http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2008/12/01/canada_s_conservative_party_do Comments On: Canada's Conservative Party Doesn't Hold a Majority in Parliament by Dan Savage en-us Copyright 2009 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:15:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by nicolle is bored ;)]]> Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:44:01 -0800 The Stranger
Though once true, this is not Harper's doing. He's only been running things a few years. These are deeds accomplished by the previous long term Liberal government.

The Liberals ran the Canadian government for years, fixing the previous conservative government's legacy of massive debt. For something like seven years in a row, the Liberals ran surpluses. Harper got in, and has in two years run our finances into the ground with ineffective tax cuts. He even got rid of the contingency fund. After being told by Harper in October's election that we would not be running a deficit, he then delivered an economic update last week saying that all kinds of things had to be cut, and all kinds of federal assets sold in order to balance the budget. That's not running a surplus. That's selling the furniture to pay the mortgage.

So it's the same old story. Conservatives get in, screw up the finances, and then use that as an excuse to slash programs and policies in order to "balance the books." These are measures they did not campaign on, despite knowing full well that the economy was in trouble -- something they denied during the election, stating "The fundamentals of the economy are sound."

Yes, Harper actually used that line. These guys aren't even creative enough to write their own propaganda.

This entire economic upheaval is being used as an excuse by the Conservatives to gut programs. Harper promised the other week in Peru to deliver an economic stimulus package. Instead, we got nothing.

Factories are closing. People are losing their jobs. The real estate market is crashing. And what does Canada have for a leader? A PM who advocates tax cuts and program slashing as a cure all.

Harper enjoys only a minority of the seats in the House. It is perfectly democratic and legal to remove him with a majority vote of confidence and to replace that government with another one without an election, given that we just had one six weeks ago.

Posted by Mark]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:07:26 -0800 The Stranger
Bye Bye Steve, it's been a slice.
Posted by operagirl]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:39:32 -0800 The Stranger

Posted by sheiler]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:35:32 -0800 The Stranger Posted by cracked]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:39:49 -0800 The Stranger Having EU citizenship is sweet, I can tell you that. I wouldn't give it up.

Posted by ams]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:11:06 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Harpz4Evr]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:52:01 -0800 The Stranger
Although any Rae supporters here must not have lived in Ontario the last time someone elected him to executive office.
Posted by john]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:25:01 -0800 The Stranger Posted by rod in toronto]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:17:26 -0800 The Stranger
Dan, make that happen for me. You can reach Rick at the CBC.
Posted by DLF]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:08:54 -0800 The Stranger We have reproductive choice. We have same-sex marriage. We have medicare - and shut up any Canadian who disagrees or I'll break your nose just so that you will find out that in Canada you won't have to pay to have it fixed. We have a supreme court where half of the justices are women, including the Chief Justice and ALL OF THEM were appointed by the liberals!!!. How much damage is Harper, leader of a minority govt. going to do? We are hopelessly, reflexively, constitutionally liberal up here.
Posted by Loushka]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:46:12 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Warren]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:20:14 -0800 The Stranger Posted by joykiller]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:02:50 -0800 The Stranger Posted by i love my hourlong commute]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:39:22 -0800 The Stranger Posted by dumb question from a near-border Americahn]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:24:23 -0800 The Stranger
But I agree with everything else you say.
Posted by M.]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:19:16 -0800 The Stranger
@1: Good try using the Bloc as a scare tactic. Give me a break. They have zero chance of seriously influencing the leadership of this country as a member of this coalition. And fuck your anti-French bullshit re: Dion. He's a proven federalist. Try reading something other than Conrad Black and the National Post once in a while.
Posted by Irena]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:12:30 -0800 The Stranger Posted by jenipeep]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:34:03 -0800 The Stranger
Now as for Dion, limp noodle that he is - no loss that he's leaving. An Obama-Rae summit on the other hand would be one of the best most thoughtful Canada-US summits, probably ever. Go Bob!

à propose de BQ, alors chantez ensemble!
gens de pays
c'est à ton tour
de faire chier
à tout le monde!

See Dan, this is how it's done.
Posted by ho' know]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:27:47 -0800 The Stranger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2hHbaE0y…
Posted by Proud Canuck]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:16:32 -0800 The Stranger
1/3 Republicans
1/3 Independents
1/3 Libs

Barack Obama conned the Libs into thinking he was rad; and the Independents into thinking he was a Moderate. In the end, he seems to have adopted all the Bush policies making him a Republican.

I give the Mod-Lib US coalition about 6 months before they chicken peck each other to death.
Posted by Republicans For Obama]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:13:03 -0800 The Stranger
What cabinet positions do you think the NDP will get? What kind of respect do you think they'll get from the Grits?

And Dion as PM? Just what we need, a PM who wouldn't give up his French citizenship (not Quebec, the man holds citizenship in France). That says a lot about his commitment to Canada.
Posted by chasman]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:11:18 -0800 The Stranger
@4 The Conservative Party of Canada is not the Progressive Conservative Party anymore. The last time the conversatives (PC) won a majority was in 1988, and they held it for just under five years, as one would expect a majority would. You're referring to the PC minority government of 1979-1980, which lasted less than nine months.
Posted by Proud Canuck]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:03:06 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Erin]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:53:46 -0800 The Stranger
ha

ha

and Will you're wrong.

The PCs had back to back majority governments with Brian Mulroney as PM from 1984 to 1993, when they went from an undefeatable majority down to two seats.

We got the Free Trade Agreement (pre-NAFTA agreement), a huge deficit and the GST out of them.

I thought we would've learned our lessons then, but hopefully we can undo that in time to not starve in the dark.
Posted by DLF]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:48:22 -0800 The Stranger