NDP-Haters Are Going To Have To Come Up With Some New 'Talking Points'
"It is said that during a lunar eclipse werewolves merely get sideburns and a goatee. So when, I wonder, will Jack Layton cease to be the monster of Canadian politics?
In these dark days, with the economy going down faster than Carey Price on a breakaway, NDP-haters are going to have to come up with some new talking points. The usual knock against the party of Tommy Douglas is that it doesn't know how to manage the economy. The NDP equals financial Armageddon, *(Editors note: even though the Sask NDP delivered 14 consecutive Balanced Provincial Budgets 1994-2007).
In contrast, the Conservatives and the Liberals just somehow innately understand the mysteries of fiscal management. What they don't understand is best left to their buddies -- the guys in the pin-striped suits, the captains of industry.
No wino on welfare ever sucked more public cash than the banks, the stockbrokers, and the car companies now are on a daily basis. Worse, they want more. And those sober custodians of the national bank book (or should I say credit card) are giving it to them.
So if Jack and the NDP are would-be wastrels, what can be said about the truly big spenders, Dalton McGuinty, Stephen Harper and even Barack Obama? Do the people who decry giving millions to ordinary Joes really support dishing out billions and even trillions to the guys with the $16,000 shower curtains?
Even stranger, these millions, billions and trillions are going to people who close plants, cut jobs, refuse to make loans to the great unwashed and then complain the handout was too small.
To those who believe the NDP would beggar the rich to pay for EI louts, social programs, and every tree hugger with his hand out, dissing the socialists is harder than it used to be.
The alternative has now become political parties who would tax and torment average citizens to shower a king's ransom on those who have already plundered the vault and stashed their boodle.
But there are reasons aplenty to portray Jack as the Bald Godzilla of Canadian politics. After all, he doesn't know a thing about international politics, does he? That's why they called him Taliban Jack, because he thought the war in Afghanistan was both a poor cause and a lost cause. He even had the socialist chutzpah to say it would be best to negotiate an end to this futile war. What a quitter!
But even that argument is suddenly dubious. Now that the prime minister has put on his flip-flops and declared that the insurgency can't be defeated and there is no military solution in Afghanistan, we can conclude at the very least that both Taliban Jack and Taliban Steve have it right. It's just that Taliban Jack had it right from the get-go.
Even if Jack Layton is looking a little better on the financial management and geopolitical side, there is still that nagging suspicion that he is an old-fashioned, backward-looking wobbly dude who listens to Woody Guthrie songs as he dreams up ways to wreck the country.
Take the environment. Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff have become the Double-Mint twins in support of the Alberta oil/tar sands project. The Liberal leader even called it a national unity issue.
Jack Layton and National Geographic call it a national disgrace. According to the most recent Ipsos-Reid poll on this subject, 64% of Canadians (and 47% of Albertans) think the mining should be stopped until a more sustainable method of extraction can be found.
Damn that Taliban Jack. He's so out of touch with this country's elites."
Michael Harris
-Harper And Other Assorted War Mongers Owe NDP An Apology
In these dark days, with the economy going down faster than Carey Price on a breakaway, NDP-haters are going to have to come up with some new talking points. The usual knock against the party of Tommy Douglas is that it doesn't know how to manage the economy. The NDP equals financial Armageddon, *(Editors note: even though the Sask NDP delivered 14 consecutive Balanced Provincial Budgets 1994-2007).
In contrast, the Conservatives and the Liberals just somehow innately understand the mysteries of fiscal management. What they don't understand is best left to their buddies -- the guys in the pin-striped suits, the captains of industry.
No wino on welfare ever sucked more public cash than the banks, the stockbrokers, and the car companies now are on a daily basis. Worse, they want more. And those sober custodians of the national bank book (or should I say credit card) are giving it to them.
So if Jack and the NDP are would-be wastrels, what can be said about the truly big spenders, Dalton McGuinty, Stephen Harper and even Barack Obama? Do the people who decry giving millions to ordinary Joes really support dishing out billions and even trillions to the guys with the $16,000 shower curtains?
Even stranger, these millions, billions and trillions are going to people who close plants, cut jobs, refuse to make loans to the great unwashed and then complain the handout was too small.
To those who believe the NDP would beggar the rich to pay for EI louts, social programs, and every tree hugger with his hand out, dissing the socialists is harder than it used to be.
