Rebecca Walberg, who works as a policy analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, has an excellent column in the Sun media chain today discussing some of the ideas I put forward in my manifesto, The Trudeau Empire Has Fallen and it Can't Get up.
Walberg compares the arguments I make as to how conservatives can win the war of ideas with the arguments put forward in two other works: David Frum's Comeback and Tom Flanagan's Harper's Team.
Rebecca is a good friend and I love her piece!
ReplyDelete... Very good, Gerry.
ReplyDelete... However, Harper's fiscal incrementalism has been a 100% failure. He has not the courage nor honesty to teach the values and philosophy of liberty vs.socialism- and therefore has achieved nothing.
... Harper will not be the man to lead our country out of the swamp of economic collectivism. It is time to look for a true conservative leader.
You are right Iain...
ReplyDeletewe should dump Mr. Harper and get a Conservative leader. One that will lead us back into seriously minority territory.
Why bother to work with the first actual Conservative leader in over 30 years?
If he isn't up to your standards he isn't Conservative enough?
No courage or honesty? Why?
Because he doesn't espouse your particular views?
Grow up!
Run for office to replace him yourself if you think he is so lacking!!!
"... Harper will not be the man to lead our country out of the swamp of economic collectivism." Iain, you dear sir are seriously deluded. It's a shame that your hatred of this man has blinded you from the facts. Try informing yourself instead of "hissing" about his apparent failure to accomplish ANYTHING in the 2 years he's been at the helm. We HAVE a true leader...the likes of which Canada hasn't seen in decades. He's focussed, intelligent and extremely economical in his communications. He answers questions directly and clearly. No one speaks endlessly without getting to the point like a Liberal.
ReplyDelete... caz- Actually, I have no hatred for any man. I have a great, great disappointment in Mr. Harper.
ReplyDelete... Until he was elected prime minister, he was a man who achieved prominence in the conservative world by his courage and integrity in defending the values of capitalism- yet, has spent his elected life betraying these values. He is not incrementally moving towards these values; if anything, he is moving away from these values.
... I believe that this has been Mr. Nicholls point all along, and it is one that I agree with.
... caz- re-reading your last sentence, I must whole-heartedly agree "no one speaks endlessly without getting to the point like a Liberal."
ReplyDeleteHUH? sorry..apparently I've been blinded by your magnificance! Truth of the matter is... I don't expect perfection and have also been disapointed in Harper at times..but despite his clear and steely resolve..I like him, am grateful for his presence on the political scene and will NEVER understand the angy rantings of fellow citizens who have, short of calling him the Anti-Christ, have done everything they can to portray him as such. It's just getting a bit boring.
ReplyDelete... Ok Caz... let's here some examples of where Mr. Harper has actually educated and advanced the principles of fiscal conservatism in the past few years... even one good quote.
ReplyDelete... You see... inevitably one is left with "well, we could have done worse."
Even being reasonably centrist myself, I would be quite happy to see the Trudeau empire has fallen, but I would argue that a large chunk of the electorate if not the majority still thinks Trudeau was a great PM. The reason we don't have any truly conservative parties is left of centre ideas are very much ingrained in who we are as a nation so any party that moved too far to the right would lose. In addition, it is much easier to change a population whose identity doesn't revolve around any given ideology as the case of the United Kingdom or is by nature centre-right as is the case in the United States. In Canada, multiculturalism, bilingualism, universal health care, charter of rights and freedoms, peacekeeping, our social safety net are things that form part of our identity and even if bad policies (and they are generally good ones on the whole from my point of view) convincing the public to change their views will be extremely difficult. The Conservatives can really only win by arguing the goals the left wants to achieve can be better realized through lower taxes, less government intervention, and a smaller government. Otherwise you cannot win on changing what type of Canada, Canadians want, you can only change the dominate view of how best to achieve that type of Canada.
ReplyDelete