PRESTON MANNING WANTS GEORGE W. BUSH TO MANAGE THE CANADIAN ECONOMY

Fraser Institute political hack, Preston Manning

Canada's George W. Bush (on the left) with the real thing (on the right)

Preston Manning’s column of this today’s Globe and Mail asks the question: Who would be the best person at the helm of the ship of state as Canada heads into stormy economic seas?

After giving short shrift to Elizabeth May ( “ . .weak, terribly weak, on the economy.”), Jack Layton (“ . . . cut from the same cloth” as “economic disasters . . Bob Rae and Dave Barrett”), Stephane Dion (Dion’s degrees from university “are in political science and sociology – adequate preparation for salon politics but not for economic crises.”) - - surprise, surprise, he recommends his fellow arch-conservative and prodigy Stephen Harper.

Manning these days spends much of his time beating the drum for conservative causes. He remains a Fellow of the Fraser Institute.

You know the Fraser Institute, don’t you? It is that political arm of the Conservative Party that masquerades as a think tank. Amongst its former trustees are convicted felons David Radler and Conrad Black, both of whom helped to fund it. A former Fellow is Dr. Owen Lippert, an admitted plagiarist and patsy who fed Stephen Harper his Commons speech urging that Canada join George W. Bush in invading Iraq. Another Fellow of the Institute is that genius that brought Health Care in Alberta to its knees. Yes, Ralph Klein is also a Fellow of the Institute.

It is the same organization that has recently hosted George W. Bush’s political guru Karl Rove in two expensive dinners in Toronto and Calgary so that they could listen intently about what a great success his boss’s Presidency has been.

Yes, Manning actually believes that Stephen Harper is the best man to lead our country as the economy goes into the tank.

But think about this. Harper is an unabashed cheerleader for Bush and has been during all of the dark Bush era. Whether it was supporting the war in Iraq, mindlessly supporting the lost cause in Afghanistan, sticking a finger in the eye of China, supporting a disastrous course in the Middle East, or telling the Canadian people that the fundamentals of the economy are strong as we headed towards the abyss, Harper has been Canada’s George W. Bush.

And now Manning is telling the Canadian people that they should support Canada’s George W. Bush to manage the Canadian economy! That’s like putting the inmates in charge of the asylum.

Preston Manning is a neocon Reform/Alliance hack, and has been since his first foray into the federal arena. His advice is not only worthless, it is downright dangerous!

STEPHEN HARPER AND THE GREAT UNRAVELING

It all looked so easy at first - the new Liberal leader Stephane Dion struggling to get his message across in English, a youthful (if portly) Prime Minister that seemed to stick to his promises and deliver well crafted speeches, a Government party unburdened by scandal, party coffers bursting at the seams, the Premier of Quebec making nice, an economy going gangbusters - shurely, it was only a matter of time and the Conservatives would form a majority Government.

The chattering class by a wide margin interpreted the Quebec election results as boding well for Steve. The public seemed to show strong initial support for the budget - initial polls showed the Conservatives' support spiked to 40%. It all looked so rosy for Bush's pal Steve Harper. It was going to be a waltz. A breeze. A romp. He had the bucks, the brand new hi-tech 17500 square foot, shiny headquarters. And the polls that showed him to be a 2 to 1 favorite as the leader who would make the best Prime Minister.

Well, if I may be permitted to indulge in some trite and hackneyed political truisms, that was then and this is now. Or, dare I say, if two weeks is a long time in politics, one month may seem like an eternity.

Since the Budget was tabled on April 19, its been all downhill for Stevie. It took a few days to settle in, but once Canadians had time to think about the great Quebec giveaway - the billions given to rectify a mythical fiscal imbalance - they were . . . well, they were underwhelmed. Particularly when they thought about Premier Charest - toute de suite, as they would say in La Belle Province -bribing Quebecers with a 700 million tax break upon hearing of of Harper's beneficence on the eve of the Quebec election. Premier Danny Williams, the colourful and fearless newfy and the normally sober and sedate man-of-the-cloth Premier Calvert of Saskatchewan, began leading an attack on the Budget that continues unabated.

Even Bay Streeters, who one would think regarded Stevie as their fair-haired boy, became angry. They were irate over the Budgetary tax change that disallowed Canadian companies deducting loan interest for foreign investments.

The El Stinko Budget seemed to revive that damnable Income Trust issue still festering in the minds of millions of middle class Canadians and income trust business leaders. Harper's shameless broken election promise saw net worths of ordinary Canadians slashed. Cash flows that older families had relied on for their twilight years, thanks to Harper, were now out the window. Furthermore, piranha-like foreign companies were now picking up business assets of the trusts for a song. Ontario MP and Grit finance critic John McCallum was greeted by cheers - in Calgary of all places - as he assailed Harper and his Government for being idiots and morons for trashing income trusts.

But that's not all. Soon to replace Stockwell Day as the gift to the Liberals that keeps on giving, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has been front and center in the Conservative drive to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Former General O'Connor was already in trouble. He had to do an embarassing about face by admitting in the Commons that the Red Cross did not inform Canadian authorities if Taliban prisoners turned over by Canadians to Afghani authorities were mistreated. He had earlier informed the House otherwise. O'Connor was also
under heavy criticism regarding Federal untendered purchasing contracts made between his Department and a company for which he had formerly lobbied.

