .. I’ll eat my words and those facts..
    but from my view that’s Treachery .. Cheating .. Deceit .. Fraud .. Incompetence .. Ideology .. Obstruction

  4. bluegreenblogger says:

    Well that is a pretty pessimistic conclusion. I am not very comfortable with your assessment that banality, and a total lack of character are the tickets to perpetual power. I must confess though that as I learn more about the actual state of preparedness of the Liberal Party of Canada that the only effective counter to Mr. Banality, (That being a Liberal Party well organised at the EDA level) is sorely lacking. I know that your professional experience and indeed entire career has been as an Air War warrior, but that is only half of the equation. Yes it is the visible half, and yes, the majority of Canadians believe that the grand strokes win and lose elections, but it is actually the ground war, and direct voter contact that counts the most in this world we live in today. The Liberal Parety has to DROP it’s fixation with talking and advertising their way into power, and start to develop a culture of volunteering, and organising more effectively for direct voter contact. That is the true and only sustainable means to reverse the gloomy outcome you predict in this column.

  5. Greg Vezina says:

    Warren:

    I get that you write this stuff for the Sun and it appears that what you wrote is what their readers want to hear, Harper will win again in 2015, but please give us a small ray of hope and at least expand on the theoretical possibility that the Liberal, NDP and Green parties can figure out a way to work together. Those of us who have been around party leaders in opposition who promise to fix our broken democracy know that when they obtain power few take any steps to do it. Indeed, in our present political culture, party leadership has been elevated to a position to hold unfettered power over MPs and party members, and when majority governments are formed, a leaders’ power is absolute. But there is always a chance that voters themselves will turn out in sufficient numbers in 2015 to vote in ways not predicted. Remember what happened in Ontario in the 1990 election? Most voters in Ontario went to be not knowing who won the election and woke up with a Bob Rae NDP majority government elected with 37.6% of the popular vote. If, by some fluke, the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada is not anointed and there is a real race, there is a chance, however remote, that the outcome of the 2015 election is not predetermined. There is even a remote chance that the next leader of the Liberal party of Canada will care about democracy as much as he or she cares about power, although I doubt it. You are correct that if history repeats, the opposition will give Harper another majority because their quest for power will prevail over the democratic interests of the majority of Canadians once again.

  6. Sean says:

    Can’t agree more with every single point you made, Warren.

  7. david says:

    Depression is the collapse of illusion in the face of reality.
    Wilhelm Reich

  8. reformatory says:

    Intellectual like Dion and Ignatieff. I think not. Dion and Ignatieff were both accomplished professors. Harper was a two-bit economist who never practised. He sucked on the nipple of Flanagan at Calgary U and hung around long enough to get a masters. He was lucky, at the right place and at the right time, he picked up the pieces from the spnsorship scandal. Nothing more nothing less. If sponsorship did not happen, Martin would still be PM.

    He also won minorities not majorities due to the unfortunate sellability of Dion, and the fact that he went so negative on him.

    He also went negative on Ignatieff which helped him big time. The fact that Ignatieff never went negative in return hurt his campaign. The 2011 campaign was also all about Layton and people feeling sorry for him. That helped Harper out alot. When the nubmers looked so good for Layton, droves of Ontario voters flocked to Harper to stop the “communists”.

    We also now know that electoral fraud was also at play, and an issue as to why Harper etched out a majority.

    Look … “to the victor.. goes the spoils”. I guess now is their time to tell their stories. History is full of victors telling their story and only theirs even though the truth is twisted and turned in their favour.

    Calling him genius, or eluding to the fact that he is bigger than he really is.. is simply spin.

    He’s still there? Where do you expect or think he would be? In Canada a majority gov’t is like a 4 year dictator. Nothing can challenge their supremacy or reduce their power. Of course he can do what he wants when he wants. What else would anybody expect.

    Any leader,, is a scandal away from being a bum on the street.

    I guess .. I’ll have to wait patiently.

  9. Kimberly Philby says:

    Yes! Justin is the “picture of youthful vigour”, with a Herculean physique (boxing – yum!) and extraordinary personal courage – this monumental intellect will no doubt usher in a new golden age for Canada! Yes We Can! meets 50 Shades of Grey, yes, yes o gawd, yes. But back to reality:

    “Winning” in politics is about who controls the simulacrum – the amalgam of media, the fantasy world of movies, news, cartoons, celebrities, weapons of mass destruction and “men in caves” that threaten Disneyland and the Casino Cargo Cult we euphemistically call an economic system. That hard fact that only 60% of the voting population even make it out to cast a ballot is proof just how snugly the thought control apparatus had been affixed to the addled skulls of the people.

