Thursday, May 28, 2009

Harper's Problems

The Stephen Harper conservatives are not looking good these days. During the election Harper said he would not run a deficit and if the country voted for Stéphane Dion that the country would be thrown into a recession. He introduced a budget update that sent him running to the Governor General to save his minority government. Then he introduced a budget that he felt would help regain the confidence of Parliament. It projected a 34 billion deficit, which has now ballooned to 50 billion.

Harper was wrong about the deficit and he was wrong about the recession. He has risked billions in his attempt to get out of the economic mess he has the country in and now claims it is not the fault of the government because the world is in a recession. Harper is becoming unbelievable.

We don’t know much about this conservative minority government because Harper has been single handedly managing everything and only a few ministers of his cabinet are allowed to freely address the country on important issues. Even this hasn’t worked well when you consider how Defence minister, Peter Mackay and Foreign Affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon came to odds over whether Canada should lift the ban on the sale of military equipment to Pakistan who are waging a war with the Taliban along their border with Afghanistan. These are the same Taliban that have killed Canadian troops in Afghanistan that Canadians have been fighting for years.

The unemployment rates are going through the roof across the country, the markets have not yet stabilized and the government doesn’t seem to have a plan. The only plan we see every day is the stupid attack ads on Michael Ignatieff. These ads are costing millions and the conservative party is now annoying their membership base with relentless demands for their membership to cough up hundreds and thousands of dollars in their attempt to disgrace Ignatieff with these disgusting TV attack ads.

The reality is that Stephen Harper has been wrong too many times and seems too obsessed with staying in power at any cost and 50 billion is quite a cost. Harper’s actions are making Michael Ignatieff look good.

Canadians just came through a grueling winter and spring has been equally bad. We are just now getting some milder temperatures and our thoughts have turned to gardening, sports, and getting the most out of our short summer. Wouldn’t it be nice if Stephen Harper and his conservative government would get a plan and get on with effectively managing our country? If he doesn’t then he and many of his colleagues will be joining the ranks of the unemployed. That may be the voters’ plan if Harper doesn’t get a grip on governing the nation.