Is Stephen Harper going to destroy Canada?

Question

Is Stephen Harper going to destroy Canada?

Answer 1

He's doing his best, and the damage will be stupendous, but I don't think he can destroy Canada.



They are certainly setting the scene for right wing nut bars and big business to get their way. Hopefully, Canadians will come to their senses before it gets too far.



For the crime bill ********, he isn't lengthening maximum sentences, but changing the minimums, so people who diddle their kids won't be serving any more time, cause they certainly aren't getting the minimums. He's handcuffing judges so they won't be able to make the sentence appropriate to the whole situation. WTF do we pay judges the big bucks for if we don't trust them to use their judgement?



That's the Harper government catering to morons who think it will reduce crime (it won't) or make people safer by building prisons. Economic disparity has more to do with crime than punishment does. But the Harper government and its supporters are too dim to understand that.



However, in the end, I am confident that people will come to their senses and demand good government again.



If Rob Ford gets reelected, I may have to re-think that. That big fat buddy of conservatives has clearly demonstrated he can't lead a city, and has alienated most of his friends on council. If Torontonians reelect that buffoon, it will seriously erode my faith in human intelligence.

Answer 2

No, he won't live long enough (I don't mean he'll be assassinated, I just think it won't happen that quickly)



I do think that his environmental policies and stated policy of continued economic growth (as in expanded mining and manfacturing) will inevitably destroy the country as a social institution sometime in the next couple of hundred years, maybe sooner. Continous exponential growth (x% per year) is clearly incompatible with a finite planet (solar system, galaxy etc. if we should be so lucky), and the economic costs of burning every last drop of fossil fuel will probably include moving entire cities like Halifax and Vancouver to higher ground and retooling and relocating most agriculture.

Answer 3

Well, something had to be done to fix the mess the Liberals left things in and to make the necessary corrections to keep us moving forward.



Changing the age for OAP and CPP isn't the most popular move but the math dictates something needed to be done. I don't like it because it effects me but at least I have years to make up the difference myself.



As far as selling resources to the highest bidder....isn't that what we want to be doing? After all, are we expected to give them away to the lowest bidder? Since the US declined to move forward on the pipeline deal we had to sell the stuff somewhere. Personally I'm glad he went to, as you put it, the highest bidder. Not that I think they were the highest bidder but we have it...we want to sell it...and they wanted to buy it.



And the Crime Bill doesn't so much introduce new crimes as it addresses the problems in sentencing that the press and public have been screeming about for years. I once had legal dealings in the extradition of a Canadian from the US. He had been charged with sexually assaulting a step daughter for years and because it was a Canadian on Canadian crime, in the US, the matter was waved back to Canadian authorities to handle. Had he gone to court in the US for his crimes he would have ended up with, as a minimum, 270 years in jail (he had been doing this from the time the young girls was 12 to when she was 18. Here in Canada he got 6 years. If the crime bill increases sentences in such cases I'm all for it.

Answer 4

Stephen Harper never said “You won’t recognize Canada when I get through with it.”, that is a lie perpetuated by a Liberal attack ad from 2006. Harper said: in 2004 at a Conservative convention "in 2004, “We can create a country built on solid Conservative values, not on expensive Liberal promises, a country the Liberals wouldn’t even recognize, the kind of country I want to lead.” quite a difference but nevertheless the truth is generally ignored in favour of a Liberal lie.

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/01/transcript-stephen-harper-the-mansbridge-interview-part-one.html

Answer 5

I think we may be over-estimating his powers. However, it's a sign of his arrogance that he would actually allow himself to be quoted saying that.

Answer 6

Hmmmm..



the only G8 country to survive the recent financial break-down relatively unscathed. In fact, other countries are looking to how Canada did it - under Harper, and a minority government, no less!



There was much doom and gloom about what was going to happen with his majority, but, the promised evils, or secret agenda just haven't happened. The latest budget shows that. It's actually pretty modest. Granted the pension thing sucks for me: I'm 11 1/2 months under the cut off age. But, it could have been a lot worse, and true fiscal conservatives say it should have been.



As for selling resources, well, by all means; step up and buy the billions worth of oil, and minerals, and wood sold each day. If you offer the best price, they will happily sell to you.

Answer 7

He's a fat old guy with limited social skills and very few (if any) guns.



I didn't vote for him either, but he doesn't scare me one bit. You need to stop believing everything you hear on the internet.

Answer 8

yes he will and this is a politics question not a travel one

Answer 9

No he's not Satan incarnate like alot of Liberals want to make him out to be, nor is he doing anything substantially different than anyone else. Hey at least he's up front... Liberals just tell you what you want to hear and then shamelessly do something else once they get power.



I'm not a huge fan of Harper either... but I'd rather him than the Liberals.

Answer 10

Yes, because of his



-regressive anti-social policies (e.g. trying to bring in the end to abortion through the back door)



-his destruction any federal agency that supplies statistics which might challenge his ideological approach to social policy (StatsCan and now some other lesser known agencies)



-his encouraging of immigrants from repressive countries (China for e.g.) to vote Conservative because he will pass laws that make them feel at home (mandatory minimums and monster prisons now; the death penalty later) in order to get them voting Conservative (Why leave China if all Harper can do it change Canada into a Chinese province?)



-his general pandering to every immigrant group along with lots of apologies (which cannot be sincere) to get that extra 2% (from the 905) to stay in power for ever



-criminalizing internet users while ending the long gun registry



Oh, I can go on and on.



On the bright side, the 2012 Budget was one any Liberal government could be proud of. Too bad we can't have liberal social policies any more.



My real hope is that Thomas Mulcair will move the NDP to the centre and give us a new liberal party minus the actual liberal dinosaurs running the 3rd party. I want fiscally conservative, socially liberal government. The Cons are too right-right and the current NDP is too left-left. The old Liberals occupied the right-left area and that is where more than 60% of Canadians feel comfortable. As a life-long Liberal voter, I went NDP last time because I'm fed up with the current Liberal Party. But kicking the bums out doesn't mean I've suddenly moved to the right and now support Harper et al. I just want new blood in the centre left. I am confident that by the next election the Liberal Democratic Party or whatever Mulchair is able to come up with will reflect my political philosophy. In meantime, thousands of young people will be going to prision for mandatory minimums for smoking a plant! This is not my Canada; my Canada is not Texas!



As for digging stuff up out of the ground or just chopping it down and shippling it raw to China or the US and therefore giving the good jobs to them, couldn't we do some processing in Canada? We don't make stuff in Ontario anymore: 'free' trade and the petro-dollar killed manufacturing here. So is our whole economy just based on logs, oil and potash while they last? The countries that make stuff are the stong ones: China, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, and emerging countries like Brazil.

Answer 11

No. I like the implementation of the overdue and much needed reforms at the border. Twenty five years of neglect, imcompetence and deference to political correctness has caused a troubling lack of law & order at our borders.

You know the NDP or Liberals would never have had the political courage to fix our immigration mess.

Answer 12

Not at all. If anything, Canada has become stronger and greatly admired by many countries around the world. Even the USA is impressed with our economical status and the EU is impressed with our healthcare system.