Stephen Harper Returns To His Reform Party Roots To Pay Tribute To Preston Manning At NCC Dinner
On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Stephen Harper quietly slipped into Calgary's Bow Valley Club, as a surprise guest at a National Citizens Coalition dinner which was honouring Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform Party. Stephen Harper previously served as a Reform Member of Parliament under Manning and he was once also head of the National Citizens Coalition.
Of Manning, Harper said, "He is to be recognized by history as one whose actions have defined Canadian politics for the past couple of decades and whose legacy will define Canadian politics for decades to come. Once controversial ideas, balanced budgets, tax cuts, liberalized trade, Mr. Manning made common policy wisdom. It is hard to imagine how the current course of national politics could have occurred without Preston Manning,".
While all of this probably plays well to Harper's base in Western Canada, you have to wonder what old Tory Conservatives in Ontario and the Maritime provinces think about Harper's Reform past. It is clear to most political observers that the old 'Reform' party has taken control of both the Conservative party and its policies.
National Post
Photo courtesy Peter Jones, Reuters File Photo ...
. . . It is hard to imagine how the current course of national politics could have occurred without Preston Manning,".. .
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Boy, that remark is a real kick in the teeth of Brian Mulroney!
Let's see, . .January 1997 and Harper leaves the Reform Party because he can't stand Manning, yet he's praising him Wednesday night.
Oh right, that resignation was a fit of petulance.
Now, why wasthere a Reform Party after all?
Brian Mulroney so alienated the west with the aircraft maintenance deal and the killing of the "Crow" that the people rose up in populist fashion and created a new party.
Mulroney also caused the creation of the BQ--but that's another story.
Prairie populism--the legacy of Aberhart and EC Manning continues its way across the west and Harper is the chief beneficiary.
Balanced budgets come at the expense of the social safety net and services to the vulnerable.
Tax cuts were of the wrong type and to the wrong Canadians.
Liberalised trade put the country up for sale and the cheapening of the dignity of labour.
Harper was born in Toronto and grew up in Leaside--a neighbourhood of middle management and those who got passed over for higher positions. That environment must have influenced Harper while still a schoolboy.
I can tell you that there is no such thing as a Leaside Liberal.
As for Manning--that pencil-neck geek doesn't deserve a dinner unless the NCC or some other populist or fundamentalist group is paying for it.
So, Brian Mulroney paved the way for a petulant spoiled manchild to become the prime minister of this country.
Mr. Mulroney we want more than your several million dollars back,we want our country back to where it was before you f****d it up.
Posted by
Anonymous |
1:05 pm, May 02, 2008
Preston Manning is the Pure Nightmare In Canadian politics.. and Harper is the King in the kingdom of Hypocrise ..none of them deserve to be called Canadien...
Send them all South!!!
Posted by
Dame |
2:53 pm, May 02, 2008
Manning, if nothing else, finally explained to the country that running a deficit for the prior 20 years was a really bad thing, because that accumulates debt. Servicing the debt was approximately 1/4 of every dollar spent on the federal level.
I'm biased, though, I joined Reform after reading Manning's book. I left Reform when it became apparent who the power brokers were.
Posted by
Unknown |
12:30 am, May 05, 2008