I completely disagree with the gov’t actions regarding the budget, but that’s my opinion and the right of centre has been over that a hundred times. Having said that, one of the arguments the pro-budget forces use is, what would it have been like under boots of the coup leaders?
I’m fairly certain they wouldn’t have been this good:
Transcript at Macleans.
Cheers,
lance
Why does the Tory braintrust insist in “packaging” Harper during election campaigns.
This is the Harper that Canadians will respond to, and we don’t see him enough.
Lorraine – glad to hear about the nice reception in Europe. I’ve heard such great things about Laureen Harper from people who know her. I’ve heard great things about Stephen Harper from his in-laws (always a nice thing to hear!)
To me, Harper is someone who talent agents wouldn’t sign up to star in a movie, but he’s the type of guy that would return my wallet if I dropped it in the street.
Also – glad to hear about the in person charisma!
firstly let us vote in a majority government for PMSH and then, to quote a former PM, ‘you won’t recognize Canada (after the necessary changes will have been made).”
ditto Gordoo Campbell….there’s a provincial election in the offing and in Lotus Land we can never count out the moonbats(they are legion!)electing the Commies….for that reason the budget is of the sober unarguable variety and naturellement without a mention of the goofy carbon tax….that goofy never to be implemented tax gives Gordoo some street creds with the undecided lllieberal voters…
Lorraine….
i agree…i met PMSH just before the last election….and he certainly does radiate integrity and forthrightness….we are very fortunate indeed to have him as PM during these troubled times…IMO he hasn’t put a foot wrong when dealing with every issue confronting the nation.
i’m starting to believe it may be possible to repair the ravages and rapine of the lllieberal party…
My take is that Obama may leave Ottawa thankful that he has a neigbouring Prime Miinister who has his feet firmly on the ground.
Harper is just the kind of guy with the right kind of background to take Canada through the challenges of the time.
This economic stuff will pass in about three-four years.
Canada will emerge as an internationally-respected economic manager, the US will be strong because ‘We The People’ will re-balance congress in favour of representatives and senators who will respect taxpayers’ money more and the European Union will continue to be an economic basket case for decades to come.
Batb: “In a PM, I want gravitas, someone who can think fast on their feet, someone who’s not either a showboat or a show-off, someone who doesn’t play at politics but treats it seriously — and the taxpayers of their country with respect, someone who doesn’t muddy the waters by fraternizing with members of the MSM, someone who doesn’t use their position to feather their nest and those of their cronies, friends, and family.”
This is such a good description of why I really like Harper. He is a straight shooter, and we are lucky to have him as PM.
As we speak, Paul Wells and Glen Weston are on CTV with Wells displaying the restrained Canadian version of the Obama tingle, while Weston gives Obama the full Monica. According to Weston, Iggy been advising the White House and it’s residents for 30 years. Maybe someone should advise him to change it to 10 Downing.
After 2 elections this year, with the inclusion of Obama, all I can say is: don’t let your children grow up to be journalists.
Greg Weston?
thanks rutin for setting the Texas Canuck straight.
john begley…I’m afraid that that’s too huge a task for any mortal.
An excellent interview by the PM. Certainly, coming from an economic background, one expects him to talk at ease about such things. I presume his knowledge and straightforward talk will impress President Obama.
“… the European Union will continue to be an economic basket case for decades to come.”
Posted by: set you free
A good analogy for the EU is that of already going thru the motions of flushing…think just barely holding onto the rim as the torrent of water slowly sucks it’s socialistic dregs into the vortex!…meanwhile above,certain factions are taking turns using that toilet before slamming the lid down.
The Globe’s slobbering in it’s roundtable discussion of dorks and spinners that, “Iggy has friends advising the Owe”.
I’m with h’ryan on this one, and further, I am proud, for the first time in my 47 year life of my Prime Minister.
I miss Dubya.
I’m sure it’s something in the Canadian psyche, a form of inferiorty complex, that we can only recognize what a great economic manager Harper is when he appears on CNN.
The stuff he told Wolf is no different than the stuff he’s been saying here of months.
Blitzer conducted a civilized debate and Harper handled the tough questions well.
What a refreshing change from the howling jackals of our MSM.
Erk/k stricker:
How about ‘yes… the bridge is on fire.’
I saw this interview last night. What a refreshing change!We get to see our intelligent Prime Minister answer questions.
