Buckdog

He does lead Bush's northern flank, so this could support the tag. Most "leaders" have the capacity to form there own sentences, not copy and paste Rice's commentary.

It is truely refreshing to have a PM that is capable, and understands world politics, as opposed to constantly looking in.

Cheers to our PM, Steven Harper. He is proving to be a capable leader beyond all expectations, and to date, this government has proven to be a government of action, as opposed to the last government of inaction...

Witness the evacuation of Canadian nationals from the middle-east. The tsunami evacuation, and care of Canadian nationals was non-exsistant.

Of course, this fact gets lost when people start thinking we should negotiate with terrorists.

Leader? Excellent.But more importantly:

is he a DECIDER?

I mean thats what government leaders do eh? They DECIDE!

He is a "decider". Your definition and mine, may be different. Mine being he makes decisions based on known facts. Not based on the polls... This is exactly what he is doing.

"Cheers to our PM, Steven Harper. He is proving to be a capable leader beyond all expectations, and to date, this government has proven to be a government of action, as opposed to the last government of inaction"

And in other news, comrades of the glorious revolution, Mung Bean Production rose 225% last month, Poverty is at it's lowest levels in the history of humankind and Eurasia has always been at war with Oceania....

Here's a link to the famous Bush 'I'm the decider' video:
www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/18/rumsfeld/

Jeff said about Bush,"he makes decisions based on known facts." ?? Oh really - you mean like all of the 'weapons of mass destruction' he found in Iraq. Yep, decisions based on known facts.

Actually, LD, Jeff was talking about Harper, not Bush.

Thanks for correcting that over sight on someone's part there Lance, and Meaghan, I do not agree with the gist, but I do love the 1984 quote... Obscure, but there.

Comparing Harper to Orwell's 1984 dictator just does not compute. Last I checked, there is no thought police tracking our motivations.

you have to admit that the Bush 'I am the decider' clip IS funny. I mean here we have the stoggy old top generals questioning the competence of Donald Rumsfeld and Bush is so loyal to him, he doesn't care what the top military (or anyone else thinks).

I find the clip more alarming. When ret'd generals suggest someone is not equal to any military task, one should expect people to listen to them. A great deal of time, money and effort goes into creating a general in any army.

And frankly, a group of generals is going to know how to run the military better then the President of the US of A. IMHO this is more of a case of ego, then capability.

Jeff I agree that the Generals probably have a better idea. Many of these Generals remember the Vietnam experience and they learned some valuable military lessons on fighting insurgent civilian forces with conventional forces (it is DIFFICULT). Anyway - Bush has consistently disregarded the advice of his top brass and unfortunately Iraq is a bloodbath for both civilian and military. The top US Generals told a Senate hearing the other day that Iraq is about to degenerate into a 3 way civil war.

Now back to Harper - I find him way to cozy with Bush!!! For me that is a huge concern.

Well, it would appear, based on the pics provided by leftdog, that he's a thumb bigot. Thumbs need love and respect too leftdog and it's completely inappropriate for you to portray them in such a manner. Here are some more appropriate thumb depictions:

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/campaign.wrap/hillary.thumb.ap.jpg

and

http://ballistik-brain.com/images/politics/kerry-edwards-thumb.jpg

and

http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/blog/images/gallery/Paul_Martin_Thumbs_up_David_Cooper-TorontoStar_thumb.jpg

You miss the point here - it was the 'blogging tories' who started this thumb flame war, not I. I merely wished to advise the forces of good and light on the blogging dippers and progressive bloggers that the extreme right wing was rushing to wave Harpers thumb at us! AND they also want to rub it in as to the number of days the 'left' has carried this burden - well enough is enough! so flame away! (Wink)

(And you have to admire the dexterity with which I slipped in the reference to the 16 Conservative MLA's (Members of the Saskatchewan Legislature) who were CONVICTED in court of Fraud and Breach of trust). ((Wink))

Labelling the current PM as "extreme right wing" is laughable at best, and a sad study as to why the NDP and other "left wing" political parties will never foorm a government. Instead you will give us another LIEberal government.

Speaking of criminals... ADSCAM, nuff said.

Go over to smalldeadanimals and read some of the war mongering rabid insanity that goes on there to understand a basic point of Canadian politics: Canadian voters would rather vote for crooked Liberals than angry right wingers.

But angry rightwingers do not represent the CPC. Just as angry left wingers do not represent the NDP. There are fringe elements on both sides that, frankly, scare me equally.

The CPC is evolving closer to what the old PC party was. The Reformers are playing a lesser part in the party now days... And there impact will continue to dwindle.

Worst case scenario here for the left, would be a CPC majority next time out, where the preceptions of a neo-con party prove true (IMO, not likely) prove true. The election following that, should see an increase in voting for the NDP (assuming the NDP can get a leader with a backbone), and we can see a real three party race.

Frankly, I just loathe the LIEberals. They claim to be left, but have a far right track record... The entire time pandering to the polls, and never telling the truth.

What they have done to this country's institutions is criminal. Under LIEberal watch, health care has erroded, education has erroded, our social infrastructure has been nearly destroyed, and the military has been left bleeding in a ditch. Our laws under LIEberal watch have been reduced to the point where paedophiles, who even the notoriously left wing parole board, say will reoffend are released into society time and time again. If we can not force rehabilitation on offenders, then we must extend the time in jail for offenders to protect the greater society at large (my preference is forced rehab, and create productive citizens, as opposed to habitual monsters and criminals).

But I rant... Time for me to sign off. Perhaps later today, I will post on my own blog my ideas on corrections that can be made to Corrections Canada policies, and criminal law (no, I am not a capitol punishment guy).

Wow Leftdog! It used to be just you and I.

And now you have made it to the upper echelon of wingnuttery -- you have a comment from the infamous and unstable MWW.

You've made it big.

Jeff - I repect your opinion. But when you interact with people from Saskatchewan there is a couple of things to remember:
1)we had a conservative government here under Grant Devine from 1982 until 1991
2)they did not balance 1 budget / they gave us 9 deficit budgets and borrowed billions.
3)16 conservative Cabinet Ministers and MLA (plus 2 staff) were CONVICTED in Court of Queens Bench for FRAUD and Breach of trust.

At some point, an apology from the conservative party would have helped ease the mood of Saskatchewan people. It has been 16 years since the conservatives had a government here. The remnants of the conservative party had to take a new name (the Saskatchewan Party) they lost elections in 1999 and 2003 because people here are nervous about conservatives.

Saskatchewan conservatives need to remember this!

Yikes, Leftdog... I can see more clearly where you are coming from now. If I went through that, I would most likely be feeling the same.

In Ontario, each provincial party has had it's turn to mess up our province. The Liberals are doing a dandy of it right now as we speak. The PC's before that, and prior to that the NDP. Each government a disaster.

At least from what I have seen, the federal Tories can only be accused of being naive, unlike the last criminal federal Liberal government.

I would argue that you are right, the provincial PC party owes the people of Sask an apology.

... and we are still waiting.