Monday, January 24, 2011

Stephen Harper on governing with hope!

Stephen Harper crowned himself king of spoken gobbledegook recently, with this utterly nonsensical and completely useless gem. It often amazes me that people can open their mouths, speak fifty or so words, and effectively say absolutely nothing.

"I said then that Canada's Conservative's would govern with hope, not with fear. We said we would make Canada more united, stronger, more prosperous and safer," Harper said. "And five years later I can tell you that we have made Canada more united, stronger, more prosperous and a safer country."

According to whom? Stephen Harper himself? I would love to think that StatsCanada would be able to provide Mr. Harper with raw and useable statistics that he can use to show Canada is a more united, stronger, more prosperous and a safer country, but since he cancelled the mandatory long form census and replaced it with an optional one, they can't help him there.

Is Canada really more united? How can one possibly measure that? Looking at the recent American style attack ads on TV I would say Canada is now more divisive than united.

Stronger? in military strength? average fitness of the Canadian citizen? This word should be banned, as it is absolutely meaningless!

Is Canada really more prosperous than five years ago? The TSX and real estate market values are up, but virtually all other economic indicators including productivity, federal and provincial deficits, employment rates, and many others point to an economy that is still struggling, and in far worse shape than when Harper and the conservatives took office. Sorry Steve, but I would take Mark Carney's word over yours any day.

Well it is possible that Canada is safer than it was five years ago, but that has little to do with anything Harper and the conservatives could have done. Crime rates in Canada have been on a very slow decline for the past two decades, and have nothing to do directly with specific decisions implemented by any government. The reduced rates are generally considered to be as a result of slowly improving socio-economic factors that take years and years to return measureable results. Better public education, better jobs, better support programs for disadvantaged all work to reduce crime rate, NOT building newer and larger super prisons.

Personally, I also have hope. I hope for a return to a real, effective governement that does something positive. If your legacy will be a two point drop in the HST, a failed attempt to kill the gun registry, and a bunch of get tough on crime laws a country that is by all accounts one of the safest in the world, well, that's really not saying much!