And I’m tuning out of Obamacult newscoverage today.It’s not so much an anti-Obama feeling, it’s just too embarrassing watching those so-called journalists.Waiting to hear their ‘opinion’ of the CNN interview of PMSH.
Waiting.
There’s one little point that some of you may have picked up on during the Mansbridge interview with Obama a couple of days back.
When Mansbridge asked about the ‘dirty oil,’ Obama stated the US was the Saudi Arabia of coal.
Most of the electricity generation in the US is from coal-fired plants (52% I believe, correct me if I’m wrong).
Coal, far as I know, emits much more carbon than does oil.
Obama was clever enough to not be caught in the hypocricy of criticizing Fort McMurray, then leaving himself open to questions about coal.
Not that Mansbridge would have been smart enough to pick up on that point.
That doesn’t stop the enviro-nuts here, though.
Wow, mass swarming of Harperbots, guess you guys don’t have CHRC lawsuits pending for speaking your minds in public.
I’ve been proud of PMSH ever since he was elected as PM in 2006 and it is an absolute shame that this fine man isn’t getting a majority government to carry this country forward.
Something that the jackals of the MSM have for the most part all but ignored is the volunteer work that Laureen Harper does on behalf of breast cancer. In any other free nation of the world she would be treated as the true star she is. I wish the MSM would soon wake up to the fact that both Stephen and Laureen Harper are everything a leader and his wife should be.
Did you all know that Alberta’s oil sands emits about 1/10 of 1% of North America’s energy related greenhouse gases?
And, that coal mining and coal fired electricty generating plants emits about 60% of North America’s greenhouse gases.
But, for environmentalists attacking Alberta is just the symbolism of going for the low hanging fruits – in other words it is so much easier than taking on every single province and state.
Listening to the CBC news (I listen to the classical music), I’ve been disgusted by the ga-ga behaviour surrounding everything to do with the Obamessiah. Here’s what I’ve just written to the CBC:
CBC’s gushing, banal coverage of President Obama’s visit to Ottawa is embarrassing in the extreme: how adolescent and unprofessional can you get? (Par for the course for the “inclusive” CBC, which most definitely excludes me.)
On the other hand, we have Canada’s (Canadian content?) mature and well spoken PM Stephen Harper on CNN, proving himself to be the true statesman he is.
Smarten up, CBC. You want to showcase a real leader? He’s in your own backyard. His name is Stephen Harper. Unlike the Charlie McCarthy-like Mr. Obama, who needs his handlers and a teleprompter to sound competent, Stephen Harper’s his own, accomplished man. (Canada’s too, though CBC makes a point of overlooking it.)
CBC’s brazen groupie behaviour over Obama—do you have a little blue dress in your closet?—is unworthy of what is supposed to be a professional news provider (a function at which the CBC has failed miserably for the past few decades).
The biased and fawning Obama coverage the Canadian public has been force fed by CBC is also completely hypocritical: all of a sudden, the CBC’s extreme and craven anti-Americanism has turned into the most abject hero-worship. It’s like deciding to marry someone after the first date: you hardly know Obama as the President and you’ve made a flash decision that he’s wonderful. E.g., Was George Bush threatening protectionism? Obama is and the CBC thinks he’s just the bee’s knees. (More like the Gingerbread Man’s fox, I’d say.)
No wonder your ratings are in the basement.
If you want to see real statesmanship and a man sure of himself and the direction of his country, I suggest that CBC check out the CNN interview with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. If there were such coverage on CBC, I’d start watching again. (Well, I can have hope for change, can’t I?)
Harper is listed at 6’2. Obama at 6’1. Yet Obama looks taller. Liftees?
First of all, agreeing to stimulate the economy doesn’t mean going into deficit. Jumping off the bridge with everyone else is a choice “we’ve” made. As the PM stated many times during the election, the government has been actively stimulating the economy for the last two years with tax cuts and other measures. Too bad 60% of Canadians were not listening at the time.
Fortunately the Conservatives and the Liberals before them had been paying off debt giving us flexibility today. If there are any lessons we can take from this “crisis”, it’s that paying off debt is the best way to protect ourselves in the future.
(OT, but, speaking of Maclean’s–end of our Western Standard subscription–which we’d cancelled because Mark Steyn had disappeared from its pages: HE’S BACK! Just today. We’ve renewed our subscription–only as long as Mark’s on board.)
Too bad the real Harper is a childish, cowardly, petulant little partisan hack, and not the dignified, forceful and statesman he presented to CNN in this interview.
