Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Merits of the Throne Speech

Lost in the election speculation is just how bad the throne speech was. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/10/16/4581279-cp.html
There is hardly any proposal worth supporting. The Crime package: The mandatory minimums, for example, might appeal to Joe and Jane law and order and might be good politics, but they are disastrous stupid policy. The same can be said about the Conservatives environmental policies. The Conservatives intensity emissions based plan is a joke and the fact that the Conservatives are right to point out that Canada has no hope of meeting its Kyoto targets should not warrent the free pass the media is giving them on the subject. I can not think of single columnist or reporter that pointed out the obvious flaws of such an policy. That is not the only the thing media has given the Stephen Harper a pass on. Indeed, is the media so mesmerized by Stephen Harper’s tactical acumen that they let the Conservatives get repeatedly get away with ridiculous stupid talking points? For instance:

“Families now have real choice in child care through the Universal Child Care Benefit.”

Repeat after me; $100 a month is not a childcare plan. It is a redo of the family allowance, that Brain Mulroney, much to Stephen Harper’s delight, scrapped in the 1993. Harper, it should be noted, was against his “childcare” plan before he was for it. Stephen Harper: “Universality has been severely reduced: It is virtually dead as a concept in most areas of public policy. The family allowance program has been eliminated and unemployment insurance has been seriously cut back." http://www.canadians.org/wordwarriors/2006/jan-10.html He “flipped flopped”.

2 comments:

burlivespipe said...

Bang-on with your childcare observation. Doesn't it really gnaw you that the media seems to tip toe around Harper as though he's after their lunch money?
That he's surrounded by a talentless, charmless group of thugs and potted ferns makes it even more demoralizing.
You'd think after witnessing how the US press acquiesced and enabled the worst president in history to get into the White House that our press would try to avoid this kind of 'sleepwalking.'

Borges said...

You don't need childcare, working families of Canada, what you need is a stipend that doesn't come close to paying for the cost lof childcare.