12.04.2014 05:12 PM

You are Prime Minister of all of Canada – not just the parts that vote for you

IMG_6363.PNG

26 Comments

  1. Sean says:

    I don’t think this will hurt Harper at all. This behavior got him elected three times, vote count always going up. Appearing to work well with the Premiers has never been a vote getter. Inside baseball.

    • Bobby says:

      This will hurt Wynne more than Harper IMO.
      I hope she runs with this.
      Those who mistakenly propped Wynne up will have a second chance to right that wrong with the next federal election.
      This plays out better for Harper’s base and those who are witnessing Wynne’s continual spending.

      • Nicole says:

        Wynne is not running for re-election right now, so this won’t hurt her at all. Harper’s pettiness may garner the support of the Conservatives in Ontario who already support him, but he needs to attract the votes of centrists in order to form a government. The centrists in Ontario recently decided in the provincial election that they would rather stick with Wynne than follow Hudak’s slash and burn agenda. By blowing off Wynne, he is also blowing off the Ontarians who voted for her, many of whom may not appreciate being ignored by the PM (not for the first time) and may consider electing a leader who isn’t looking to “punish” them.

  2. Joe says:

    The PM of Canada has no obligation to further sink a province and by extension the rest of Canada by meeting with a premier who along with her predecessor has done immense damage to the economy of the province she leads.

    • smelter rat says:

      This is why no one takes you seriously, genius.

      • Duane says:

        Actually I think JH is bang on with this one. Wynne and the Liberals have emptied the ON piggybank, and then some, over the past years. They have shown very little budgetary restraint, therefore ensuring a continued slide into more deficits and debt. I’m not sure taxpayers in the ROC are anxious to turn over more dollars to Wynne than are already being transferred. A Harper/Wynne meeting would be a bitch session with $$ signs attached to every concern she brings up. She is not getting treated any differently than any other Premier in Canada. She needs to look after the crap pile she is building in her own house before she comes to the rest of us with hands out for more dollars. It is rather ironic that the national piggybank she trying to open, is the same piggybank that her “issues” with the eastern pipeline, will negatively impact if her “concerns” hold up progress.

        • Bobby says:

          Absolutely right! Wynne’s proving she’s not learned a damn thing. Just wait until the final ScamAm Games total comes to fruition.
          Wynne is not doing Trudeau any favour either IMO.

  3. davie says:

    PM not meeting premier of Ontario, but is meeting governor of New Jersey.

  4. JH says:

    Sorry but if I’m PM, I’m not giving into blackmail from a provincial premier out to make headlines and then brag how they told off the PM and forced him to meet. Neither did Chretien, Martin, Mulroney, or PET. And I’m pretty sure the part of the electorate paying attention feel the same way.

    • Reality.Bites says:

      None of them had to be forced to meet with the premiers.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        RB,

        You’ve nailed it. Harper can contextualize it any way but loose but it has nothing to do with so-called blackmail. The PM won’t meet with them whether they happen to be good, bad, or indifferent.

        In Harper’s mind, they are some kind of a threat — full stop. Rather than take them on directly as all his predecessors did, he prefers to wish them away…

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      JH,

      It’s called leadership and that means fighting for Canada every day that Harper is in office. It’s part of his job description to take a run at the premiers, when or if necessary.

      You may wonder why I disliked PET: the guy consistently made monkeys of us who fought for provincial rights. Trudeau was more than a match for any human on this planet and we all knew it. That’s why he deserves our respect.

      An excellent PM knows how and when to be confrontational in the interests of Canada.

  5. patrick says:

    Harper is an ideologue. He has only ever represented those interests. If they happened to match the interests of Canada or Canadians, bonus.

    • Joe says:

      I find your allegation somewhat humorous because I can’t find anywhere that PM Harper has ever expressed an ideology. Were you to ask me I would suggest that Harper is much more of a pragmatist with a sense of direction than an ideologue. He reminds me of PM P.E. Trudeau in that regard whose opponents went so far as to accuse him (PET) of being the devil incarnate. BTW having a sense of direction is a good thing if you are leading the country or else you get the PM Paul Martin routine of the highest priority being any crackpot idea of the last guy to have the PMs ear. Can you imagine how far Canada would be in debt if Paul Martin and Katherine Wynne were to meet as Prime Minister and Premier? Yikes!!!!

      • doconnor says:

        Its funny because I am not aware of anytime the Prime Minister expressed anything non-ideological. I suspect that means you are too ideological to see his ideology.

        • Joe says:

          Having an ideology does not make one an ideologue. Expressing one’s ideology does not make one an ideologue. Yes PM Harper has an ideology so does opposition leader Mulcair so does Liberal leader Trudeau so does Green leader May. None of them are froth at the mouth ideologues.

          • Kaspar Juul says:

            Doesn’t mean you aren’t too ideological to see the ideologue yourself. Of course with all those advanced degrees you attempted to skirt that with your previous comment. Thanks for joesplaining that

  6. Ridiculosity says:

    Harper giving Wynne ‘Fatherly’ advice on how to be less “confrontational”?

    Seriously?

  7. Curtis in Calgary says:

    Harper has long been an advocate of PPPs.

    Pettiness, Partisanship, and Petulance.

    Poor boy is so full of hate and contempt for others, he just can’t help himself.

  8. cynical says:

    Warren, is it my imagination or are there more than the usual number of CPC robots at work here these days? You must be drawing blood.