    By extension, Harper’s “majority” is not even a quarter of the population. If you Liberals walked into a room of a random sampling of Canadians, you would find that you were the sole Liberal out of ten. And yes, the Balkanization of “progressives” will work well for the Conservatives. The fact that 4% of the vote went to a party that took a good long time to figure out that they should run their leader in riding where they might have a chance of winning speaks of Canadians’ political naiveté. That significant numbers not only cast ballots for but spent precious time and money for the Christian Heritage or Marxist-Leninist or Marijuana parties suggests the pernicious influence of religion, academia, and weed and the truly shocking dumbing down of Canadians.

    Who knows what the future holds? The Trudeau brothers are placing their risky bets, in this new great game, on the decline of the “West,” the collapse of the “Pax Americana,” and envision a brave new rainbow coalition of Chinese Communist Party operatives and militant Islamists. ..

  10. kitt says:

    Quote: “He (Harper) was as much of an intellectual, an academic,” ………

    Best lol of the year. Bawhahahahahahahahahaha Harper an intellectual? Lol lol lol ha ha ha ha ha ha

    Boy, you made my day with that comment.

  11. Alberta Alberta says:

    “The pollsters tell us he is increasingly unloved, and he is, by all but his core.”

    The Conservative Party of Canada has increased its vote share in four consecutive elections. That’s never happened before. Harper, in his third mandate, generally polls slightly above the opposition, which too is exceedingly rare in Canadian politics. Usually it’s two and out, sort of like the Argonaut offence, when it comes to political mandates as a general rule.

    300,000 immigrants arrive every year and they love the guy. The Trudeau surname does not resonate at all with them, nor does the “bath house bolshevism” espoused by Liberals and NDP. They moved here to make a living, not for gay-straight alliances in kindergarten.

    For a guy to be ahead in the polls in his third mandate – especially after a freaking recession – is, well, we’ll never see it again in our lifetimes. It’s him, Sir John A, and Laurier in the pantheon of PMs.

    The job is his as long as he wants it – he’s only 53, young as PMs go. I see him winning 2015, 2019, 2023 (minority), 2025, 2029, and *maybe* 2033, when Jason Kenney succeeds him OH DEAR GOD I LOVE BEING A CONSERVATIVE CANADA STRONG UNITED INDEPENDENT AND FREE!

    • Michael Bussiere says:

      “The survey found only 16 per cent of Canadians place “a lot of trust” in their Prime Minister, putting Stephen Harper near the bottom among all leaders in the Americas.”

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-among-least-trusted-leaders-poll-shows/article5187774/

      Believe what you want, but is it always necessary to take any opportunity to paint all immigrants with the same brush, or make a hateful, homophobic remark? You must have been a bit drowsy last night, because t you missed the chance to diss francophones, women, and aboriginal nations while you were at it. You also just mortally embarrassed most Albertan Albertans.

  12. MoS says:

    As a member of the former Team Ignatieff, history alone cautions us about your predictions, Warren. Trudeau in 2019? That’s laughable. A majority of Canadians today see street protests as a more viable route for political change than the opposition. There’s a reason, Warren, for why the Libs went from Sussex Drive to Stornoway to Motel 6 out on the Gloucester Highway. The Libs, like the NDP, have nothing to say that connects with the Canadian public any longer and that is manifest in the degree to which they have become estranged from Canadian politics.

    The Canadian people are now turning to street protests and civil disobedience as the preferred and only effective means of political change. Ignatieff and Layton set that loose. 2019, my arse.

  13. Nic coivert says:

    Some of what you say here is true Warren, but Harper is not an intellectual, and that’s not to say he isnt intelligent because he most certainly is, but he hates intellectuals, is threatened by intellectuals and informed opinions that oppose his own, to him that smacks of liberalism, and anything liberal to Harper is very bad. What Harper is, is shallow.

    Also, Harper won through systematic dishonesty, but next time around they wont have to resort to robo-calls misleading voters or in and out schemes, they’ll have added enough safe Conservative seats and gerrymandered the rest to be able to win without cheating so much.

  14. dave says:

    Steven Harper in National Cits Coalition figured out there who would butter his bread. They did what they had to to make him leader (one thing that struck me was that, once leader, he moved to quickly to surround himself with Central Canada operators), they seduced Mckay and the PC’s and coopted that name, subverted assorted of our election and parliamentary systems (as you would expect from corporate hucksters), sleazed into gvt, and now the regime has been almost 7 years rewarding its bread butterers handsomely.
    SH has done a good job for the people he represents. (And it has been almost laughable the way that his politburo has strung out and used the religious and gun owner types who vote for them)
    This regime is also putting in place all kinds of down the road guarantees for its increasingly foreign corporate sponsors

  15. Al in Cranbrook says:

    Gotta say something here, and not particularly directed at WK because he rarely, if ever, stoops to ridiculously absurd claims…

    Harper is “ruining Canada”??? I hear this…frankly speaking…garbage being spewed regularly by the left. Even Rex Murphy dedicated a recent column to this incomprehensible nonsense.

