Remember how I fangirled over Harper when he won?
It really did look like that he'll be a hell of a leader then, well, here comes the SUCK. Starting with the people he picked for the cabinet, now we have Mike Harris's finance minister and Mike Harris's health minister up there, SUCK! Wasn't Ontario's books in the reds when it was handed over to the Liberals when the Tories left?
2006-02-06: ( Read more... )
2006-02-06: ( Read more... )
Remember Nixon? Remember the question his opponents raised during an election: Would you buy a used car from this man?
Are we in the same territory now with Stephen Harper, the policy wonk with broken promises in his first day of becoming Prime Minister?
Harper’s Achilles heel over the past two elections has been the question of trust. Many voters examined his views, going back several years, and came to the conclusion that this leopard had not changed his spots. And when he tried in the latest election to sidestep the issue of his beliefs, by simply saying he had “evolved” but his fundamental philosophy was unchanged, may voters were stopped in their tracks. Had he changed? Can this man be trusted?
Then he ran an election campaign designed to focus more on the Liberal’s record - perfectly justifiable - than on his party’s platform. A tightly controlled election that even had some rightwing candidates hiding in kitchens to avoid interviews with the press about their social beliefs. And a leader who avoided questions, sidestepped some, ignored others.
The pattern of avoidance, selective discussion, and ignoring of legitimate questions by the fourth estate, raised yet more concern among many voters: Can this man be trusted?
Now, his cabinet, with surprising choices in at least two cases, and omissions in other areas. A Liberal is elected and immediately joins Harper when Harper asks him to leave the party that elected him and join the minority Tories, now in need of more votes in Parliament. Doug Beazley of the Edmonton Sun puts it in context:
“But political scientist David Taras of the University of Calgary warns Harper is risking the wrath of the backbench. "Two weeks ago, Emerson was saying the Harper Conservatives were heartless. Now they've got to work with them. How can they trust him?" he said. “
But it not just whether the Tories can trust Turncoat Emerson, but whether Harper kept the faith with voters, and honoured promises made during the election. So once more voters are asking: Can this man be trusted?
And Harper’s response to the justifiable outbursts - by Tories and others - simply underscores the concern. To brush the criticism aside as simply being “superficial”, implies the voters who now feel dismayed by the Harper actions, are not capable of forming rational judgments and should leave it to Big Daddy Harper to make those decisions for them.
So the question lingers in voters minds: Can this man be trusted?
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