Good thing for us he put on his adult face in this, one of his few exposures to the outside world. Sucks that we here at home get the full monty when it comes to this clown, but c’est la vie. At least the real power brokers got a look at Harper at his best. Imagine if they reviewed the press clippings from the past few years…ouch.
All I can say is “oh, puke.”
Michael Ignatieff has just been interviewed by Don Newman on his BROOOOOOODCAST.
What an insider job. Sure, says, Ignatieff, I’ll talk to the CBC on Don’s program the minute I’ve met with Obama and make sure to mention that I discussed “our problem with the Harper Government.”
What an ass…e. Count Iggy is such a grandstander … “as a Canadian politician … I’ll use my contacts in Washington if I think they’ll help …” His “contacts” in Canada are the only thing that got Iggy his Liberal seat and then the “leadership.”
The Iggster is a silver-spoon-in-mouth poseur. He’s an imposter; he’s a cuckoo … the bird known as a “a brood parasite” because it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds.
A “Canadian politician” who’s spent 30 years outside of Canada and is parachuted into a Liberal riding, displacing two legitimate candidates who actually live in the riding, perhaps deserves the appellation “politician” but not “decent human being” or “principled statesman.”
The unholy alliance between the CBC and the Librano$ continues apace, and Count Iggy is counting on it to grease the machine to his prime ministership.
I hope this particular ship sinks.
I don’t believe that we can cut Harper any further slack, everyone who is pleased with him from this point on is essentially saying to people like your own host here and various other conservative targets of the Section 13 lawfare campaign, “we don’t care, we just want tax cuts.”
The best thing I can say for Harper is that he’s a glass half full compared to the Liberals. But that’s probably pushing it, perhaps a glass one-third full.
He has failed to speak out or act against two key items of the globalist p.c. agenda, first on free speech issues, secondly on the climate change fraud that continues despite obvious signs that the fraud is extensive, and as well, he has failed to act on widespread concerns about abortion, same sex marriage, and pandering to Quebec.
But if you want to pay 2 cents less on your daily double double, then he’s your man.
did you form your opinions of Harper during your discussions with the man, kaplan?
Or do you watch CBC and read the red star for your information/indoctrination? Press clippings indeed.
Journalists in Iraq throw shoes. Here they lick them.
Oh yah, our banking system is so much better. Funny how Harper skates around the $125 billion bailout he gave them.
peter o’donnell – what are you talking about?
Abortion? Harper has said that the issue won’t be taken up in parliament. The Canadian people are divided on this, and parliament can’t move in as a totalitarian Will.
Climate change? Harper has rejected Kyotoism, and has focused on Clean Water and reducing pollution.
Same sex marriage? Hardly an issue. Pandering to Quebec? Quebec has set itself up in a dead end role and the new House seat allotments will reduce its political power in Canada.
As for free speech, that’s being dealt with from the ground up, to prevent the Liberals and NDP from grabbing it as a political hot wire.
Now, with regard to our MSM, it’s disgraceful how they’ve treated Harper. Nothing about his CNN interview. The CTV/CBC reports of Obama the Messiah’s visit have been drooling, fawning and frankly, disgusting. They’ve had private interviews with Ignatieff, who had himself televised in a prime ministerial setting (against Canadian/US flags) and pontificated on and on about the things he and Obama had talked about…including ‘shared friends’..and how Obama told him he’d read his books (yeah, sure)..
Then, there was Bob Rae, politiking for the Islamic vote with his referrals to Khadr.
Harper? Nothing. They only showed Harper when he was with Obama. Said next to nothing about Harper.
That’s our MSM.
Oh, and drooling that Obama said that he ‘loves Canada’. WHAT? How can anyone love a country that you’ve never, ever, never, been to? Not once. Not for one minute. Yet we Canadians adore him for saying such a vapid, empty declaration. Is that the type of ‘love’ Canadians long for? Sophistry? From someone who wasn’t even sure of the name of our capital city? From someone who has never been here?
Harper looked pretty good. Which just means he can BS with the best of them.
He sure represented Canada decently & with a shine. I kept thinking how mortified I would have been if Dion was the PM. The World would have thought us baboons.
The big star struck groupie prize though, goes to Taliban Jack. What an embarrassment.
IGGY tried to look like he meant something special, but like the wall flower keep getting rebuffed.
All in all, I am pleased on how the PM handled things.