The alternative has now become political parties who would tax and torment average citizens to shower a king's ransom on those who have already plundered the vault and stashed their boodle.
But there are reasons aplenty to portray Jack as the Bald Godzilla of Canadian politics. After all, he doesn't know a thing about international politics, does he? That's why they called him Taliban Jack, because he thought the war in Afghanistan was both a poor cause and a lost cause. He even had the socialist chutzpah to say it would be best to negotiate an end to this futile war. What a quitter!
But even that argument is suddenly dubious. Now that the prime minister has put on his flip-flops and declared that the insurgency can't be defeated and there is no military solution in Afghanistan, we can conclude at the very least that both Taliban Jack and Taliban Steve have it right. It's just that Taliban Jack had it right from the get-go.
Even if Jack Layton is looking a little better on the financial management and geopolitical side, there is still that nagging suspicion that he is an old-fashioned, backward-looking wobbly dude who listens to Woody Guthrie songs as he dreams up ways to wreck the country.
Take the environment. Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff have become the Double-Mint twins in support of the Alberta oil/tar sands project. The Liberal leader even called it a national unity issue.
Jack Layton and National Geographic call it a national disgrace. According to the most recent Ipsos-Reid poll on this subject, 64% of Canadians (and 47% of Albertans) think the mining should be stopped until a more sustainable method of extraction can be found.
Damn that Taliban Jack. He's so out of touch with this country's elites."
Michael Harris
-Harper And Other Assorted War Mongers Owe NDP An Apology
Good points there, Leftdog.
But the NDP nevertheless has to do better in convincing folks like me that they have a sound plan and vision for our country.
Once they have that - then I would seriously consider getting in, and fight for, a clearly defined (and fiscally justified) NDP platform.
;-)
Posted by
Real_PHV_Mentarch |
5:49 pm, March 06, 2009
... and in the meanwhile, whose 'sound plan and vision for the country' currently attracts you? No disrespect meant, but the New Democrats had one of the best defined plans in the last election.
We do NOT believe in a fully unfettered and regulation'less' corporate sector. We believe in a balanced economy where private enterprise plays a major roll, but where public enterprise (Crown Corporations) and the Co-operative sector have rolls to play as well.
We have long said that an unregulated private sector will lead to the kind of economic conditions that we are currently experiencing.
We have questioned the rhetoric of the Conservatives and Liberals Afghanistan policy since the military mission was proposed.
We believe that public health care is a right of all Canadians and must be accessible to all.
I am not sure what 'sound plan' and 'vision' were articulated by Harper's Conservatives, Dion's Liberals or May's Greens. The hateful propaganda of the MSM has done a lot to advance Liberal and Conservaitive electoral fortunes in this country.
Posted by
leftdog |
6:29 pm, March 06, 2009
LD said, "We believe that public health care is a right of all Canadians and must be accessible to all."
You forgot the part about single payer, single employer, single provider, and an essential service but with he right to strike.
Canada already has all those things you claim the Dippers believe in. Does that mean that you'll be going away now?
Cheers,
lance
Posted by
lance |
6:33 pm, March 06, 2009
Lance ... with Health care, we have only just begun! You forgot that health premiums are charged in most provinces AND the drug manufacturers are out of control!
We once had a children's dental plan in Saskatchewan until the pre-Reformers in the Grant Devine gov't privatized it.
No ... when talking about health care, we have only just begun!
Cheers!
Posted by
leftdog |
6:47 pm, March 06, 2009
Very good post!
It was hard to listen to Mr. Harper speaking like that. Who is he plagiarizing now? And where is he getting his info?
Certainly not RAWA.They have been saying what Mr. Harper said for a long time.
You pointed out a highly believed Canadian myth about the NDP.
When the election began ,the ENVIRONMENT was polled as the #1 concern for Canadians.Then as the financial pillars began to crumble the myth of the Conservatives and Mr. Harper, the economist, having superior ability to steer our economy took effect.
And the games continue, but at whose expense? Next time, no maybe yes, maybe no, about a Coalition. It will be do or die.
Posted by
Oemissions |
10:25 pm, March 06, 2009
Thanks for the article LD!
I really like this Mike Harris.
Posted by
kinch |
11:28 pm, March 06, 2009