Rex Murphy: Conservatives Are Gutless

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Old man is old.


Rex Murphy: The country needs an opposition. Too bad O'Toole's Conservatives seem too gutless to provide it​

In its most recent, present iteration, the Conservatives come across as timid — afraid to challenge any of the main Liberal doctrines, afraid to scorn “woke” causes and paying homage to every shibboleth of political correctness

O’Toole should take a real stand. He should reject bad environmental policies that threaten to put Canadians out of work. He should champion Alberta and the Canadian resource industries in general. He should condemn the carbon tax. He should reject the outsourcing of Canadian energy policies to the mandarins of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the international anti-oil brigades.

 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Low Earth Orbit
Old man is old.


Rex Murphy: The country needs an opposition. Too bad O'Toole's Conservatives seem too gutless to provide it​

In its most recent, present iteration, the Conservatives come across as timid — afraid to challenge any of the main Liberal doctrines, afraid to scorn “woke” causes and paying homage to every shibboleth of political correctness

O’Toole should take a real stand. He should reject bad environmental policies that threaten to put Canadians out of work. He should champion Alberta and the Canadian resource industries in general. He should condemn the carbon tax. He should reject the outsourcing of Canadian energy policies to the mandarins of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the international anti-oil brigades.

Don't blame me, I voted for Lewis. She has more balls than a canal horse.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
The pendulum will undoubtedly swing the other way at some point. Unchecked government spending will eventually affect our credit score, making it more costly to borrow money. High taxes and an official vendetta against Canadian resources will put people out of work and scare away investors. Increased carbon taxes and a depressed supply of petroleum and natural gas will drive up the cost of living for Canadians who are already struggling to cope with high inflation.


What this country needs is for the Conservative party to take a clear stand against these disastrous policies, so it will be seen as a credible alternative when the Liberals’ house of cards eventually comes crashing down. Until that happens, none of us should be surprised that there are no checks on Justin Trudeau’s relentless drive to vastly increase the size and scope of the Canadian state.
 

pgs

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 29, 2008
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The pendulum will undoubtedly swing the other way at some point. Unchecked government spending will eventually affect our credit score, making it more costly to borrow money. High taxes and an official vendetta against Canadian resources will put people out of work and scare away investors. Increased carbon taxes and a depressed supply of petroleum and natural gas will drive up the cost of living for Canadians who are already struggling to cope with high inflation.


What this country needs is for the Conservative party to take a clear stand against these disastrous policies, so it will be seen as a credible alternative when the Liberals’ house of cards eventually comes crashing down. Until that happens, none of us should be surprised that there are no checks on Justin Trudeau’s relentless drive to vastly increase the size and scope of the Canadian state.
Maybe if the Conservative party actually elected conservatives as it’s leader they would get some traction . Maybe if they didn’t let the press set the agenda they could go on offence . But they won’t , stupidest thing the Reform party did was merge with the remaining shell of the PCs allowing the same rot that gave us Mulroney regain control and they have gone downhill since . Good luck getting the squishes in the Conservative party to take clear stand on any issue .
 

Vbeacher

Electoral Member
Sep 9, 2013
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Ottawa
I agree with Murphy, but I would have said the same about the Scheer leadership, as well. Even Harper, though he won through a variety of lucky circumstances, avoided putting forth strong conservative views which would draw the anger of the progressive media. The problem is that the Tories elect leaders from that tiny cadre of bilingual MPs they possess, and none of them is particularly articulate in either language, much less shows a hint of charisma. Putting out a view which counters a widely held belief requires articulate people and they haven't had one since Mulroney.

Our efforts to combat climate change are nonsensical and will make no discernable difference, even if we were to succeed. They will, however, greatly damage our economy and standard of living. We should instead be pushing for nuclear plants and for things like irrigation systems for the West and flood relief in other areas. Because climate change IS going to happen, and none of these silly efforts are going to stop it. I mean, China, Russia, and India are still going full bore on coal power. And yet we're supposed to beggar ourselves to produce minuscule (on a world scale) reductions in CO2 emissions.

The Tories should be talking about strong law and order issues, like combating the opioid epidemic and gun smuggling and street gangs, about re-equipping and rebuilding our military, about getting the damn budget balanced, and then addressing big issues like reforming our horribly expensive and inefficient judicial system, health care system, and native welfare system.
 

Vbeacher

Electoral Member
Sep 9, 2013
651
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Ottawa
Don't blame me, I voted for Lewis. She has more balls than a canal horse.
And doesn't speak a word of French, and has zero experience in politics or in supervising or leadership. She's utterly unqualified to be PM in every respect.
 

Vbeacher

Electoral Member
Sep 9, 2013
651
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Ottawa
He's no Steven Harper, I will give you that.
On the contrary. He IS a lot like Stephen Harper in how tentative and pragmatic he is in abandoning conservative views when he thinks they might get in the way of getting himself elected. Harper had a set of lucky circumstances which allowed him to win, that's all. He was a smart guy and savvy at politics, but very hesitant at challenging the progressive doctrines. As a result, every tiny, tentative change he made was swept away by Trudeau in his first term.
 

Vbeacher

Electoral Member
Sep 9, 2013
651
36
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Ottawa
Trudeau with balls.
Trudeau is an incompetent fool. We don't need another. Even if she is from the other side of the spectrum. If we're going to put a unilingual leader up there, and I'm not necessarily opposed to that, there are plenty of smart, long-serving MPs and provincial premiers to choose from.
 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
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On the contrary. He IS a lot like Stephen Harper in how tentative and pragmatic he is in abandoning conservative views when he thinks they might get in the way of getting himself elected. Harper had a set of lucky circumstances which allowed him to win, that's all. He was a smart guy and savvy at politics, but very hesitant at challenging the progressive doctrines. As a result, every tiny, tentative change he made was swept away by Trudeau in his first term.
Are you talking real conservative views or religious wackjob views? They are not the same thing.
 
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Vbeacher

Electoral Member
Sep 9, 2013
651
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There is absolutely no need for the PM to speak French. If Canada is supposedly bilingual, then the people in Quebec can learn English. Problem solved.
Yeah, kind of unrealistic, I'm afraid. Not only would it cost you seats in Quebec but lots in Ontario. There is a way to do it, if you have a really charismatic leader to make up for some losses, and he has a strong Quebec lieutenant who he would say would be his deputy PM if elected and who could represent the party in Quebec. I don't know how it would go over but that would be what I would try.
 

Vbeacher

Electoral Member
Sep 9, 2013
651
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Ottawa
Are you talking real conservative views or religious wackjob views? They are not the same thing.
I'm saying he's like Harper in how tentative and pragmatic Harper was about applying real conservative principles to things. He did nothing about the mess which is natives, didn't dare even try to reform our horribly inefficient health care system to bring in some private care, let the military fall apart, didn't do anything to address how insanely complicated the laws are around developing our natural resources and was afraid to use the notwithstanding clause at all despite several outrageous supreme court rulings.
 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
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I'm saying he's like Harper in how tentative and pragmatic Harper was about applying real conservative principles to things. He did nothing about the mess which is natives, didn't dare even try to reform our horribly inefficient health care system to bring in some private care, let the military fall apart, didn't do anything to address how insanely complicated the laws are around developing our natural resources and was afraid to use the notwithstanding clause at all despite several outrageous supreme court rulings.
He also had two terms of minority government. That makes facing problems that were caused by the opposition harder to fix.