[Gunnair]

Quote:

Kelly McParland Sep 19, 2011 – 9:09 AM ET


After five long years of waiting — more if you count his years in opposition — Stephen Harper finally has the moment we’ve been waiting for, the one where he whips out the file with the Top Secret stamp and the padlock on the cover, produces the key from his pocket and reveals to the world his Hidden Agenda.

We know it’s there. The Opposition parties have been insisting on it since it became evident that Paul Martin wouldn’t last forever as prime minister, and that Harper might have a real chance of replacing him. Every election campaign since 2004 has included warnings that a vote for Harper was a vote for the secret agenda. And even though it was supposed to be secret (thus the name secret agenda), they had a pretty good idea of what it contained: a ban on abortion; the return of capital punishment; mandatory prayer in the schools; rampant privatization; the end of the CBC; a social conservative in charge of every board, agency, commission and institute over which Ottawa held sway; persecution of gays; forced training in conservative values as overseen by the ardent zealots Mr. Harper could dig up from the furthest recesses of right-wing Alberta. And that was just the start.

It was all supposed to happen as soon as the Tories got their fingers on the levers of power, but hasn’t. Instead, same-sex marriage has been legalized, abortion is just as unregulated a Wild West show as it’s ever been, capital punishment remains a non-starter, the CBC is still the CBC, and there hasn’t been the slightest hint that the Tories are interested in the religious leanings of Canadians, much less concerned with trying to influence them.

Rather than Albertan values taking over Canada, Canadian values appear to have infected Alberta. The weekend vote to choose a new leader for the Progressive-Conservatives ended with three moderates topping the list. They will no go to a run-down to decide whether the next premier will be really moderate, kind-of moderate, or moderate in a rural sort of way. The three top finishers attracted 75% of the vote; the best-known real conservative candidate in the race, former finance minister Ted Morton, attracted just 12%. The West seems to have discovered that if it wants into Canada, it has to put up with Canada crowding into The West as well.

Hardly anything worth privatizing has been privatized, particularly not health care. By now, we were led to believe, rich Canadians would be enjoying premium care at private clinics, jumping queues, skipping waiting lists and hogging all the best high-tech equipment while the rest of us hobbled around on our bad hips and creaking knees, waiting our turn at the last remaining operating room that hadn’t been turned over to for-profit American-style health care. Nope. Instead, it’s the U.S. that’s in an uproar because its socialist, Kenya-born president fooled everyone and introduced universal health care, just like he said he would. The U.S., like Alberta, seems to have become more Canadian, rather than the other way around.

Up until now, of course, Harper has been dealing with a minority government, so he had to keep the secret agenda secret. Although he had a chance to appoint fervent ideologues to the Supreme Court, he appointed respected, highly-qualified judges instead. Year after year, when he had a chance to slash spending, he increased it instead. Rather than cut taxes for the rich and squeeze services for everyone else, the deficit is up and the debt is higher than ever. Rather than send newly unemployed civil servants weeping into the streets, the public payroll has expended.

But that was then. At last, at long last, the real Stephen Harper is upon us, and any minute now we should see that agenda. For some reason, despite having a majority, he’s continued to keep the contents close to his vest. Predictions for the new, all-powerful Tory majority government — which opens this week in Ottawa — contain pretty much the same stale old offerings we’ve known about for years. Bye-bye to the gun registry; the Crime Bill That Wouldn’t Die will be re-introduced; another stab will be made at Senate (yawn) reform; the political parties will lose their subsidy and the Wheat Board will lose its monopoly position. Nothing secret about any of that — Conservative plans on each of those fronts have been known for years.

What we want is the secret stuff. The agenda. You know, the agenda! Any more delays and I’m going to start doubting it exists.

National Post

[raydan]

Not doing anything is Harper's secret agenda.

[redhatmamma]

Oh sure, bring on that scary scary agenda LOL

[Macguyver]

Guess you missed the bill thats going to make sure the billions we spend on justice goes as far as possible.

He's only been in a majority for less than six months, three of those were vacation months. Don't worry, its coming.

[CDN_PATRIOT]

The so-called "Secret agenda" is nothing more than left-wing speculation and conjecture that have been used (unsuccessfully) over the years to deter peopl from ushering in a Conservative majority.

Looks like the lefties failed. Miserably.

-J.

[Thanos]

Quote:

Instead, it’s the U.S. that’s in an uproar because its socialist, Kenya-born president fooled everyone and introduced universal health care, just like he said he would

Sigh. A perfectly good column totally ruined by the inexplicable need to stick this idiotic statement into it. Where do the morons who keep saying these stupid things come from?


The right-wingers who say that Obama is a foreign-born Communist are as ridiculous and boring as the Canadian leftists who keep insisting that Harper's a fascist. Dumb, obtuse, and overwhelmingly pathetic on all counts.

[martin14]

Macguyver wrote:

Guess you missed the bill thats going to make sure the billions we spend on justice goes as far as possible.

He's only been in a majority for less than six months, three of those were vacation months. Don't worry, its coming.

