Prime Minister Stephen Harper responds
to a question, during Question Period.
(CP PHOTO/Tm Hanson)
Posted on 05/15/2006 3:51:05 PM PDT by Clive
OTTAWA (CP) - It's a point even Stephen Harper's harshest critics can agree upon as his Conservative government reaches its 100th day in office Tuesday.
The man once considered by many pundits and pollsters to be unelectable is firmly in control as Canada's 22nd prime minister. Whether for good or ill is in the eye of the beholder, but polls suggest roughly 40 per cent of voters approve and, in this period of minority instability, that's a unqualified Conservative success story.
Harper himself was understated on the eve of this curious anniversary, an arbitrary political measuring post that has tripped up many a new government.
"It has been a productive session but we have much more to do," the prime minister told The Canadian Press.
As the focal point in an administrative system dubbed the hub-spoke, Harper has been churning out policy and personnel decisions with a methodical regularity since being sworn in Feb. 2.
He's negotiated a softwood lumber deal with the United States, signed off on a compensation package for residential schools, announced a judicial inquiry into the Air India bombing, cut off Canadian aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group.
He has poached a senior Liberal cabinet minister, appointed a party fund-raiser to the Senate and his cabinet, stared down Parliament's ethics commissioner, inflamed public and military opinion by changing the protocol for soldiers killed in action, fired a communications director and scorned the national media.
Critics are also quick to note that he has pulled the plug on a fledgling national daycare program, slashed funding for Kyoto climate-change programs and ditched the Kelowna aboriginal accord.
He's travelled to Afghanistan to visit the troops, delivered a budget that makes good on election promises to cut the GST and pay parents of young children $1,200 a year (minus taxes), and he's signed an agreement with the Quebec government giving the province a presence at UNESCO.
And, with a couple of exceptions, he's done a good job keeping loose-lipped MPs from attracting unwanted attention to controversial issues such as abortion and judicial activism.
"I tell people the prime minister is the best negotiator I've been around, public or private sector," said B.C. MP Chuck Strahl, Harper's affable agriculture minister.
"He demands results. People like to deal in theory. The prime minister likes to deal in results."
Checking off election promises, keeping on message and exceeding low expectations has been the Conservative game plan.
Their success is irking the opposition.
NDP Leader Jack Layton says Harper's minority government is behaving just like the Liberals - as if it won a majority.
"It's unfortunate because it means the views and perspectives of so many Canadians are left out in the cold," said Layton.
And Bill Graham, the Liberal interim leader, marked the 100-day anniversary Monday by criticizing Harper for being "politically opportunistic" and for choosing "vote-buying measures over sound policies that are in the best interest of the country."
That hardly sounds like the Conservative leader the Liberals had demonized for being a right-wing ideologue who would turn the country's social order on its ear once in office.
Paul Thomas, a political scientist at the University of Manitoba, says the Tory government is succeeding with a clear, pragmatic agenda and a strict message discipline that extends to the furthest corner of the backbenches.
"It's been highly controlled and to that extent, relatively error free," said Thomas.
"This new government doesn't look out of place, it looks like it belongs. And when that impression begins to take hold people think, 'Geez, they haven't scared me yet. If they were going to scare me, they probably would have done it by now.' "
Pollster Bruce Anderson of Decima Research says controlling the agenda is key: "The discipline of having a smaller agenda and moderating expectations."
Anderson does see potential trouble spots ahead. Canadians support the troops in Afghanistan but are ambivalent about the mission itself. The public is also increasingly attuned to environmental issues, and Harper will need to show his government can do more than cut programs.
Eric Belanger, an assistant professor of political science at McGill University in Montreal, adds another success - and potential pitfall - to Harper's early resume.
"He's pulling the rug from under the Bloc (Quebecois) feet, that's what he's been doing for the past 100 days and during the election."
The UNESCO deal was a coup that garnered remarkably little critical press in the province, said Belanger.
But Harper's promise to fix the so-called fiscal imbalance between Ottawa and the provinces will be a much tougher follow-up act, and one whose success or failure will have repercussions beyond Harper's public opinion rating.
"If he fails to deliver on the fiscal imbalance front, it will give the Bloc and the Parti Quebecois a lot of ammunition," said Belanger.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper responds
to a question, during Question Period.
(CP PHOTO/Tm Hanson)
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The liberals are still in the denial stage.
Canada ping.
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
When leader of the opposition in the 1980s, John Howard once had an approval rating of 18%. He is now Australia's second longest serving Prime Minister.
Actually, it was billions. Two billion dollars and counting last time we had any numbers.
And we have yet to hear the Auditor General's follow-up report which is due tomorrow.
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