    BTW your posting header is the reason that a lot of us have trouble not hating this guy. I know your advice is to never hate your opponent, but out in the world it’s pretty hard not to when you see 70-odd years of good work (by all parties, actually) being eroded. There’s never any middle ground for these guys, and no respect at all for differing positions.

    • Scotian says:

      cynical:

      This was always why I was as opposed to him ever coming to power. I also though always made clear that my problem was specific to him and what his record showed he believed, and how profoundly anti-democratic, anti-Canadian values these views truly were. That what he was was something truly alien to traditional Canadian political values and beliefs, and that to ever call him and the party he leads Tories is to besmirch and dishonour the name, history, and legacy of real Tories throughout our history, including as most recently Brian Mulroney.

      His profound contempt for the Premiers is only one of a multitude of things that show he is beyond the traditional Canadian pale. His actions have in my mind branded him as Harper the Destroyer and Salter of the Scorched Earth, because that is all he really does, destroy destroy destroy. I am hard pressed to point out creative/constructive elements of his governing with the exceptions of his non-stop campaigning on the tax dollars and his blatant mono-support for the energy/Oil sector. The rest of the files we normally associate with government, let alone good government, he has either ignored or undermined, and created the largest cone of silence ever heard of.

      So you are right, he makes it very hard not to actually form hatred for him, not because of personal dislike, but because he is the most contemptuous PM in our history, and not just of those who do not support him but even of the peons that did. Look at who he throws under his bus once they stop being an asset for him and start becoming some sort of problem as he sees it (I think Fantino is fine with Harper because he is doing exactly what Harper wants, why Harper wants to be so harsh on vets I do not know, but this is the government of Harper, not Canada, for a reason, and his domination of this caucus is unheard of in our history). Harper broke with Manning in Reform back in the late 80s/early 90s because he disagreed with Mannings belief that the voters that supported Reform actually deserved a voice in the shaping of Reform policies. That in itself showed just how dangerous Harper really is.

      So his fighting with the Premiers, especially Wynne these days, only further shows us all what he truly is. The defence I see from his supporters about how he is standing up to blackmail, that nothing good can come from such a meeting for him so why bother, that Wynne only plans on using said meeting to beg for help and blame Harper for all her faults, even if that’s true, so what? Think prior PMs didn’t have the same issues with other Premiers from parties other than their own, let alone when there was a PQ Premier in Quebec? This is not about anything other than respecting our history as a Confederation of Provinces, as the highly DECENTRALIZED federal system with Provinces holding more power than is normal for such, which means for competent effective government you need coordination between the levels, and that includes regular meetings between current heads of government, and periodic group meetings. This is not rocket science.

      What has always baffled and bothered me was how many otherwise sensible Conservatives in this country got taken by Harper and still refuse to see what they supported was something that dishonoured the very beliefs they hold. I can understand letting your anger with a long running government of a different party blind you initially, but there is ZERO excuse for not seeing Harper for what he was by the 2011 elections. To this day I don’t get that. Harper represents something alien to traditional Canadian politics, society, and heritage, and it is more than past time we retake our country, ALL of us, including old school Conservatives who are nothing like this horror that renamed the government in his own name and runs everything to suit his and his standards alone, whether the law, precedent, or traditional practice.

      Harper is the only federal leader I’ve ever see trigger any real hatred for him personally (and I am old enough to remember the way PET was oh so loved by his opponents but even then the levels of visceral hatred pale in comparison to what I’ve seen Harper generate across the spectrum, which is why I said it is something new), not just towards policies of the government (and even that was never something I was used to seeing a lot of) and he does so from all sections outside of his core faithful/base. That says a lot, none of it good, about the Harper years, and the history books on this period will make for fascinating if morbid reading.

  9. monkey says:

    I am no fan of Wynne and didn’t vote for her, but I still think Harper should meet with her. That doesn’t mean they have to agree on every issue but like it or not she is the premier of Canada’s largest province and even if they disagree on most issues more is done on the few issues they do agree on. Also I am not sure it’s a wise strategy electorally either. If Wynne’s popularity plummets, it could work in Harper’s favour, but that is not by any means a guarantee. With the large deficit, one of two things are likely to happen.

    1. Wynne raises taxes and keeps spending at current levels which will probably cause some buyer remorse amongst centrist voters who reluctantly voted for her since they thought Hudak was too extreme, so in that case it might work in Harper’s favour.

    2. Wynne cuts spending much like Chretien did in the mid 90s thus angering the unions and hurting her popularity amongst leftist voters, but increasing her popularity amongst centre-right voters and making her more popular in the crucial 905 belt. It hurts her in downtown Toronto where the Tories are irrelevant and helps the NDP there, but helps the Liberals in the key 905 belt. The only benefit the Tories may get here is in cities like London, Kitchener, St. Catherines, Brant, and Peterborough as their ability to hold ridings in those areas will depend heavily on vote splitting on the centre-left so the more votes are split the better their chances are, but still they loss in the 905 belt will more than offset this.

    But regardless of politics, it’s the right thing to do, so Harper should meet with her much like Jim Prentice did. He was able to work with McGuinty despite partisan differences and while I realize Wynne is more left wing than McGuinty there is nothing to say those with different views cannot find common ground on some issues like the ring of fire or GTA infrastructure.

  10. Elisabeth Lindsay says:

    Was happy to see that Mr. Prentice was able to convince (charm) Ms. Wynn to drop all her “concerns” about Pipeline East, and back away from her oil sands rhetoric and concentrate only on GHG coming from the pipeline itself. Well done Jim!

Leave a Reply to davie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.