JMO
biggest story of the day!!!!!!!
CBCpravda All Lieberal all the time
CBCpravda all khadr all the time
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/02/19/ignatieff-obama.html
somebody needs to photoshop Iggy kissing the Obamessiahs feet.
Thanks, ET. I started a response to Peter O’Donnell, but ran out of steam … one sentence in. I thought, OMG, if I have to spell it out, that’s more energy than I’ve got.
The disgusting, sycophantic, adolescent adulation by the Canadian MSM of President Obama is appalling. As I’ve posted elsewhere, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s political success and experience, despite untold opposition, is by far the most compelling model of effective leadership when compared to the “leadership” of Mr. Obama.
The Obamessiah has got to where he is — the “pinnacle” of success, the U.S. Presidency — by being articulate, photogenic, Democrat, black, and the darling of the MSM. That’s it. Even some of his most ardent admirers in the U.S. are less than impressed by his lack-lustre performance and are embarrassed by his lack of experience.
I was part of BEATLEMANIA when the Fab Four first came to Toronto and performed at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964. BUT I WAS A TEENAGER AND THESE GUYS WERE ROCK STARS!!
It’s galling to see fully grown — but, obviously, not grown up — journalists throwing themselves at Obama on his seven-hour foray into Canada.
Image does NOT trump experience. CBC, CTV, Global, and all you other lib-left MSM patsies, get that through your pointed little heads.
Obama sells.
I hope it’s just that the MSM is just trying to cash in.
If the MSM has seriously fallen for O here in Canada too, I give up.
If there are any lessons we can take from this “crisis”, it’s that paying off debt is the best way to protect ourselves in the future.
Posted by: Indiana Homez at February 19, 2009 2:42 PM
Amen to that.
Farmer Joe, are you dumb, stupid or just playing it? The gov’t _bought_ solid mortgages. Smartest thing they could do in a credit freeze. I know, I jumped a couple of logic steps there so let me spell it out slowly for you:
1. Banks lend money for mortgages. Depending on the securities involved in the mortgage this will generally decrease the banks capital ratio. The minumum capital ratio is mandated by Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. Think of the capital ratio as a percentage of dollars in the bank vs. the dollars lent out. Not quite but close enough.
2. Banks in Canada are conservative, I’ve heard the ratio was around 18%, although the only number I could find was 15.2% from 2002. http://www.fin.gc.ca/toc/2002/bank_-eng.asp
3. In a credit freeze no one lends money.
4. The gov’t bought up the mortgages that our conservative banks had already approved.
5. That increased the capital ratios and allowed them to lend money again within the same safe guidelines they have always used in Canada.
Did you get that? Maybe read it again if you’re having trouble with the big words.
I _hate_ the budget. IMO, the gov’t should have cut 85B in spending to pay for their 85B in spending. There’s no way I’m going to criticize them for doing a smart investment though.
Repeat after me, “Canada does not have a real-estate problem.”
I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the Gov’t comes out with a big plus from the interest if they’re taking it.
Anyone catch Ignatieff’s interview on CTV Newsnet? His outrageous comments have gone under the radar thus far. On Afghanistan: “Our troops don’t know what they’re doing”, he said.
Shameful! Can’t believe that no one has caught this and demand he apologize.
Great interview. PMSH and the CPC is why this country is in such good shape today. It made me proud to watch him, I wish he’d do it more often. Lorraine you’re right about his eyes they are very very nice.
jon – that kind of stuff drives me crazy.
The right can do no right, the mistakes of the left are not reported.
Bah
Check out all the glib responses on the part of Obama — Wolf makes them out to be these amazing comments, they are substanceless jargon and innuendo.
It’s pretty sad what passes for a president in the US these days.
Kelly: “if you haven’t got the income or the savings, there’s no way in hell your getting a house” Yes, well, why should someone with no income or savings get a house. Is owning your own home suddenly a human right?
Lance, if the mortgages were so great the banks would have kept them for themselves. Stick it in your ear, it was another bailout.
Farmer Joe – these mortgages are all CMHC insured mortgages, the government was on the hook for any defaults anyway. Just now, they get to keep the interest and hedge any bets against the bad mortgages. Also, the banks were/are not in trouble in this country – this just allowed them some liquidity in a time when global banks were tightened their lending terms.
To me, it is nothing short of brilliant.
Excellent retort, Farmer, demonstrating your complete lack of understanding of the topic at hand.
