Wednesday, October 24, 2007

WIMP Coalition

Check out my op-ed in the National Post today.

It's based on my debate last night with Professor Tom Flanagan at the Fraser Institute's "Behind the Spin @ the Spoke" event.

How did it go?

Well modesty forbids me from talking about winners and losers (I won) but I can say the audience seemed to enjoy the show.

And just to show there were no hard feelings, Flanagan signed my coyp of his book Harper's Team.

He wrote, "Keep up the pressure."

And I intend to.

Oh and one more good thing about last night, was I finally got to meet Wonder Woman.

13 comments:

peter werry said...

Good piece, and I agree with most of the points. However, I believe there was vital background information left out that reveals the true cynicism of politics. I will only cover this in short:

Although Thatcher stood by her principles, she was afforded this political luxury due to the current backlash against unions at the time in addition to the overall political climate pulling the electorate to the right. Reagan faced a similar electoral mood, not to mention that people loved his personality. In America at the time, the Democrats were on their way out, as is tradition after 2 terms.

I think it's important to understand that politicians do in fact respond to the electorate, and when mandated with a strong majority, enact their true policy agenda. I have a feeling that Harper will get the chance to demonstrate whether or not he truly abides by his conservative principles within the next year.

Roy Eappen said...

'm sorry that I missed it. I hope you continue this debate at Civitas this year. I am sure you were stellar!

Iain G. Foulds said...

..."Keep up the pressure"... very gracious.
... You're a good team.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Gerry. It certainly was a pleasure to meet you and I am only sorry we didn't get to hear more from you.

I'll look forward to the next one.

Anonymous said...

Any video on Youtube of this win???

Anonymous said...

Gerry:

Excellent piece, Gerry!

You certainly covered the main points extremely well.

The damage that is/has been done by pandering to Quebec to the CPC in Atlantic Canada is still hard to assess....

Gerry Nicholls said...

NBT:

No video, but an audio tape will be available soon on the Fraser Institute website.

Anonymous said...

i am the only conservative left in canada

NB taxpayer said...

great!

Anonymous said...

Say it ain't so, Gerry!

You have been labelled a "mentally handicapped closet Liberal" on another blog in response to your WIMP coalition article:

http://redtory.blogspot.com/2007/10/wimp-coalition.html

Actually, isn't it a bit redundant to say "mentally handicapped" and "liberal" in the same sentence, but because you elected a "Conservative" government with the expectation that it would behave in a conservative fashion, logic dictates that you are a naturally a Liberal.

Anyways, the poster who said this was "Admin" -- hopefully, not the PMO...

Anonymous said...

Peter:

In response to your last sentence, let me answer that for you from my perspective. He doesn't abide by conservative principles! There is/has been absolutely no evidence from the last decade to suggest that neocons believe in small-c conservatism.

Let me further enlighten you with a quote from the February 13, 2006 National Review from a neocon by the name of David Frum, who might have also been working in George Bush's office at that time:

"Harper's achievement is nothing short of astounding (achieved not without a little help from such friends as NR's own David Frum.)"

Excuse me! Can someone enlighten me here as to what Mr. Frum did to help elect Mr. Harper in 2006?

Civitas has been nothing but a means to control the CPC's message, and sell non-existent ideas such as "guaranteed wait times" and "solving the fiscal imbalance."

Yes, the three provinces that would have accounted for 10% of equalization payments in 2008-2009 were crushed in the last budget while the two provinces (Quebec 60% and Manitoba 15%) that will account for 75% of equalization payments by 2008-2009 were either rewarded or ignored by looking the other way.

Harper is no fool though -- I think that he knows exactly what he is doing, and he seems to be using the fools at Civitas as his pawns.

Mr. Nicholls seems to be one of the first to have caught on here.

Anonymous said...

Gerry Nicholls on CTS Michael Coren Show today at 8pm Eastern, repeat tomorrow at noon Eastern. Yes/no?

Gerry Nicholls said...

Yes Madmacs I will indeed.