- Harper: By the Way, Did I Mention, This isn't 'Stimulus' Spending, It's 'Vote Buying' Spending.

Submitted: 8:32am, PDT, 11 Sep.'10 CBC News
(posted and on the first attempt - hurray!!!)
Bernier slams PM pledge to fund arenas, September 10, 2010 , CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/09/10/arena-funding-conservatives.html

Didn't I hear Harper say the stimulus spending is over???

Oh, I see, this isn't 'stimulus' spending,

it's 'vote buying' spending,

my mistake.

"The International Monetary Fund has issued a secret recipe for global economic recovery that is sure to taste sour to many G20 leaders.

The confidential report, obtained by The Canadian Press, says advanced countries must make government spending cuts their top priority — the same message Prime Minister Stephen Harper and some other leaders are pushing at this weekend's G20 summit. "(G&M)

(by the way, I don't recall Harper referring to this IMF Report when he was grandstanding in the media, lecturing the other G20 countries about stopping stimulus spending and reducing deficits)

“Advanced countries must send a clear message that as their stimulus plans expire, they will focus on getting their fiscal houses in order,” Harper said. (Toronto Star)

Perhaps the way around this apparent inconsistency is that Harper doesn't consider Canada to be one of those 'advanced' countries - it seems I recall Harper referring to Canada as becoming a 'second-tier socialist country . . . [with] second rate status" (National Post)

Maxime Bernier is right on this one, no, not just politically but morally as well (I never thought I would be saying that).

Just think Stephen Harper is spending my money to buy him votes.

If Stephen Harper wants an NHL team in Quebec City then let him, and any other Con that feels that way, invest their own money. If they want to buy votes then let them spend money that has been raised by the Conservative Party of Canada. Isn't that fair, isn't that the morally right thing to do.

In my blog "Harper: I Get By With a Lot of Help From My Friends (Core of Die Hard Supporters Epi-centre Alberta)", discussing the possible erosion of die-hard support for Harper, I wrote:
"One question is, of course, where has this core die-hard support eroded. According to this poll it may be Quebec. However, I am no so sure of this, their support has decreased there but that doesn't mean their core die-hard support has decreased there. Also, there is some suggestion that if Stephen Harper builds a hockey arena in Quebec City to bring in a NHL franchise the Con's may very well pick up 5 or 6 seats - sounds pretty cynical to me.
(05 August, 2010)

On 16 July, 2010, I wrote ("Eye watering technology"??? - Peter MacKay, how about the "eye watering bill")

"We must all keep in mind, it is not Harper that must pay. I am sure that when he 'retires' he will go to the US and get a great paying position with some ultra-right conservative group or the military-industrial complex, perhaps with Dick Cheney.

We are the ones, each and every one of us to a man, woman and child, that will have to pay. But, worse, it is also our children and our children's children that will be left to pay the crippling financial debt as well as the impacts of Harper's policies regarding just about everything.

We must prevent leaving for future generations a debt burden that is so crippling that the economy collapses into third world oblivion like almost happened with Mulroney.

Let us not leave our children with the resentment that we were ever given a turn at the helm." (cicblog, 16 Jul.'10)

Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html