Let me ask you this: if the government turns a profit on this mortgage portfolio, as is likely, would you still classify it as a ‘bailout’?
I assure you, the banks would have preferred to keep the mortgage assets on the balance sheet, because they are quality, CMHC-insured mortgages. However, since inter-bank lending ground to a halt in September (due to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, et. al.), banks in Canada were having difficulty securing capital from the usual sources.
If and when the credit markets normalize, which isn’t likely any time soon so long as the US banking system remains in complete shambles, the Canadian banks will happily buy these mortgages back.
So please, with due respect, please educate yourself on the topic at hand before making an ignoramus of yourself with uninformed comments.
First post got caught in the spam filter, so apologies if double posted.
———————
Excellent retort, Farmer, demonstrating your complete lack of understanding of the topic at hand.
Let me ask you this: if the government turns a profit on this mortgage portfolio, as is likely, would you still classify it as a ‘bailout’?
I assure you, the banks would have preferred to keep the mortgage loans on the balance sheet, because they are quality, CMHC-insured mortgages. However, since inter-bank lending ground to a halt in September (due to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, et. al.), banks in Canada were having difficulty securing capital from the usual sources.
If and when the credit markets normalize, which isn’t likely any time soon so long as the US banking system remains in complete shambles, the Canadian banks will happily buy these mortgages back.
So please, with due respect, please educate yourself on the topic at hand before making uninformed comments.
Peter O’Donnell said,
“Wow, mass swarming of Harperbots, guess you guys don’t have CHRC lawsuits pending for speaking your minds in public.”
No, we don’t but then only those avid Stephen Harper haters where you and your ‘associates’ dwell brought all of the suits against themselves, including the private lawsuit of which you seem to be a party to because of the ‘company’ you keep, hmm?
I too have met and had the pleasure of speaking with my Prime Minister and his wife, Laureen in France and Mr. O’Donnell, they made me proud to again say, — I AM A CANADIAN —
To whine that Mr. Harper is to blame for the lawsuits against you and your ‘associates’ for – what again? — bigotry, vulgarity, slander, threats et al. is pathetic really.
A little bit of advice for you Mr. O’Donnell. Since you nor your ‘associates’ seem to understand that the blame lies with your group and since neither Jack Layton nor Ignatieff believe any blame should be accorded them for the fact it is the Liberals/NDP and the Liberal Senate who enacted the said S.13.1 then may I suggest you and your group place the blame for your well deserved misfortunes where it rightfully lies and take it up with the Liberal/NDP poobahs.
Thank-you, Lance, for posting this video of PMSH on CNN. Do you have a link for Part II? I could not find it at the CNN website. Like all of you above, I was very proud of our Prime Minister, I was not at all surprised that he made me proud; I have always been proud of PMSH. He is a tall man (literally and figuratively) and he speaks like an adult man. Canadian msm likes androgynous leaders; why, I don’t know; maybe they are afraid of people so different from themselves.
The Canadian msm and the unelected leader of the opposition were a national embarrassment today. Pathetic hardly suffices to describe the juvenile gushing and gooing over the President of USA. You would have thought Kieth Richards was in town and some over the hill old hippies were doing a broadcast. They turned an official visit into a charade, IMO.
Like you soccarmom, I miss Dubya.
“Wow, Harper without a teleprompter is at least as good as Zero with one. Like buttah, baby.
Posted by: Sean at February 19, 2009 3:59 AM”
Today as I watched Harper field questions from the press, I was thinking how ARTICULATE and INTELLIGENT he is, off the cuff.
Had the coalition been successful in its leaders’ attempt to grab power, DION would have been meeting with Pres.Obama today.
Can you imagine? What an embarrassment THAT would have been!
I was really proud of Prime Minister Harper today. Except for the obligatory French, which obviously surprised some of the American press…LOL…Harper did a truly excellent job.
“Farmer Joe – these mortgages are all CMHC insured mortgages, the government was on the hook for any defaults anyway. Just now, they get to keep the interest and hedge any bets against the bad mortgages. Also, the banks were/are not in trouble in this country – this just allowed them some liquidity in a time when global banks were tightened their lending terms.
To me, it is nothing short of brilliant.”
Translation- When my guy gives a bailout it’s brilliant, when the other guy does it’s a boondoggle.
after his meeting with the Pres. Ignatieff tells the reporter that “He has read some of my books” He is nothing but a fool, an arrogant one.