Canada Election 2011: Who is this man called Stephen Harper!

The Liberals have finally done it.  They’ve now acknowledged that perhaps, at some points in the past, Mr. Harper has said some things that aren’t entirely flattering….and they’ve posted it on the Liberal website located here.  The quotes are sourced from a 500 page binder and includes issues that were discussed by Mr. Harper back to when he first appeared on the public scene in 1980.  According to a Liberal Party spokesperson, they are "…extremely confident that this is a document that was prepared by the Harper Conservatives in order to highlight all the vulnerabilities of their leader.”

 

I’ve selected a few of the gems, screen captured from the website documents.

 

Here are several regarding Mr. Harper’s stand on Canada’s health care system and how he would provide a multi-tiered system.  Note the date at the top of the quotation, followed by the quote and its context and the source of the quote:

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what Mr. Harper had to say about the bill that proposed gun registry.  Note that he supported "…some of the philosophy (sic) behind the gun bill" at the time:

 

Here’s what Mr. Harper thought about MPs voting in accordance with the wishes of their constituents rather than along Party lines.  Apparently, his need to control his MPs is a recent change in his approach to Parliament:

 

Mr. Harper is at the very least consistent in his view of corporate tax cuts despite the fact that the relationship between lower corporate taxes and increased employment is far from conclusive:

 

 

 

This sort of information is long overdue.  We’ve been reminded for the past several months of things that Mr. Ignatieff said over the past decade about his relationship with Canada, the possibility of his return to Harvard and his yearning for higher taxes among other things on those annoying Conservative Party television commercials.  What has been lacking is balance; the Liberals under Mr. Ignatieff seem to want to fight a "gentleman’s battle", fighting with polite bantering rather than the verbal nuclear weapons that they needed to use months ago.

 

What has been surprising is the lack of balance in Canada’s media throughout the electoral process.  As I’ve demonstrated, some of the things that Mr. Harper has said in the past are, to say the least, rather shocking, but the mainstream media seems to quickly lose focus on his past stance on issues leaving Mr. Harper stand as the teflon Prime Minister.  As voters, it is up to us to hold all of the leaders of the major political parties responsible for what they have said in the past as it is representative of their true character, especially when they were said without the benefit of either talking points or the aid of political handlers.  We need to know what their real stand on issues is before we pick up that stubby pencil and mark an "X" beside the name of someone whose leader’s stance on issues varies with the direction of the wind.

Click HERE to read more of Glen Asher’s columns.

Article viewed at: Oye! Times at www.oyetimes.com