Op-Ed: Majority of Canadians believe Stephen Harper has a hidden agenda

[petros]

Toronto - It should not be a surprise to the Harper government that most Canadians think that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a hidden agenda. An Ipsos poll halfway through Harper's mandate found that most Canadians think he has a hidden agenda.

As Stephen Harper nears the half way point of his term, his support is holding steady, but most Canadians disapprove of the job he is doing. According to Global News 58 per cent of Canadian are unhappy with the prime minister's performance, while 42 per cent approve. If his support holds steady, he could win an election in 2015.

Although Harper has been prime minister for seven years a majority of Canadians believe he has a hidden agenda, lacks transparency and is short on ethics.

The feelings about a hidden agenda is strongest in Quebec with 81 per cent of respondents, while in the Atlantic provinces 75 per cent thought there was a hidden agenda. Even in conservative Alberta half of the respondents felt that Harper had something to hide.

Citizens of Quebec and the Atlantic provinces were most likely to think the PM has a hidden agenda, at 81 per cent and 75 per cent respectively, followed by B.C. and Ontario at 66 per cent each. Western provinces were likely to think Harper is hiding something as well, with half of respondents in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba expressing their belief in the proposition.

An Angus Reid online survey conducted in November 2012 is a sample of 1508 Canadians and found that 49 per cent say that Harper performed about the same as expected, 32 per cent believe he has performed worse, while only 13 per cent believe he has been better.

One-in-five Albertans (20%) and almost three-in-ten Conservative voters in 2011 (28%) think Harper has performed better than they expected, while almost half of Quebecois (46%) and a majority of New Democratic Party (NDP) voters in 2011 (52%) feel he has been worse.

One in five Canadians believe that Canada's reputation in the world, its economy and role in global affairs is better than it was seven years ago. Among the major distractions and criticism of the Harper government is that taxation, health care, ethics and accountability have been diminished in the past seven years, ranging form 46 percent on taxation and health care to 43 per cent on ethics and accountability.

The Huffington Post suggests that there is a general distrust of politicians' plans, rather than a specific wariness regarding Harper. Only 24 per cent of respondents thought that it is very or moderately likely that abortion will be re-criminalized and only 29 per cent believed that the Harper government would repeal same sex marriage.

The Harper government has two years to drum up support, while New Democrats are in the process to change their preamble and remove the word socialist, a move supported by Thomas Mulcair in an attempt to make the party more palatable and move it toward the center.. The Liberal Party is likely to elect Justin Trudeau as their new leader.

With close to 40 per cent of Canadians still supporting the Harper government, there is a good chance that it will be re-elected. Liberal hopeful Joyce Murray has advocated one time cooperation with the New Democrats and the Green party to avoid vote splitting, a move opposed by Trudeau.

Harper will most certainly define Mulcair and Trudeau, but sticking to the issues may be a thorn in the side of the Harper government. With the emergence of Justin Trudeau on the scene, Canadian politics may no longer be boring.


Read more: Op-Ed: Majority of Canadians believe Stephen Harper has a hidden agenda

 

[captain morgan]

while 42 per cent approve. If his support holds steady, he could win an election in 2015.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/347509#ixzz2Psgmkaen

Looks like Stevie is gaining in popularity.

 

[petros]

The agenda isn't hidden from the people, the people are blind to it, especially the Spastics.

There is nothing Conservative about the Conservatives and here is nothing Liberal about the Liberals.

When it comes to what has been designed for Canada over the past 35 years and for the next 35 years, they are all one in the same.

The agenda will be followed no matter who runs the show.

 

[captain morgan]

It's the same collection of leftards that have been banging this drum for the last 8 years.

Dedicated fear mongering about hidden agendas and religious fundamentalism all this time, and yet here we are with nothing having transpired this whole time.

 

[petros]

They are just tards. There is no left or right, it's all in their minds.


"The Agenda" is so far from hidden it's a smack in the face.

 

[Goober]

It's the same collection of leftards that have been banging this drum for the last 8 years.

