Canadian right-wingers reported themselves shocked after a Thursday-night speech by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in which he evidently told his libertarian allies to shut up or get out of his way.
Writing in The Shotgun, a prominent conservative blog, Mike Brock seemed stunned by Harper's comments:
Over the next twenty minutes or so, we would be treated to one of the most bewildering speeches I’ve ever heard Stephen Harper give. After launching into a sweeping defence of conservatism he would direct his attention towards classical liberals and libertarians who he acknowledged, some of whom were in the very room he was speaking.
The treatment to classical liberals and libertarians--of which I consider myself--was nothing short of stunning. The condescension was literally dripping from his mouth. Was this his response to the disillusionment that libertarians across the country have had to his government and its policies of late? If it was, it did not build any bridges. Rather, it burnt them right down.
Harper made clear that the free market was not a solution to this problem, pointing to Wall Street and comparing libertarian positions on deregulation as analogous to the position of Wall Street bankers, who abused a deregulated market, then turned around and asked the government for help, taking no personal responsibility for their actions.
...The speech also contained a definition of what conservatism is. In his words it is made up of the “three Fs: freedom, family and faith”--a definition which might leave some libertarians feeling even more uncomfortable with its social conservative undertones.
In another Shotgun post, Kalim Kassam quoted at length from a National Post report on Harper's speech, noting that "Harper left no doubt about his belief in the necessity of government intervention in the economy."
And a third Shotgunner, Janet Neilson, found Harper's statement "insulting to libertarians..."
The speech that triggered all this libertarian alarm was reported Thursday in the National Post. Another report on it is available at the Globe and Mail.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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Dan the socialist
3 years ago
Harper is all over the map,
Harper is all over the map, he is doing whatever it takes to remain in power, that is all he wants, even if it means compromising his platform, goals, beliefs and agenda.
Yeoman
3 years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp35M_jkkhY
morechatter
3 years ago
A Free for All?
Harper says: the Free Market is not the soloution to this problem? Picture this: homeowner enters the free market and buys a home with a mortage loan, thanks to investors from all over the globe? And they all came tumbling down.....its Tumble Down Economics Its where you end up with the empty bucket and a bruised knee and no way home. Or maybe he said this: This little piggy went to Washington, and this little piggy...
Rod Smelser
3 years ago
ALIGNMENT OF BELIEFS AND ACTIONS
Perhaps Harper, having been forced into a stimulative deficit by Jack Layton and the threat of a coalition uprising, has decided that he has to get some solid sleep at night and the way to do that is to bring his beliefs into alignment with his actions. Given the numbers in the House of Commons it's a smaller task to change his philosophy than to follow it forward.
So, Jack Layton's remark that Harper had introduced a budget and policies he doesn't even believe in may have to be modified. Perhaps it was true at the time, but as this self-imposed conversion takes hold, it may need to be changed. How about, "The Prime Minister is pursuing policies he once abhored but now believes in, for now, till he can get a majority."
morechatter
3 years ago
Its Hard to Believe
Because there is very little in the stimulus package that resembles Layton's philosophies. Or maybe its the way they are dressed up and if thats what the Prime Minister is after he sure has a strange way of doing things as his party slips in the polls.
morechatter
3 years ago
A Look back
on how we got here, the business press assumes an omniscience approach to telling the news, as in the regulatory disregard under Alan Greenspan: "Had officials bothered to look, frightening clues of the coming crisis were available." says the Times as the proof was there thanks to North Carolina Center for Responsible Lending and had all the infomation available thanks to the endless efforts of the organization but no one was looking? Not even the Media.
North of Hope
3 years ago
another angle
There is another angle on, I believe, the same speech here.
[url]http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/602320[url]
I'm not sure if the angle is more obtuse or a right one.
RickW
3 years ago
Stephen "Hokey Pokey" Harper?
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/hokey.htm