    Canada is, quite literally, the envy of the world right about now. God only knows how many leaders, particularly across the Europe and the US, would love to swap their problems for ours! Yeah, we’re running some deficits, and I don’t doubt for a minute the two most choked people in the country about that are Harper and Fleherty. But 2008 happened, and we got sideswiped by it. The reality is, our deficits are a mere fraction of what a Liberal/NDP coalition would have inflicted upon Canada, had Harper not put a bullet in that attempted coup post haste!

    Canada’s international reputation ruined??? Why??? Because this government didn’t allow itself to be stampeded to the pulpits to declare itself the savior of the planet by dumping endless kabillions into subsidizing half-baked global warming/climate change schemes that now are literally bankrupting Europe, and going bust worldwide, most notably in the US??? Thank God for Harper on that count!!!

    Because, unlike previous decades, our foreign policy is actually based on principles and morality, as opposed to bending on hand and knee at the UN to some 150 representatives of tyrannies, dictatorships and wanna-be big-shots to make sure they really, really like us??? Like most Canadians could even give a rat’s ass what they think???

    For the first time in the history of Canada women of First Nations have the same rights as every other Canadian…despite the best efforts of the Liberals and NDP to block that legislation!

    Every effort to bring about even the most subtle reforms to the Senate has been fought tooth and nail by the Liberals, and regarded with almost total ambivalence by provincial premiers.

    Because he finally axed a stupid and idiotic gun registry that, truth be told, was conceived in the first place for no more good reason than to a) divide the nation for the sake of maintaining power, and b) to make the Liberal Left feel good about themselves???

    That cleared up, and a lot more I could have added…

    WK is right: the proverbial pendulum swings, as is the law of the universe. And…God help us, ’cause nobody else will…young Trudeau will probably get his kick at the can…qualifications, meaning lack thereof, be damned!

  16. G.Merritt says:

    WK: “Vision? Charisma? Zeal? Those are the characteristics of men who start religions or wars.”

    JT: “The Montreal Liberal MP initially declined to explain what he meant in a weekend (French) radio interview, in which he suggested he might support separation if he felt Canada had truly adopted the values espoused by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.”

    JT: “My friends : I love Montréal. I love Québec.

    And I am in love with Canada.

    I choose, with all my heart, to serve the country I love. That’s why I’m so happy to announce here, tonight, my candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.”

    How would Trudeau lead the Liberal party but also lead Canada given his duplicity? How can he be taken for his word when his words are tainted with contradiction? That is the burning question.

    • G.Merritt says:

      Yes, Harper is a dirty winner, but all the things you say are of no interest to most Canadian voters.

      Just think of Con future attack ads making Justin look like a lover of Quebec and a liar in the rest of Canada. Emotional regional issues trump obscure economic and governmental issues. Trudeau a leader? I question it.

    • Al in Cranbrook says:

      Actually, that’s not true. Harper warned of the potential problems in his Xmas/New Years interviews with the MSM in 2007…and the NDP and Liberals immediately dumped all over him for being negative and unduly raising fears about the economy.

      But nobody…including Dipper and Lib MPs…came anywhere close to foreseeing the scale of the collapse when it finally happened. It was unprecedented since the Great Depression. And in the midst of all that, when stability was an absolute imperative, not to mention right on the heels of an election, the best the opposition could come up with was a virtual coup e’tat, blessed by separatists. Right!

      Fixed an election? One couldn’t “fix an election” in this country if their bloody lives depended on it! Get real! You lost! Get over it already!

  17. G.Merritt says:

    Yes, Harper is a dirty winner, but all the things you say are of no interest to most Canadian voters. Just think of Con future attack ads making Justin look like a lover of Quebec and a liar in the rest of Canada. Emotional regional issues trump obscure economic and governmental issues. Trudeau a leader? I question it.

  18. Al in Cranbrook says:

    Yeah, I’m certain a Dion/Layton coalition would have held the line on deficits in the wake of the 2008 recession…except for the part about how both the Liberals and Dippers screamed bloody murder that the government wasn’t spending enough.

    As a Reform/CA/CPC member since circa ’88, and thus having been on the receiving end of Liberal viciousness, your comment about politics in Canada not being “as nice” generated a pretty good laugh. Talk about selective memory. Wow!

    You know, the LPC can think of a million reasons why, f’rinstance, a self-proclaimed and thoroughly unrepentant jihadist hell bent on wiping out infidels…and only he and God knows how many (Canadians?) he actually succeeded in maiming/killing…should be brought back to Canada, but can’t figure out why threatening Canadians with fines and/or prison for not giving up personal information to Big Brother is, certainly within the context of a free and democratic society, patently wrong. And then wonder why Joe Average Canadian increasingly finds the LPC disconnected from the real world?

