The end of Canadian conservatism

[barney]

The surplus that Liberals achieved was the result of hard work and determination, though economic conditions may well have worked in their favour.

They sacrificed a lot for that balanced budget. Deficits exist for a reason: they are usually reflective of a defective economy. Eliminating it is not going to deal with the cause behind it.

My comment was really more in reference to the interests behind their actions (i.e. the interests of the oligarchy): reducing government (read: more state assets into private hands) has a tendency to be the reason for 'balancing.'

Really? And exactly which wave were Liberals riding in 2000 - 2005 when USA was running huge deficits under Bush, but Chrétien was running healthy surpluses here in Canada? If we had conservative rule at that time, you may be sure that they would have blindly followed Bush and racked up huge deficits here, as they did in USA during 2000 – 2008.

IMO the idea that our economy was doing well is erroneous (i.e. surpluses are not an indicator of a healthy economy any more than GDP is). The "wave" I spoke of was a general global market trend, it just manifested--and is manifesting itself--differently in different economies. Though it may have exasperated it, the continuous policy BS of the Bush administration was not responsible for the present crisis; it has been in the works for a while now.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I just went with the one that I participated in, and the results just happened
to be in my Email when I got home tonight.

Were you polled for the Angus Reid poll? Wow, I haven't known anybody before who has participated in an opinion poll.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Though it may have exasperated it, the continuous policy BS of the Bush administration was not responsible for the present crisis; it has been in the works for a while now.

That is your opinion, Barney, in my opinion, Bush was largely responsible for the current economic crises. He did two things that contributed mightily to it.

First, he gave tax cuts, mostly to the rich and converted what was a healthy surplus into huge deficits. He basically stimulated the economy on borrowed money, it was the classic conservative ‘borrow and spend’ philosophy. Bush was already running huge deficits, so when it was really necessary to stimulate the economy (as in current economic crises), the deficits became truly astronomical.

The other factor was that Bush deregulated everything, Bush has not come across a regulation that he liked (unless it was in social issues, there he did not come across a regulation he didn’t like, he wanted to ban everything, ban abortion, ban contraception, ban teaching of evolution, ban stem cell research etc.).

One result of the deregulation was the sub prime fiasco, which affected not only USA, but many other countries, where the banks were foolish enough to buy the sub prime mortgages from American banks (fortunately Canadian banks did not participate in the madness to any appreciable extent). Sub prime crises was what started the current economic meltdown.

I squarely blame Bush for the current economic fiasco. Evidently so did the Americans, that was why Republicans were routed in the recent election.

 

[Cannuck]

By my information free trade gave us a net job loss.

Your information is wrong.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Were you polled for the Angus Reid poll? Wow, I haven't known anybody before who has participated in an opinion poll.

Sir, I'm going to assume you're not being sarcastic in your statement.
I registered online about a year ago. I'm in several survey polls for
Angus Reid every month. Most of them are truly bizarre....

They'll cover many different subjects in the same survey. You might
be answering questions about your political perceptions and leanings,
your favorite beverages, and brand name recognition for retail chains
all in the same survey. They boil down the results, and you get Emails
of the results an a regular basis.

Many of the surveys are over in a few qualifying questions as I (or you)
may not fit into the demographic of whatever survey they happen to be
running at any given time.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Sir, I'm going to assume you're not being sarcastic in your statement.

I was not being sarcastic Ron, sorry if I gave that impression.

 

[barney]

SJP on Bush: No argument except for the blame part. Sure there were huge "mistakes" and they caused plenty of problems, but there have been signs throughout the past two decades (more actually but I won't get into it) that this was going to happen. To place the blame on some profiteers is not realistic IMO.

 

[Tyr]

I just went with the one that I participated in, and the results just happened
to be in my Email when I got home tonight.

that poll is 3 weeks old.

 

[mt_pockets1000]

Expect an upswing in Harper's standings in the polls because of Obama's visit. Unfortunately, he won't be able to bask in the glow of Obama's greatness for too long since it's only a 6 hour visit. Then it's back to business as usual for Harper and his gang as they watch the slow decline in the polls eventually eat away at their very foundation.

