Modeling Journey

It should be very clear by now that Harper has suckered the two premiers over the equalization formula. Harper is probably technically right when he says the agreement was not breached. The premiers are being offered two choices: the 'new deal' from the 'new' Tories, which has a cap, or stick with the old deal.

However, it is also clear that anyone dealing with this Prime Minister needs to pay very careful attention to what he says, and what he does not say. Harper is becoming rather famous (should that be 'notorious'?) for being very precise with words. If you want to understand this man, you have to understand what he is NOT saying as much as what he is saying. Harper believes that if he did not say exactly the thing you think he said, then he has not mislead you. If you somehow get swept up by the tone, or the excitement of the moment, of headlines which overstate what he says, tough. He won't correct your incorrect assumptions; after all, did HE say it? If not, game over.

What this means for every politician (lissen up, Jack Layton, lissen up, the Bloc, lissen up, every Premier, lissen up, EU governments, lissen up, Canadian voters) is that if you wish to deal with the Prime Minister of these 'new' Tories, you had better bring your lawyer to each meeting, get it in writing, and be ready to sue him if be does indeed breach it.

You have been warned.

This is not good news for the Liberal Party. In her column on June 12, headed 'Sputtering Conservative machine needs a summer tune-up', Barbara Yaffe has this to say about the Liberal Party:

"And its main opposition, the Liberals, have installed a leader in Stephane Dion who so far has failed to impress. Moreover, the party has not advanced a coherent policy platform to lure voters from the government."

The Cat agrees with her comment on the lack of a coherent policy.

At a time when the Harper 'new' government has run out of new ideas he is willing to table with the voters, when Harper is showing an arrogant tone-deafness to people's concerns, when the Tories are relying on sound and sight bytes instead of policies, when Harper is childishly asking the premier of a province to 'take it outside', when the Tories have tried sleight of hand instead of honesty with regards to the environmental concerns of Canadians and the world, and when the Liberals have had six months to work out the kinks of a new leadership team, the comments of Yaffe and others on the lack of a persuasive program of policies for voters to give serious consideration, are serious, and warrant examination and action.

How about it, Liberal leaders? Time to start leading?

The Cat thinks so.

Pinch me. Our prime minister is wandering around Europe, intent on trashing the Kyoto Protocol at the request of Bush, and he claims that many of the major leaders in Europe are in agreement with him?

His attempt to distort reality is embarrassing for Canadians. There was a time when Canadian Prime Ministers had some influence in the corridors of power, arising from the decency of the country. Harper seems bent on trying to change that.

How on earth can this man think that he can deceive people into believing for one moment that his dismal, Luddite-like climate change policies deserve to be viewed by Europe as an example of where they should go?

Get real, Prime Minister. The Europeans have addressed the science, have concluded that the earth is indeed in danger, have decided that steps have to be taken to reduce emissions, including mandatory caps on emissions and a massive rollback of pollution, using 1990 as the baseline.

Harper's sorry sham policy does not in the least stand up against the Kyoto policy of the EU.

Please stop embarrassing Canadians, Mr. Prime Minister. Just keep quiet and come home.

For a man who prides himself on being the smartest man in the room, Stephen Harper is behaving in an puzzling manner. We agree that it relatively easy to pull the wool over the eyes of his extreme rightwing element, as he did with the abortion sleight of hand. However, we have news for the new Tories: the voter is pretty smart, and can smell phoniness a mile away.

So don't expect that the voters in Ontario will agree with your nonsensical and amateurish proposal to update the representation of voters in Parliament, by shortchanging Ontario through giving them totally inadequate new MPs, and then expecting them to be satisfied because 'it's a step in the right direction.'

Do you really expect Canadians to swallow your foolishness? Do you really expect us not to notice the badly-disguised contempt with which you view us?

Take climate change. Your new program is total rot, from beginning to end. Worse, it is unusually deceptive, even for a conservative government in this day and age. Do you really think we cannot read between the lines? Do you really think you can do an end-run around us by using a few sound bites and some tacky framing?

Think again, Mr Prime Minister.

Think again, new Tories.

We have your number. Especially your plan to back Bush in his attempt to destroy Kyoto and replace it with mush.

Canadians support the Kyoto Accord.
They do not support Harper's clumsy attempt to subvert it and replace it with hogwash.