Thanos wrote:

Dumb, obtuse, and overwhelmingly pathetic on all counts.

Shoe fits.

[Thanos]

^

Not my fault that you extremists on the fringes are always wrong.

The middle of the road is all the usable surface. The extremes of left and right are in the gutters. - Dwight David Eisenhower

[andyt]

Harper is obviously smart and disciplined enough not to just spring radical changes all at once. But McGuyver (and Eureka in another post) have a point that he's just started his term. There's the drip drip drip of smaller changes, and theres also the possibility of doing nothing. Doing nothing on health care, as he's (not?) done will eventually ruin it.

So let's have this conversation again 3 years from now and see where he and the Canadian public stand. Yapping about it now is just for filling up space in right wing rags.

[Macguyver]

martin14 wrote:

Macguyver wrote:

Guess you missed the bill thats going to make sure the billions we spend on justice goes as far as possible.

He's only been in a majority for less than six months, three of those were vacation months. Don't worry, its coming.

Thanos wrote:

Dumb, obtuse, and overwhelmingly pathetic on all counts.

Shoe fits.

Really? Guess you should check your facts then cause that was a bundle of bills that did not or would not pass in a minority government.

But I should suspect you're only good with personal insults and drama and not so good on facts. Don't be a bully.

[Gunnair]

Thanos wrote:

Quote:

Instead, it’s the U.S. that’s in an uproar because its socialist, Kenya-born president fooled everyone and introduced universal health care, just like he said he would

Sigh. A perfectly good column totally ruined by the inexplicable need to stick this idiotic statement into it. Where do the morons who keep saying these stupid things come from?


The right-wingers who say that Obama is a foreign-born Communist are as ridiculous and boring as the Canadian leftists who keep insisting that Harper's a fascist. Dumb, obtuse, and overwhelmingly pathetic on all counts.

I kinda took that as a bit tongue in cheek really.

[jeff744]

So, what do you say about his policies on the Wheat Board (which the majority of farmers do not want), or his attempt to make it so that the RCMP no longer needs a warrant to find out where an internet user lives, or his attempts to make it illegal to bypass digital locks.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

jeff744 wrote:

So, what do you say about his policies on the Wheat Board (which the majority of farmers do not want), or his attempt to make it so that the RCMP no longer needs a warrant to find out where an internet user lives, or his attempts to make it illegal to bypass digital locks.

Those are part of the secret agenda? Aside from the Wheat Board dealy( Which I admittedly know little about) the rest sounds like the same pandering to American interests as the previous Federal Conservative gov't.

But a secret agenda? C'mon guys, seriously. They have a great new medication now for those that suffer from intense paranoia. Ask your doctor if it's right for you.

[jeff744]

PublicAnimalNo9 wrote:

jeff744 wrote:

So, what do you say about his policies on the Wheat Board (which the majority of farmers do not want), or his attempt to make it so that the RCMP no longer needs a warrant to find out where an internet user lives, or his attempts to make it illegal to bypass digital locks.

Those are part of the secret agenda? Aside from the Wheat Board dealy( Which I admittedly know little about) the rest sounds like the same pandering to American interests as the previous Federal Conservative gov't.

But a secret agenda? C'mon guys, seriously. They have a great new medication now for those that suffer from intense paranoia. Ask your doctor if it's right for you.

I can guarantee you would be the one making the exact same accusations if it was an NDP government, pointing out every single thing they did as working towards making Canada a socialist wonderland. The problem a lot of people has is that Harper has done little to actually fix anything, including things he has promised to fix (like the Senate) and has been openly trying to make Canadian laws as tough as American ones. We see a couple cases a month of somebody getting off light on a prison sentence but courts sentence murderers, and thieves on a daily basis, the fact we only hear about them now and then just means we need to fix loopholes, not make all the laws harsher.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

jeff744 wrote:

PublicAnimalNo9 wrote:

jeff744 wrote:

So, what do you say about his policies on the Wheat Board (which the majority of farmers do not want), or his attempt to make it so that the RCMP no longer needs a warrant to find out where an internet user lives, or his attempts to make it illegal to bypass digital locks.

Those are part of the secret agenda? Aside from the Wheat Board dealy( Which I admittedly know little about) the rest sounds like the same pandering to American interests as the previous Federal Conservative gov't.

But a secret agenda? C'mon guys, seriously. They have a great new medication now for those that suffer from intense paranoia. Ask your doctor if it's right for you.

I can guarantee you would be the one making the exact same accusations if it was an NDP government, pointing out every single thing they did as working towards making Canada a socialist wonderland. The problem a lot of people has is that Harper has done little to actually fix anything, including things he has promised to fix (like the Senate) and has been openly trying to make Canadian laws as tough as American ones. We see a couple cases a month of somebody getting off light on a prison sentence but courts sentence murderers, and thieves on a daily basis, the fact we only hear about them now and then just means we need to fix loopholes, not make all the laws harsher.

You can guarantee??? Bud, in case you've missed my posts over the last 2 years or so, I'm hardly what you'd call a Conservative supporter.