Monday, September 18, 2006

Conservatism Swedish Style

Journalist and author Paul Tuns says conservatives shouldn't get too excited about the election in Sweden of a centre-right government.

Writes Tuns: "Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the centre-right New Moderate Party and leader of the four-party opposition alliance, is one of those David Cameronesque leaders who has promised not to do anything terribly different than the government in power; he has vowed not to cut taxes, not to dismantle the welfare state and has no plans to introduce flexibility into Sweden's woefully rigid labour markets."

Sounds like Joe Clark in a viking helmet.

2 comments:

Brian said...

he has vowed not to cut taxes

Sounds Like Dalton McGuinty. As I told people during the provincial election, taxes never stay the same, and campaigning politicians always give you the best possible outcome. Therefore, taxes in Ontario would go up under McGuinty.

I guess the Swedes are about to see some new taxes.

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

If I were a right winger I would still be celebrating. The simple reality is Sweden is a left wing country and the new coalition elected is about as right wing as you will get in Sweden. Interestingly enough I would argue the Swedish election was one of the NDP vs. Liberals when comparing to Canadian politics or perhaps Al Gore Vs. Ralph Nader for US politics. Besides I don't see anything wrong with Sweden being as socialistic as they are, as long as I don't live there. If we are going to argue against socialism in Canada, we need at least one example somewhere in the world to remind us why socialism doesn't work.