Dedicated fear mongering about hidden agendas and religious fundamentalism all this time, and yet here we are with nothing having transpired this whole time.

It is blow back from keeping the puppies on a tight and heavy chain. Me I am sure some are gripped so tightly that they raise their hand to go to the can.
Restricting information. Block buster bills rushed thru- The F 35 debacle- Fighting with the Parliamentary Budget Officer - Telling the Auditor General that he and his staff do not know how to account for funds.

Witness the backbench getting upset over this.

Before the election Harper had squat so say about raising the pension age. That and a host of other changes.

The public looks at that and remembers.

 

[petros]

What is better? Raise pensions and run out of money or hold back and invest to ensure future raises and longevity of the program?

 

[captain morgan]

What is better? Raise pensions and run out of money or hold back and invest to ensure future raises and longevity of the program?

There's always the Greek strategy of a perpetual program of borrowing money until the nation's bankrupt... That ought to fund teh entitlements for a few years at least

 

[petros]

I like this have other countries invest in our security instead of borrowing routine much better.

 

[Christianna]

As Stephen Harper nears the half way point of his term, his support is holding steady, but most Canadians disapprove of the job he is doing. According to Global News 58 per cent of Canadian are unhappy with the prime minister's performance, while 42 per cent approve. If his support holds steady, he could win an election in 2015.

Yep he could finish ruining Canada if given another majority in 2015.

 

[petros]

What has been ruined? Is it something that can be fixed? Would somebody else fix it if it were broken?

 

[Christianna]

submitted by Robin Mathews



When a person lies and lies and lies, one outcome is completely predictable. At a certain point nothing the person says is believed, ever again. Remember “Lyin’ Brian Mulroney”? That’s where Stephen Harper is now. At the end of the Oliphant Inquiry (2009) into the Airbus Affair, Justice Oliphant said he did not believe any of Brian Mulroney’s testimony under oath.

The Globe and Mail is fighting the truth. Its December 10, 2012 issue wants readers to know … Oh! so much about Stephen Harper. On foreign ownership, the Globe reports, Harper has drawn a line in the sand (though no one can see it). Harper, moreover, hasn’t made a unilateral decision. He has consulted with many top people, a “select group” (G and M, p. 1) Needless to say, the group is “select”, meaning none of them is a member of the House of Commons or of any legislative body in the country.

The private, corporate government of Canada goes on.

The Globe and Mail (a staunch Harper supporter) wants us to know that the Nexen Inc. sale to China (CNOOC) and the Progress Energy sale to Malaysia’s Pretronas Oil are one-of-a –kind sales.

Industry minister Christian Paradis has stated that the China buyer of Nexen, CNOOC, provided “’significant undertakings’ for governance, transparency, disclosure, and compliance….” We know that is a pack of lies, for two reasons. (1) The Harper team only tells lies. (2) Nothing, not a scratch on a piece of paper, has been presented to Canadians to consider in parliament or out of it.
So much for transparency and disclosure.

Canadians may safely assume Christian Paradis is lying, as his master lies … almost always.

The private, corporate government of Canada goes on.

We don’t believe Stephen Harper. We don’t believe the Globe and Mail. Stephen Harper doesn’t tell the truth. Period. At almost every point that the Parliamentary Budget Officer requests reasonable information from ‘the corporate government of Canada’ Stephen Harper and his Roboclones refuse, deny, contradict, obstruct. Canadians – at every level of process – (the Parliamentary Budget Officer included) are forced to take the Government of Canada to the courts in an attempt to salvage shreds of democracy.

For five years the Harper forces lied about their financial wrongdoing in the 2006 election. The five years of court fight cost millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. Then the Harperites admitted guilt … before being hit harder. Admitted guilt to their attempt to destroy the election process. Canadians paid expensively for five years of Harper lies – an attempt to cover up their guilt.

