Written by -- Svend Serup
Prince George
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Thursday, 09 October 2008 |
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BRUCE STRACHAN
I find it a bit irresponsible for Mr. Kovacs to encourage people to tune out having an interest in politics, and instead go and drink beer and watch sports on TV. He seems to imply that we can't have any input, and that Stephen Harper irresponsibly called an election the people didn't want.
I would suggest that people not only drink beer and watch TV, but make the effort to get informed about the issues, where the parties stand and get out and vote. Our democracy in Canada is a precious thing, in which everyone can have input in how the country is run.
Regarding the need for an election at this time, everyone watching the leaders debate on TV last week, with four leaders of the left-leaning parties noisily interrupting each other, and especially interrupting the prime minister so that he would not be allowed to be heard defending his policies, should understand what a waste Parliament would be had an election not been called.
Regarding Citizen columnist Bruce Strachan's column on Sept. 25 in which he spends so much ink denigrating Jay Hill and Preston Manning, he suggests that Manning cinched a three-term win for Chretien's Liberals. I believe Mulroney had more to do with Chretien's win since only two Conservatives were elected across the country after Mulroney's two terms.
The Reform party, led by Manning, brought some excellent ideas forward based on grassroots input from well-attended conventions. The Clarity Act was developed by Manning and Harper, rejected by Chretien, then later presented by Dion and adopted in Parliament as a Liberal bill. Manning's preaching against deficit spending had a lot to do with the Liberals' move to get spending under control.
Strachan ridicules Jay Hill for prioritizing the need for getting rid of the gun registry. He asks why they haven't done it during the two years they were in office. Of course Strachan knows that they could not do this as a minority government, but they did what they could by putting a moratorium on implementing this act.
Jay Hill has served his constituency well. Harper made a good choice appointing him to his cabinet as a Privy Council member.
-- Svend Serup
Prince George
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 09 October 2008 )
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If that is not irredsponsible, then it is blatant hypocrisy. I don't know that one is better than the other.
As to not being allowed to defend his policies, let me remind you that Mr. Harper had not introduced his platform at that time. He had no policies to defend. Nice trick that, take part in a debate before you say what you intend to do. Talk about climbing a greased pole!