Ted Byfield
PING!
Posted on 05/29/2006 2:47:14 PM PDT by GMMAC
Harper wins opening round
Here's a list of 10 things he did brilliantly -- or at least correctly
By Ted Byfield
Calgary Sun
May 28, 2006
We may not yet know (as this is written) who won the semifinal round for the Stanley Cup, but we do know who has won the opening round at Ottawa in the contest to govern Canada.
An Ipsos Reid poll confirmed what was becoming evident to anybody who watches politics.
Though they lack a majority, Steve Harper's Tories are running the country.
The poll put them at 43%, highest level of Tory support since the Mulroney ascendancy, and enough to win a majority if the election were held now.
Even in Quebec, the Conservatives are gaining on the Bloc, and the Liberals are far below their traditional standing.
All of which raises the question: How has Harper done it?
Here's one man's assessment (one man's plus one wife's) on 10 things he's done right, several of them brilliant:
First: By reducing his government's opening legislative agenda to five legislative points, he was able to cut off any immediate public discussion of the 20 or 30 other areas where individual MPs would like to see government action.
This prevented a whole huge range of controversial issues from getting into the media, enabling the opposition to spread confusion.
Second: By making sure his five areas had something for everybody -- fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, gun owners, etc., he kept everybody happy.
The so-cons, for instance, rejoice in his plan to wipe out the Liberal scheme to put pre-school children into public day cares where they could be brainwashed with all those liberal values, which most of their parents don't want.
By giving the money to parents, not government, the parents will determine what their kids are taught.
Third: By deliberately and very publicly picking fights with the Ottawa press gallery, he neutralized the effect of their long-standing enmity towards him.
They hate him and now everybody knows it.
When they attack him, it comes off as sheer vengeance.
This in the long run is a very dangerous thing. But heaven knows they asked for it.
Fourth: By reducing the GST by one percentage point, he will clearly demonstrate that he does what he promises. Some electors have memories.
They remember that the Mulroney Tories brought that tax in with no electoral mandate at all, and that the Liberals ran on a platform to eliminate it, then didn't do so.
But Harper promised and acted.
Fifth: He ignored the anti-American yapping from the left, especially in the Liberal party.
Instead he courted the Americans, resolved the softwood dispute, and is winning back the friendship of our biggest trading partner.
Sixth: By paying a formal state visit to Canadian troops in Afghanistan within a few weeks of taking office, and then by curtly rejecting all talk of a Canadian pull-out, he began restoring respect for our Armed Forces.
Moreover, by denying the media the opportunity to photograph the grief of the bereaved family members of the military dead, he was denounced by the media but embraced by the country.
Seventh: By imposing an initial iron control on the Tory caucus, he stifled the kind of rebellions that have dogged the Conservative party for at least half a century.
Eighth: By deliberately snubbing the supposed necessities of political image-making -- no new hair-do, no water skis, no Trudeau pirouettes, just plain old Steve -- he caused people to conclude: "This guy's for real."
Because it was so genuine, it was also ingenious.
Ninth: By defiantly ending speeches with the words, "God bless Canada," he affirmed the sentiment expressed in our national anthem and on our coinage, and subtly but unmistakably held up a prominent middle finger to those who are trying to what might be called "atheize" the country.
They complained.
In one poll, 65% of Canadians told him to keep on doing it.
Tenth: By reaffirming in the minds of a great many disillusioned Canadians the fact that democracy can actually work, that the seemingly unassailable Liberal bastion at Ottawa can be assailed and actually taken, and that maybe Canada isn't such a hopeless basket case of liberal absurdity after all, he has won for himself a whole army of the previously disenchanted, who will keenly make their weight felt in the next election.
It was still only the semifinals, of course.
But there's no doubt whatever who won them.
Ted Byfield
PING!
This is illustrates the problem we have had with Bush's leadership. Rather than call the libs for what they are and pick a productive argument with the press, he has sought to make them his friends with the "new tone." This strategery has been taken for weakness by the enemy and they have trampled Bush. Its time to take off the gloves and follow the Harper example. Its not too late. One of his best moments lately was when he bitch slapped Helen Thomas. We need more such moments.
ping
LOL!
"Religion is the Opiate of the People" Right.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.