Stephen Harper can’t wait to put the run on Liberals
Conservative leader Stephen Harper didn’t seem at all the harried leader of a dysfunctional political party (as the Lib-Left media in Eastern Canada tries to paint him) when we had coffee together this past week.
Not only did he look calm and cool—he looked like a winner.
And why not?
While Shipping Tycoon Paul Martin’s government is rocked by scandal after scandal and neither Martin nor his cabal of cabinet ministers appear to know which way to turn next, Harper’s Conservatives are busy building support across the nation.
Harper’s 300 MPs and candidates are fanning out, connecting with Canadians, pointing out the charade the Grits are trying to foist on voters and outlining a new direction: That of an honest government with values and vision.
It’s the kind of situation and turn of events that make beads of perspiration break out on Liberal foreheads and gives their rich patronage buddies many sleepless nights.
Have you noticed how flustered Martin looks these days?
For good reason.
Harper contends AdScam, in which $250 million of the taxpayers’ money was used basically for Liberal partisan propaganda purposes, although cloaked as a legitimate government program, is part and parcel of the corruption inherent in Martin’s team, and of his predecessor, Jean Chretien.
The Quebec sponsorship program actually tried to make the Liberal party itself indistinguishable from the Canadian government.
While it pretended to fly the flag of national unity, it was really just flying the red flag of the Liberal party.
Harper points out that Martin pretends AdScam was an isolated rogue operation basically unconnected to either Martin or the former prime minister, yet it was conceived and executed by the Liberal hierarchy, with Martin as finance minister signing the cheques.
If he signed the cheques, he must have known where the money was going.
“The scale of corruption in this government is unprecedented in our nation’s history,” says Harper.
“There has never been anything like it, either at the federal or provincial level.”
Now do you understand why Paul Martin can’t seem to think straight anymore?
The vises are closing in on him and his Liberal cohorts.
Harper suggests ripping off taxpayers for even a handful of cents or dollars is endemic within Martin’s coterie of hangers-on.
Former Royal Canadian Mint president David Dingwall couldn’t even resist billing us for a $1.39 packet of chewing gum, and Immigration Minister Joe Volpe somehow found an outlet that supposedly charged $138 for a single pizza.
At the other end of the scale, Martin bribes New Democrat leader Jack Layton with $4.6 billion—billion—of our money to prop up his government for a few months.
The taxpayers’ money again basically used for partisan Liberal purposes.
The reason, insists Harper, is the Liberals have become so accustomed to regarding the taxpayers’ money as their own, they’re surprised when anyone raises an objection.
Well, Harper’s Conservatives are raising objections.
And people are listening.
That’s perhaps why, in the past 12 months, some 60,000 more Canadians have taken out membership in the Conservative party and are pushing membership close to the 200,000 mark.
There’s a growing army out there.
Five times as many people donate to the Conservative party as to the Liberal party, and the average donation is three times higher than individual Liberal party donations.
Furthermore, those who give to the Conservative party give voluntarily, not through such backroom vehicles as AdScam.
Harper wants an election right now, but Martin won’t give him one. The Conservative leader says the Liberals are scared of facing the voters right now—and with good reason.
How could they survive a relentless campaign day after day outlining malfeasance and misuse of the taxpayers’ money?
Fear of the voters is the reason the Liberals have pulled the Conservatives’ Opposition days until after this fall so a vote in the Commons can’t topple the government.
That gets Harper fuming.
“I hate leaving these guys in power even a day longer,” he says.
“This isn’t just an incompetent government. It’s a bad government. A government that steals and misuses the taxpayers’ money on a massive scale.”
Now, who can argue that?
- Suzuki playing gutter politics - Sunday March 4, 2007 at 10:41 am
- Grit record terror-ible - Tuesday February 27, 2007 at 9:51 am
- Britain’s Blair takes tumble - Sunday February 18, 2007 at 10:53 am