 

[Cannuck]

...bask in the glow of Obama's greatness ....

Do you have a poster of Barack over your bed?

 

[mt_pockets1000]

Right next to Oprah's poster....

Too bad you missed the sarcasm, once again.

 

[Cannuck]

Too bad you missed the sarcasm, once again.

 

[mt_pockets1000]

However you paint it Cannucklehead, your man Harper is going down....and hard.

 

[Cannuck]

However you paint it Cannucklehead, your man Harper is going down....and hard.

I don't have a man. Elizabeth May is a woman

 

[Socrates the Greek]

And what insane thought do you have that says any government would do it differently? Every country in the world and every government is doing the same but you are foolish enough to believe it could be any different in Canada at this time. It's a news article = one person's opinion. Big deal. It is not time for an election. It is time to get on with the problems of the country rather then waste time and money on an un-necessary election. The conservatives would win it anyway.

Island Pacific good day to you, we don’t have money for another election, is like saying that the cancer will repair it self, well that will never happen, debt is like cancer you let it get out of control and the body will die. Same thing with the Conservatives they became an 8 year economic cancer for the US and as we all witnessed the US the most powerful nation on the world today have found it self financially bank robed as a result of 8 year Conservative fiscal stupidity.
You are Intitaled to think that should there be an election today the Cons will win, looking at the Conservative direction of debt, Harper’s Conservatives may be thrown out of office when the people realize that Canada may find it self exciding the $100B mark red ink.
The Conservatives have subjected may times the people into a financial mess, DEBT, DEBT, AND MORE DEBT.

 

[Tyr]

Now that we have three fiscally centre-left political parties (Conservatives, Liberals and Bloc) and one "true" left political party (NDP), will the Reform gnomes try to make a comeback as a "new and improved" political party catering to the right to offset the NDP?

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Now that we have three fiscally centre-left political parties (Conservatives, Liberals and Bloc) and one "true" left political party (NDP), will the Reform gnomes try to make a comeback as a "new and improved" political party catering to the right to offset the NDP?

When a political party changes its name in a period of 30 years 5 – 6 times, there is a reason behind such occurrence,
The reason is that the central opinion (meaning the leader of the party) is on a self-serving mission completely deferent from many of the members, thus creating a state of division, a division which doesn’t happen immediately it happens over the course of time, and many from that party they pull off on their own with a new party name hopping to fool the people and as we have seen in Canada in the last 30 years the Conservatives have been changing names like shoes. There is something very politically insecure about that.

 

[Risus]

Island Pacific good day to you, we don’t have money for another election, is like saying that the cancer will repair it self, well that will never happen, debt is like cancer you let it get out of control and the body will die. Same thing with the Conservatives they became an 8 year economic cancer for the US and as we all witnessed the US the most powerful nation on the world today have found it self financially bank robed as a result of 8 year Conservative fiscal stupidity.
You are Intitaled to think that should there be an election today the Cons will win, looking at the Conservative direction of debt, Harper’s Conservatives may be thrown out of office when the people realize that Canada may find it self exciding the $100B mark red ink.
The Conservatives have subjected may times the people into a financial mess, DEBT, DEBT, AND MORE DEBT.

LOL, how about getting your head out of the sand and thinking for once. Take your liberal blinders off too while you are at it.

Look around the world. What are the majority of industrialized countries doing to help the economy? And that is what the libs would be doing to. Don't forget, the budget is part liberal and endorced by their leader. I guess you only see what you want to see....

 

[Socrates the Greek]

LOL, how about getting your head out of the sand and thinking for once. Take your liberal blinders off too while you are at it.

Look around the world. What are the majority of industrialized countries doing to help the economy? And that is what the libs would be doing to. Don't forget, the budget is part liberal and endorced by their leader. I guess you only see what you want to see....

Risus at the end of the day if anyone thinks the Conservatives will be in power past the next 24 month it is a stretch. You know there is something about Harper that makes him look very stiffffffffffffffffff what do you think that is?