Remember the hardline statements of Stephen Harper, Peter MacKay, and others about the cost of the proposed F35 fighter jet. The costs changed every time an outside, honest assessment was made. Every time that happened the Harper lies were exposed. The dollar cost to Canadians of the Harper endless deception is huge and growing. (You won’t read it in the Globe and Mail.)

Remember the 2009 formal Inquiry into Brian Mulroney, Karlheinz Schreiber/Airbus and the $21 million bribery money that went missing? Remember millions of taxpayers’ dollars were spent on Justice Jeffrey Oiphant’s Inquiry work. Remember the whole operation has been judged a giant deception, set up by Stephen Harper through (later, governor general) David Johnson to prevent the Inquiry from approaching any of the evidence that mattered. Millions spent for an elaborate cover-up, “for a pack of lies”.

Remember the recent Omnibus Bills, undemocratic, draconian, hated by the Opposition. Every one of Stephen Harper’s puppets claimed nothing new would be slipped into the omnibus legislation. Lies. The Omnibus bills were used to cram in unannounced, reactionary legislation by a method of lying and faking around the huge number of bills.

Look at the fake Temporary Migrant Workers scam. Exposed in the coal mining industry by major unions, Human Resources minister Diane Finley announced a full review of the whole process. Okay, where is the review? It’s a lie. How do we know? The Harperite lawyers are eating up taxpayers’ money fighting the unions in court. If Diane Finley is conducting a review, why is Harper doing everything he can to prevent the unions from gaining justice in the matter of a flood of fake, low-wage, non-union, wage-cutting scabs coming into Canada from outside? Why? Because, I suggest, Harper wants low-wage scabs in Canada to destroy Canadian wage standards as well as health and safety standards and any others he can’t legislate out of existence.

He won’t tell you that. He will live the lie. Watch him.

It is no coincidence that (a) Canada’s unemployment rate is near 8%, and (b) the number of “migrant” workers has tripled since 2000 in Canada, and that (3) we now have between 300,000 and 450,000 so-called temporary migrant/underpaid/non-unionized/exploited workers here to attack Canadian wage standards. All that is brought to you by Stephen Harper, liar.

The private, corporate government of Canada goes on.

Concerning the Robocalls of the 2011 election, Stephen Harper tells Canadians – through his Roboclones – over and over, that they had nothing to do with the corrupt Robocalls.

Canadians don’t even blink. They know Harper and his clones are doing what they do best: lying. Lying.

There are many more similar violations of the truth. But let’s turn to a much, much bigger lie. It involves the whole world of the Tar Sands, of China, the U.S., Norway, Malaysia … and more … all with their arms sunk into Canadian resources of all kinds. The lie is repeated by Harper, the media, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Fraser Institute, The National Post, The Globe and Mail, the C.D. Howe Institute. Etcetera. Etcetera.

It is the biggest lie of Brian Mulroney, who is famous for lying. It is the lie that claims Free Trade is good for Canada.

How soon our memories fade.

How soon they are buried under the brainwash and lies about Free Trade.

Just remember … try to …. Pierre Trudeau and his Liberals created PetroCanada and began seriously thinking about an Industrial Strategy for Canada – a way to win back Canadian ownership and control of Canadian wealth. They were serious about controlling foreign (mostly U.S.) takeover of the Canadian economy. They had behind them the battles fought by Walter Gordon to show Canadians how much they were being fleeced by foreign ownership. That was up until the 1980s.

That was when the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Robinson, and private corporate friends met (the story is that they ‘secretly’ met) in Ottawa to stop the independence movement. They wanted to make sure that nothing like it could ever happen again in Canada. That was the word on the street in Ottawa then. What could they come up with to stop Canadians from trying to own and control and profit from their own wealth?

They came up with Free Trade.

Free Trade was established and has been elaborated upon. It’s job is (a) to rob national and sub-national governments of sovereign powers (b) to replace them with (in fact) government by private (mostly foreign) corporations, and (c) to provide for an unchallengeable flow of cheap labour into Canada, (d) to disable any effective internal opposition, and (d) bit by bit, to render Canadians impotent against the destruction of their democracy and the pauperization of their lives … on behalf of foreign owners of Canadian wealth.