In recent days O'Connor blithely commented that the Afghanistan war would probably last 15 years. Underlining that statement and in a move indicating Canada would be in the Kandahar debacle far beyond the Commons approved 2009 date, his Department acquired tanks from Holland which will only be delivered in 2009. This comes at a time when plenty of Canadians have become concerned with body bags of our brave young troops, and informed that the good news of our heavy lifting participation in the NATO initiative in Afghanistan is not shared by knowledgeable observers on the ground. The feel-good rhetoric from O'Connor, Day, Toews, and Hillier about success in Afghanistan seems to be shared only among themselves.

And there remains the disquiet felt by many Canadians about the meanness of the Prime Minister, reflected by his partisan and personal attacks which can only be described as extreme - accusations that Liberals support the Taliban instead of our troops, that a Liberal Sikh MP did not support the continuation of measures under the anti-terror legislation so as to keep his father in law from testifying at the Air India Inquiry, and that Liberals are not a friend of Israel, etc. etc.

There's more. Now we have the attack on Kyoto. Harper's Environment Minister Pit bull, John Baird's over the top doomsday scenario unveiled this week in the Senate hearings has met with derision from all quarters - even including traditional Conservative cheerleader Canwest columnist Don Martin. Senator Denis Dawson referring to Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth,' called Baird's show 'a convenient lie.'

And if all of that wasn't bad enough, now Stephane Dion has begun to find his voice. His environment policy is widely seen by experts to be the most responsible. He and John McCallum have offered up a credible alternative to the Conservative axing of Income Trusts, so as to protect the investments of ordinary Canadians. He has boldly agreed with Elizabeth May not to run a Liberal candidate in the Central Nova Riding that she hopes to win from Peter McKay, and she has agreed to reciprocate in his Montreal Riding. This clears the way for unprecedented cooperation between the Liberals and the Greens (and probably some Green NDP) in the next Federal Election.

The result: a poll released by Decima Research on April 17 shows the Tories at 34% - 2 points below election day in January 2006. The Grits have 31%, the NDP have 15%, the Greens have 11% and the Bloc 7%. And in Quebec, the Budget honeymoon has really gone south: the Bloc has 29% and the Grits lead the Conservatives 23% to 20%. Apparently Quebecers do not liked being bribed. The ND's trail with 10%.

The future is bleak for Bush's pal Steve Harper. With numbers like that he will not win a majority. With a trend like that he is likely to lose if the election is called soon. With gaffes like he and his Government have committed in recent weeks, the result could be a Liberal majority Government. Which of course, I have predicted. Once again, you can say you heard it here first.

STEPHANE DION: A DEFT MOVE FOR THE GREEN VOTE

If anybody knows anything about the Green Party, they know that it is a Party whose members and supporters are not short of brains. In addition, they are idealists. They support the Green Party for a high moral purpose: to prevent the pirates and brigands of this world from destroying the planet Earth.

Having brains and principle, Green Party membership and supporters know how to vote strategically. In any election, if they become satisfied that another party's candidate shares their values, they will vote strategically and support that other candidate from that other party.

An example of this occured in Calgary in the last provincial election in the Riding of Mountain View. The Green support in the riding was strong. David Swann, the Liberal candidate, was a known fighter for the environment. As a matter of fact, he had been fired by the Medicine Hat Health Region on orders from a Tory Provincial Minister, because he had publicly supported the Kyoto Accord. A lot of Medicine Hat residents were appalled at this ham-handed move, and so applied pressure on the Health Region to reinstate Swann. The Region, feeling the heat, offered Swann his job back. He refused. He then ran in the next election in the riding of Calgary Mountain View as a Liberal. The Green Party knew he was on their side. He received the Green vote (and a good many NDP votes as well) and won the riding handily. The Greens had voted strategically for a person from another party that they knew represented their goals and values.


Stephane Dion has agreed not to run a Liberal in the next Federal Election in Central Nova so as to allow Elizabeth May, the Green Party Leader, a better chance to defeat Peter McKay, the current Tory MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Equally, Ms. May has agreed that the Greens will not run a candidate in Dion's riding of Saint Laurent in Montreal. This was a deft strategic move by Dion. It gives him extra cachet with the Greens (and very likely the NDP as well) right across the country. It was a move designed to show clearly that he supported their great cause. May, for her part, made clear her respect for Dion and that she believes that he is sincere on the environment. Convinced that Dion is serious about the environment, she helps the Green cause by helping the Liberals. And so, the Green Party leader has enhanced the credibility of Stephane Dion both amongst her following and amongst those of the NDP who are ardent Greenies on the issue that most matters to them.

This highly political and influential move is designed to get Greens and some NDP to vote strategically to elect Liberal candidates in the next Federal election. The message from this May-Dion pact that goes out to all Green and NDP voters across the country is simple one. The Liberals are friends of the Greens, and so a strategic vote for the Liberals is a vote for a better and cleaner environment.

This spells bad news for the Bush's pal Steve Harper and Jack Layton. There are twenty to thirty percent of the Canadian electorate that could park their vote with the Greens and the NDP in the next Federal Election. By this move Dion is sure to siphon some of that towards the Liberals.

Let's see, the SES poll done a week or so ago had the Conservatives at 36% and the Liberals at 33%. If 10% of the Green/NDP support goes to the Grits from strategic Green and NDP voters - why, that puts Dion and his Grits in majority country. Remember to say you heard it hear first: it will be 'Prime Minister Stephane Dion' after the next Federal Election.