Saturday, April 12, 2008

Harper: "Hugo Chavez of the North"

My friend Pierre Lemieux has a great commentary on Prime Minister Harper's plans to impose tough new safety recall regulations.

Calling Harper the "Hugo Chavez of the North", (I wish I had thought of that) Lemieux rightly notes "that consumer protection policies have perverse consequences that make the Welfare State even more in demand. The more people believe that the state protects them against everything, the more gullible they become and the more they need their Nanny."

And Lemieux also puts his finger on a point everybody else seems to be missing. Harper's recall legislation excludes foods and cosmetics “manufactured in Canada solely for the purpose of being exported”.

As Lemieux quips: "Let the bad Canadian capitalists kill foreigners!"

I wonder what other new state powers Hugo Harper will have in store for us should he win a majority?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am surprised the MDA sale blocking isn't a part of this post. What a bonehead move on part of the well-coiffed airhead, Jim Prentice!

Robert McClelland said...

I've been making the comparison between Harper and Chavez (scroll down to the 'Separated at birth' item) for almost a year now.

Anonymous said...

You anti Harper folks are simply pathetic. You will say or do anything just to show you vain and vile dislike against the man, and who ever aligns with him. So if the government did not do anything, they will be pillored as selling off Canada and in cohoots with big business (this will be the typical Robert angle), and now by taking this action, PM Harper and the government is guilty of nationalizing Canadian industries and the economy , i.e. your comparison to the socialist Chavez (cue in Gerry and his anti-Harper gang). So the Conservative govt is damned if they act and damned if not, so I say choosing to act to protect vital Canadian knowledgebase, intellectual property, and technologies are just fine to ordinary voting Canadians like me. Shove your rhetoric to where the sun never shine, cause quite frankly that (and probably you folks) belong anyway !!! Gerry, you deserve Robert Mcclelland's company, since you share the same hatred and rhetoric anyway. Enjoy your bed together ....

Anonymous said...

"Hugo Chavez of the North".....great line, love it!

However, it's really the poignant, pathetic truth. Us genuine small-c fiscal and social conservatives in the Reform and Alliance Parties actually thought we were electing a legitimate conservative. What fools we have been!

This week, in effect, nationalization of the space industry is just one more indication that the age of Trudeauism is back. How long before Comrades Harper and Prentice nationalize an oil company?

Harper has proven to be just another ambitious, left-wing politician who is a spendoholic and big government advocate.

Any principled ex Reform and/or Alliance member should stay at home next election day. We should hope to loose the election and then elect a genuine conservative leader at the following leadership convention.

Anonymous said...

I am very disappointed in the direction Harper has taken since becoming Prime Minister. It's not Nicholl's fault if there is very little to give Harper praise for when this government has abolished fiscal conservatism and has embraced the nanny state. Perhaps Harperites should ask their leader where he going with this and why? Or perhaps it's time for all of us to find a new leader.

Anonymous said...

"Or perhaps it's time for all of us to find a new leader."

But who? Bernard Lord? Peter Mackay? It's not like the Tory bench is as deep as the liberals.

Anonymous said...

There is definitely no question that the contemporary left-launching Conservative Party needs a genuine small-c fiscal and social conservative leader.

Harper has been a disgrace and a humiliation to conservatism who unquestionably is not a fiscal or social conservative. He is nothing but another ambitious, un-principled political leader willing to sell his soul for a title. He is eager to spend us into a soon to come deficit, to increase the size of government, to intensify regulations and to treat Cuba as a legitimate country rather than the terrorists country it is. Harper interfered in the free market place this week by, in effect nationalizing the space industry. Is a Trudeau like nationalism of the oil industry next? If it was up to extremist Prentice the answer would definitely be yes. Harper has also been unwilling to take any steps to impede the continuously slaughter of babies, or to protect marriage.

All ex Reform and Alliance members should be demanding a leadership convention. As far as the future leader, I would look forward to calling a leadership race and then listening to the policy proposals that each candidate proposed. Hopefully this time we can get it right, and elect a non-disingenuous , legitimate small-c, fiscal and social leader who actually has some principles and is willing to live with them.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 1:36 PM asked:

"Or perhaps it's time for all of us to find a new leader."

How about Gerry Nicholls? All he needs is a party and a platform.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather have the CPC, blemishes and all, than Liberal statism any day. But the way Conservatives tend to disown the party whenever it doesn't satisfy their own particular flavour of conservatism suggests that we'll be seeing Liberal statism again in the very near future. And this time I'm sure they won't make any mistakes. They'll surely redouble their efforts to completely Liberalize all Canadian institutions. That's far too big a price to pay for a party that's generally giving us pretty good government.

