Harper deserves the “perfect election result”

Written by Al Hollingsworth

Friday, 05 September 2008

My wife, an astute judge of character, thinks Stephen Harper is a tyrant, and that for him to win a majority would be devastating for our country. I tend to agree, although I will say I like his stand on tougher criminal laws. That aside, I do concur that a Harper-led majority government would probably drastically change Canada forever. A lot of damage can be done over a four year period. Any doubts? Have a chat with the folks in the arts community. He slashed $44.8 million in federal funding to the arts without batting an eye. For me, the perfect election result would be a dead heat between the Liberals and Conservatives, with Independent Bill Casey, who will prevail in Cumberland-Colchester, determining who will govern. I can see it now …. Harper eating crow, reaching out to Casey, asking him to come back to the fold. And Bill, surrounded by the Ottawa media, looking directly into the cameras and telling Harper to “get stuffed.” That, my friend would be poetic justice. And now, from the dream world to reality. The majority the PM seeks is within his grasp and, unless he does something really stupid, or Stephane Dion suddenly catches fire, I see him winning big. Dion, like Brian Mulroney, rolled the dice in launching his green initiative. It has come up snake eyes. The intent was marvelous, and someone, sometime has to start to get serious about the state of our climate. However, his mistake was tying the plan to a new level of taxes. His revenue neutral approach went over like a lead balloon. Even his last minute fine tuning, in an effort to make it attractive to those it will hurt the most, has left the members of his caucus grumbling. They know that Harper will beat the drum on the tax issue from the day the writ is dropped until the last ballot is counted. Why wouldn’t he? Find me one Canadian who is willing to pay one more penny in taxes and I’ll show you a person who is ready for a rubber room. Little wonder Stephen Harper is acting all warm and fuzzy in the ads the Conservatives are running. Dion may have handed him the election on a silver platter. (Al Hollingsworth is a retired journalist and broadcaster)