Blogger extraordinaire Stephen Taylor recently asked me to join his famous Blogging Tories aggregate.
And I said yes!
So welcome to all you Blogging Tories out there who stumble upon my humble blog.
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About Me
- Gerry Nicholls
- Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant and writer who has been called a “political warrior” a “brilliant strategist” and one of the “canniest political observers in Canada.” He has worked as a consultant in both the United States and Canada and was formerly a senior officer in the National Citizens Coalition. A regular columnist with the Ottawa Hill Times, his work has also appeared in the Globe and Mail, the National Post and in the Sun Media chain; and he has appeared on countless TV and radio public affairs programs. He is the author of the book, Loyal to the Core, Harper, Me and the NCC.
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Reviews for Loyal to the Core
“Loyal to the Core is a daring and provocative work. It deserves to be read by conservative activists and politicos.” – Western Standard
“This is a very important book.” -- Michael Coren, TV host
“A fascinating read” --- Seamus O'Regan, Canada AM
“I really enjoyed Loyal to the Core. It’s a great book”, - Charles Adler, radio host.
"Loyal to the Core should be required reading for anyone considering or starting a career at a conservative think tank or in electoral politics in general …Consider Loyal to the Core a cautionary tale that’s also a funny, easy read – with a few highly “stealable” ideas for media campaigns thrown in for good measure.”- Kathy Shaidle, author Tyranny of Nice
“Every Canadian remotely interested in politics and the state of the country should have a read of Loyal to the Core. – blogger Wendy Sullivan
"It’s rare to find a politico, however, who is equally passionate about policy and strategy, but columnist, pundit, author and Western Standard blogger Gerry Nicholls is such a person." Matthew Johnson, owner Western Standard
"If you are a conservative who wonders how conservatives can communicate their message in a hostile media climate, Loyal to the Core is a must read." -- At Home in Hespeler
"You HAVE TO read this book!" -- Connie Fournier Free Dominion
Blog Archive
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2007
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September
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- Harper's Deficit
- Up from Conservatism
- Dion Vs. a Carrot
- Defending Conservatism
- Flanagan's Follies
- The Liberals Should Thank Me
- Media Alert
- No Fall Election
- Tuns' Sour Take on By-Election
- More Burqa Stuff
- I am not Screwing up Canada
- Dion's Done
- Me vs. Flanagan
- Predictable Liberals
- Lame Liberal Ads
- Battle for Outremont
- My Lunch with Tory
- Trends Favour Thompson
- Liberals Listening?
- Ontario's Election By the Numbers
- Hands off Free Speech
- Burqa's Law
- Bulb Blurb
- Blogging Gerry
- Labour Blog
- Rogers' Rules
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September
(26)
15 comments:
Welcome. But, no bad-mouthing the Dear Leader, Stephen Harper.
No just bad mouth Harper Fan.
Welcome aboard Gerry !
I'm interested in your take on the politics of Harper's past and future GST cuts.
We know that Liberals and many economists are opposed to the GST cut. Yet polls show that a small majority of Canadians are in favor of it. And if you ask them about replacing a GST cut with income tax reductions (which John MacCallum mentioned briefly), you get a bigger majority saying don’t do it. (Sorry, I don't have a source for those polls, but have indeed seen that kind of polling result)
How do the Liberals counter Harper's GST moves ? Even knowing with almost certainty that Harper will campaign on a cut to 5 % then 4 % (similar to the 6 and 5 promises of the last campaign).
There are two arguments Harper can make in favor of this move:
1. It gets the federal govt closer to a 0 % GST. Businesses then save on the accounting, reporting, collecting expense.
2. The provinces, if they want, can take up the tax room given up by the feds. And use PST increases to fund things like child care, pharmacare, housing, etc-–social stuff that the provinces are responsible for.
I would thank that if Harper can
tie together his GST cuts, transfer of tax points to the provinces, and separation of powers, then he's got the upper hand on Dion in Quebec. And the BLOC becomes less relevant, as Duceppe gets more of what he wants.
It's "extraordinaire".
Thanks, Rondi. Fixed it.
Welcome to the group. Nice to see you here.
Rondi, why don't you join too?
Dear Harper fan:
I am afraid that your "Dear Leader" deserves every bit of bad-mouthing that has come his way.
There's been many flip flops, but
let's take one specific example... the Atlantic Accord.
Created in 1985 by the Conservative Mulroney Government, this accord was created to reduce Newfoundland and Nova Scotia's dependence on Federal equalization payments.
It sat on a shelf in Ottawa for twenty years during the years of "Liberal hegemony."
Lougheed endorsed the accord, Ralph Klein endorsed the accord... even your "Dear Leader" endorsed it before the "New Government of Canada" unilaterally and possibly illegally modified it in the 2007 Federal budget.
In 2005, two conservative Premiers managed to get a somewhat uncooperative Federal Liberal government to pass this accord.
While both these provincial governments (NS, Nfld.) have reduced their dependence on Federal equalization recently, Quebec has increased its dependence on equalization, and yet, Harper will not mention this fact.
Instead of rationally explaining the Accord as a Conservative created initiative with a longterm goal of reducing two provinces' dependence on equalization, we get Civitas pundits from Western Canada declaring that the Atlantic Premiers are "addicted to cash."
That is no way to govern a country like Canada.
Anyways, I smell an election coming this fall, and if "Canada's New Government" doesn't fix this problem in Atlantic Canada, I would say that "Canada's New Government" will possibly be trying to form a majority without a single seat east of Quebec.
Not that, Atlantic Canada thinks that Canadians really care about this, but you should, at least, want to save your own tax dollars by investing in a long term solution to reducing equalization payments and your own chances of forming a majority government.
For more info on what I have said above:
http://www.gov.ns.ca/accord/
Re. Afghanistan.
3 Van Doos, and we're out of there!
While I am on a roll, why not take an extra few months summer vacation at taxpayers' expense, "dear leader"
I want a conservative government in this country, and that is why I will vote, "A-B-C" in this upcoming election.
Anything-But-Conservative.
Roy, you're sweet to ask. But I'm unaligned -- especially since Harper appears to be waffling on Afghanistan. (I'm not impressed!)
There was a concerning news article today in Reuter's entitled, "Canada's Afghan forces lack intelligence reports."
That, in itself, is not funny. However, it is funny, in that, this is probably the first article in history to ever use the words, "intelligence" and "Peter MacKay" in the same sentence.
Oxymoron?
A long time conservative I have to tell you that on both the federal and provincial(Ontario)scene I have never felt so alienated from the party I support.....never.
He can badmouth the Tory leader as much as possible. I noticed a few Blogging Tories saying they wouldn't support John Tory after stating his view on creationism and they did let Garth Turner stay on the Blogging Tory role until he defected to the Liberals even though as an independent he spent a lot of time bashing Harper.
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