Cheers, johndoe124

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

I think most of the anonymous commenters are a little off base. Harper is still right wing by Canadian standards, the problem is that the Reform/Alliance only had support around 20% of the population, so you cannot be very right wing when most people aren't. Besides of the current Conservative leaders in other countries, cite me one that is unabashedly pro free-enterprise and I don't mean past ones like Thatcher or Reagan, I mean current ones. The reality is I cannot think of any. Also Harper did not nationalize the Space program, he simply blocked a foreign takeover, which other governments have done. Berlusconi who is centre-right promised to block the takeover by Air France-KLM of AlItalia if he won despite the fact such action would violate EU law. In the United States, the Republicans blocked the takeover of a port by a Dubai company and in France the centre-right UMP threatened to block a takeover of Danone (a yogourt company) by an American firm. In fact in most countries other than Canada, it is usually the right who is most nationalistic not the left.

As for products safety, I think people should be able to buy what they want, but I don't have a problem with requiring firms to say the potential dangers. An informed consumer should at least know what the dangers rather than be mislead. And I should note the changes will only bring Canada inline with the United States, they will not be tougher and they are still way more relaxed than the EU where over half of the governments at the moment are centre-right.

Anonymous said...

Miles:

Spoken like a true socialists. You guys have never seen market place interference that you didn't go nuts over. Also, for any Marxist Moron the more regulation the better. You and your fellow Comrades go nuts for spendoholic far-left politicians who want to de-industrialize us back to the dark ages.

Lunatics like Dion and Layton will be real happy with you, as will your heroes in Cuba!

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

All ex Reform and Alliance members should be demanding a leadership convention. As far as the future leader, I would look forward to calling a leadership race and then listening to the policy proposals that each candidate proposed. Hopefully this time we can get it right, and elect a non-disingenuous , legitimate small-c, fiscal and social leader who actually has some principles and is willing to live with them

I am not sure this would have made a difference in this case. After all it was Art Hanger who was an ex-Reform MP that pressured the government to most to block this sale. I should also note older people, those living in rural areas, and with lower levels of education are most likely to favour stricter foreign ownership rules, otherwise the people who the Reform Party did the best amongst. Many who are fiscally conservative are socially liberal, tolerant, and progressive on other issues so they won't vote for a party who has regressive views on those issues even if right wing economically.

Spoken like a true socialists. You guys have never seen market place interference that you didn't go nuts over. Also, for any Marxist Moron the more regulation the better. You and your fellow Comrades go nuts for spendoholic far-left politicians who want to de-industrialize us back to the dark ages.

What utter nonsense. I am generally supportive of the free market in most cases, I am just not an ideologue. The reality is asides from the Libertarian party who struggles to get above 1% or the communist party who also never gets over 1% few Canadians are either 100% pro-free market or 100% pro-state intervention. Most fall somewhere in between. I favour relaxing the foreign ownership rules for telecommuncations, ending the Wheat Board monopoly, ending the postal service monopoly, privatizing VIA rail, and eliminating supply management once the EU and the US scrap their agricultural subsidies. Hardly something you would see from a socialist. Being for less government intervention, doesn't mean no government intervention. I should also note that we live in a global market economy and you cannot get rid of protectionist measures unilaterally without taking a hit. If one wants to eliminate those, they need to ensure our trading partners do the same thing. Free trade only works if both sides allow imports tariff free, not one side. Likewise I support reciprocity when it comes to foreign ownership restrictions, meaning if you want to buy our firms, you must grant similiar access to Canadian firms. For example, this would allow British and German firms to buy Canadian telecommunications companies but not American and French as Germany and Britain allow Canadian companies to buy their telecommunication companies, but the United States and France do not. I fail to see how this is socialistic.

Anonymous said...

This post is a load of crap. Period. End of Story.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure what Mr. Nicholls thinks he is accomplishing by running a series of anti-Harper posts at a time when the CPC party has not looked stronger in its history since it was created.

Surely he is old enough to remember what things were like before the Reform and PCs merged.

Mr. Nicholls - you had some credibility with me as a party "elder statesman" of sorts, but I see now you are naught but a hack.

Disappointing.

zolton said...

Hey Nicolls, getting frustrated yet? Conservatives buy into the BS of what their corporate masters tell them. I really wish that the right would start using their brains a little more and not just buy into the Fascistic rhetoric so hastily.

Can't you not see how some of these people are not rational thinking individuals?
Just mouthpieces to a system!

Anonymous said...

Guess you know nothing about Hugo Chavez.

I'm beginning to realise Harper is a very smart man for distancing himself from you Nicholls.

This was a very foolish post.

Anonymous said...

Making sense? Harper the "Hugo Chavez of the North"????

What a bunch of effing retards....

Please - go back and finish that HS diploma - it's never too late...