I haven't yet decided how I'm going to vote, but it seems to me there's a lot of nonsense going on in the campaigning. I suppose that shouldn't surprise me though, it's the nature of political campaigns.
I don't, for instance, buy the arguments about Liberal corruption. In the sponsorship scandal, what happened was that a few politicians and bureaucrats operating out of the PMO paid exorbitant sums to a few Montreal advertising firms for not much work, which then kicked some of it back to them and the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party. That's all. Not many people were involved, they've all been outed, and none of them are part of the current government, which acted immediately to put a stop to it. Even Chretien, nominally responsible for it all, was found guilty by Gomery of nothing more than sloppy management. Bit of a stretch to get from there to claiming the whole Liberal Party is corrupt.
The income trusts business that's got a lot people calling for Ralph Goodale's head is another storm in a teapot. The RCMP very carefully said there's no evidence anybody leaked anything. Goodale himself is not under investigation or suspicion and thus there's no reason for him to resign. The only evidence so far is a suspicious pattern of trading, which might mean nothing more than that some traders guessed right before the announcement.
Dingwalls' remark about "I'm entitled to my entitlements" is perhaps an impolitic way to put it, but it happens to be a true statement. I've worked as a federal public servant at various times, and I know Treasury Board's rules about who's entitled to what are quite clear and unambiguous. And reasonable.
I also think Harper's just playing a role. You wanna see about his flip flops on issues, Google "Stephen Harper quotes" and see what comes up. His comments and speeches when he was with NCC, and a Reform MP, are full of inconsistencies and extreme right wing ideological positions. That's who I think he really is, a far right ideologue pretending to be somebody he's not in order to get elected. And as an economist he certainly ought to know better than to cut the GST. A consumption tax is much fairer than most other taxes, and it happens to be the source of the surplus. His game is political expediency, and I don't believe a word he says.
I also remember too clearly the corruption and ballooning deficit of Mulroney's time in office. Remember how he hammered John Turner in the leaders' debate about patronage, then spent a decade going far beyond anything Turner did in terms of patronage? Then there's the horrible things Grant Devine's Conservative government did in Saskatchewan in the 1980s. Every example I've seen up close of a right wing government in my adult life has been ethically bankrupt and intellectually sterile. Harper's got a long way to go to convince me he's any different. What was that announcement he made last week, no capital gains tax on stocks donated to charities? Wow, there's one that'll help out working Canadian families.
I can't vote for the right. Ever.
