Disappointed in Stephen Harper

I had hoped that Stephen Harper would have retained more of his Reform party heritage, but there seems to be more and more compromises with that. The latest is the early election.

Harper has a fixed election date for the fall of 2009, but now he is speaking about an early election. I had hoped because he has the the skills to govern with a minority he would show it could be done for a full term. Harper has been one of the best Prime Ministers Canada has ever seen and has managed to govern with a minority and not be bogged down by dumb political games. I had thought much of the Reform party purpose was still alive in him, but with the latest stuff I wonder.

Reform was about reshaping politics in Canada, about dropping the old and tired games played by the Liberals and the PCs. I have been disappointed at how little of the Reform party ethos has survived into the Conservatives. The merger of the two parties has effectively been a reassertion of dominance by the central Canadian PC types over all else in Canada.

I understand the limitations Harper has to work within in the parliament, but still it bothers me how much the government has been willing to increase government spending. The last several years should have a much stronger focus on downsizing the federal government, instead we have seen an expansion of government.

In the next election I will be voting for the Conservatives. One major reason is that the candidate for the Conservatives in Victoria is by far the best candidate running - though that could be changed if Ariel Lade were to run federally again. I also will vote Conservative because they are the national party with the best change to increase democracy in Canada. They have changed the Senate by making the appointments based on elections. They have also committed to making representation in ridings a little bit fairer. I would like to see them support the idea of strict +- 25% population in all ridings in Canada, the only exception being the north.

I will also vote for the Conservatives because Stephen Harper is by far the best prime minister we have seen in Canada in at least a generation. I have not thought about it, but I am hard pressed to think of someone that has been a better PM than he has in all Canadian history. I just wish he would trust traditional economic liberalism a bit more and not pander has he has had to do.

The federal Liberals are still way too much the party of elites that believe they know better than the people of the country how things should be done - that horrible Trudeau attitude.

The federal NDP is still in the economic wilderness and has not learned from the various left wing parties in Australia, New Zealand and the UK that the economic ideas failed and the market and privatization has to be promoted.