    Dismantling accountability fail-safes? Please explain.

    That would be the same F-35 program the previous government handed off to this one? Along with the SeaKing replacement program? That said, I don’t remember a 40 year cost analysis ever being done on the CF-18…or any other procurement, for that matter. But it sure did generate some nice big numbers for everyone to get alarmed about. Forget that, inflation adjusted, the CBC over that same 42 year period will cost Canadians a helluva lot more than $42 billion. But who cares about that, eh? The CBC is part of our “Canadian identity”…I assume in the same manner as is a half-ass military/DND.

    For the first time in decades we actually have the ability to “punch above our weight”, don’t we. Extreme views on Israel? Compared to who? Iran? Hamas? Syria? Egypt? Please explain.

    Our “conduct” at international gala bashes…er, I mean, conferences…on the environment? Seriously????? (I recall PM Harper, in attendance at one of these cluster unowhats, to have observed to the effect, “I’ve never seen so much grandstanding in all my life!” I’ll bet!) Yeah, well we know now that global temperature hasn’t changed in at least 16 years, and that shortly the IPCC will release a report that basically is a complete climbdown off their climate change crap they vomited up over same said years. Oh, my…the Sun and its cycles actually do affect our weather! Gee, who knew? (You know, besides average grade 3 student…)

    Treatment of our refugees? I suspect a survey of immigrants and/or ethnic communities would reveal Jason Kenny is just about the most popular politician in Canada. Funny about how that worked out, eh? He’s got more good done in a few short years than the previous half dozen of his predecessors could even imagine possible.

    Whatever.

    • Bill says:

      Great points Al. A lot of liberals just can’t get past the hate for Harper and really see the progress Canada has made with his leadership and policies.

      I think all those prime ministers from Quebec from the 1970’s to 2000’s was not healthy for Canada and is why Quebec is the most corrupt place in North America. Canada needed Harper and he is performing better than expected. I hope he wins in 2015 and continues to bring his common sense style of politics and moves us alittle farther to the rigtht.

    • Jason King says:

      “Jason Kenny is just about the most popular politician in Canada”

      Thanks for the laugh Al.

      You “points” (as Bill refers to them) also reveal that a lot of conservatives cant get past their hate for past Liberal Prime Ministers and see the progress Canada has made with their leadership and policies.

      Funny how those things cut both ways and despite your griping (and Bill’s) you cant have it both ways. Sorry if I dont agree with your all is awesome under Harper worldview.

      • Al in Cranbrook says:

        I said, amongst immigrants and/or ethnic communities, Kenny’s popularity is, by all indications, unrivaled. They support his efforts, ’cause they…unlike most other Canadians…innately understand, and are too often witness to, the failings and abuses of the system.

        All is awesome under Harper? No, not quite. But it’s a pretty good start. What I admire most is that his pragmatism far outweighs his ideological roots, which is the secret of all successful political careers. He is interested in, given any particular situation, what actually works, as opposed to some theoretical dogma in some imaginary little blue book. I personally don’t do “ideology”; it inevitably requires twisting reality into knots, and too often people’s lives into chaos, in order function and toe the line within such limiting confines. Show me an ideology, right or left, without the tempering of pragmatism, and I’ll show you a trainwreck in the making every single time.

        Regarding past Liberal PMs…

        Chretien could be, and often was, as ruthless as he deemed needed…and the MSM covered for him with a cutesy and endearing title of “the little guy from Shawinigan”. The applied double standard, when it comes to Harper, is unabashedly shameless. I was living and working in Alberta when Trudeau’s NEP trashed that province’s economy. And as for Paul Martin, “Good Gawd, really?” pretty much covers that story! That said, I don’t “hate” them, or Liberals, or whomever. I just have a big problem with bad ideas, deliberately blind faith in ideologies come hell or high water, and public policy predicated upon Disneyesque worldviews liberally sprinkled with pixie dust, almost always invoked with total disregard for facts, logic, and the realities of human nature.

        • Jason King says:

          Id just be happy if you didnt speak in such cliches. Well at least you arent doing your usual “I knew a guy” schtick from 2012. Cant complain about small victories.

      • Bill says:

        I don’t hate anyone, much less past liberal prime ministers. Some of those prime ministers had some solid policies, but I think so many successive Quebec prime ministers caused corruption to set in and played a factor in destroying the brand.

        I don’t think Harper is perfect, but has made some very important policy adjustments and is focusing on tangible things. He is not doing billion dollar boondoggles on social engineering projects.

        • Jason King says:

          I didnt say that you hated anyone. I was just illustrating how your statement could cut both ways. Your conjecture that Quebec prime ministers is just that, conjecture. I dont think it alone contributed to the decline of the Liberal brand.

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