But … you will say … Norway’s Statoil is an excellent organization, benefitting the Norwegian people. Malaysia’s Petronas is the same, benefitting Malaysians. Both countries are democratic, affluent, distributing their oil wealth honestly among the people. Both are State-owned corporations.

Pause. Think. Why is there a Norwegian benefactor, the people-owned Statoil which has enriched Norway and has stored nearly $600 billion for rainy days? Why is there a Malaysian Petronas, the people-owned oil corporation which has enriched Malaysia and provided significant benefit to the whole population?

Why is Canada the only major oil producer in the world which does not have a significant State-owned corporation at work and influential in the industry?

The governments in both Norway and Malaysia, unlike governments in Canada, were determined that foreign looters would not carry off the wealth of their people. CNOOC (China) is different because – a China State corporation – it is found in a country where the majority of its dynastic, appointed rulers are grossly wealthy from corruption in an undemocratic, lawless, and openly physically repressive country. CNOOC is different, and it is not racist to say so.

We know that the U.S. (the first to manipulate Canada into Free Trade) has bled Canada of wealth – as our “closest friend and ally” for decades upon decades.

Free Trade with the U.S. opened the door that turned seduction into full-scale rape. The Stephen Harper forces are willing *****-masters, urging more and more strangers into their House of Ill Repute.

If Malaysia and Norway can own, control, manage, and operate their State-owned oil-plus corporations with significant profit – then Canada could (and can) too. Malaysians even faced the terrible Asia Financial Crisis of 1997. Told to submit to the IMF, the World Bank, and all the other blood-suckers, Malaysia (like Iceland later) said NO. To do so would doubtless have ended Petronas as a State-owned corporation!

Managing their economy well, Malaysians bounded back – ahead of the rest of Asia.

Canada, meanwhile, has sold out, and sold out, and sold out its own wealth and its own people.

The story this far is good for Norwegians, Malaysians, the corrupt holders of China, and for, of course, the viability of the biggest imperial weapons arsenal in the world – the U.S.A.

The story is not good for Canada. Statoil would not be permitted to participate in Norway in anything like the disgrace of the Canadian Tar Sands. But if the Canadians are willing to have Statoil in Canada, okay. The same with Petronas, and Malaysia.

Why do they come to Canada? For profit. Canada’s a garbage dump. Anything goes in Canada.

What’s more, foreign exploiters are welcomed and protected in Canada. Canada has a prime minister who lies about almost everything. He can be depended upon to lie about the Tar Sands, to lie about foreign participation, to lie about the sell-out of Canada and Canadians.

“’What is truth?’ said jesting Stephen Harper; and would not stay for an answer.”

House of Infamy

 

[Colpy]

Which, unfortunately, means the majority of Canadians are political morons.

Good news for Justin.

 

[Walter]

Which, unfortunately, means the majority of Canadians are political morons.

Good news for Justin.

You're right; Turdoh is counting on the "low-information" voter.

 

[petros]

House of Infamy The Globe and Mail (a staunch Harper supporter) wants us to know that the Nexen Inc. sale to China (CNOOC) and the Progress Energy sale to Malaysia’s Pretronas Oil are one-of-a –kind sales.

Nexen was where old Liberals, Conservative and NDP MPs went to die after politics.

Province of SK will make out well from that sale.

You're right; Turdoh is counting on the "low-information" voter.

There is no shortage of those or those who vote blindly because of partisan sh*t.

 

[Christianna]

:lol:

 

[lone wolf]

Money or people. Which matters more?

 

[petros]

Money or people. Which matters more?

Food and heat aren't free.

 

[lone wolf]

Food and heat aren't free.

No shyte.... Neither are helicopter rides - but I bet the famous one would pay my grocer and heating bill for a year

 

[petros]

Would you be happier if you took a helicopter ride to even it all out?

Well that ain't gonna happen but as long as there are people like those who keep an eye on things like abuses then we'll be fine.