Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Harper Conservatives at Risk

The liberals are getting off the ground with their campaign. They had a good day yesterday with Ignatieff campaigning off script and enjoying it. The media have decided to begin questioning the Harper conservatives over snubbing immigrant Canadians by referring to them as “you people.”

Harper’s constant talk about coalition is beginning to irritate voters who want to discuss issues like health care and family issues. Canadian families are eager to know if they can expect support from the Harper conservatives. They want to know if it will come before the next election. The conservative’s income splitting policy will not kick in until 2015-2016 and only if the debt is sufficiently down. Whoever heard of making promises during an election for some future election? This conservative policy sounds like social engineering to keep one spouse at home with the kids while the other goes to work. It is a policy for the rich, not the poor. Voters please read the fine print.

The Harper conservatives are also on thin ice over Harper’s comments that essentially shrugs off the Speaker’s ruling of contempt against the Harper government as nothing more than House rule stuff in Ottawa. Get a grip! It was an historical ruling. A vote in both a committee and in the House of Commons found the Harper government in contempt of Parliament. Harper on this issue is only confirming that he has a flagrant disregard for parliament and the rules of democracy. We are in an election over this issue and not the budget, but it seems Harper has not figured that out yet.

Harper’s majority is a long way from being in the bag. If the liberals get under Harper’s skin on a few issues and anger him then this election could turn on a dime. Someone should find Harper a piano, as ping-pong Harper did not bounce well on television.

Stephen Harper, polled as the most popular of the leaders, but after today, he did more harm than good and more harm than all his muzzled candidates did. Running a campaign on the back of only the leader is risky at the best of times. If Harper stumbles then the whole campaign can be lost with no time to recover.