Well that’s it then. That’s the apex of Canadian ‘conservatism’ brought to us by the partisan CPC drones. A 3.4% increase in spending. Good job guys you’ve destroyed Canada’s political right. But what are principles but barriers for The Tribe, right?
CBC’s 10% funding cut is a start, but we need MUCH more. Buy a bumper sticker and show your support! http://tinyurl.com/d8h3ldv
Considering they have a majority I would have expected a little (much) more in the way of cutbacks an spending reductions.
I am so glad that I stockpiled those pennies in that old Texas Mickey of C. C. I suspect that they will be collectors items in the 25th century. I’ll make out like a bandit then
They only cut 377 mil in foreign aid, and 10% of the CBC budget. Could that with increased welfare for the First Nations and I’m starting to think the National Socialist NDP party is in charge.
Over a billion in cuts to National Defence?
Did the NDP/ USSR alliance just infiltrate Canada?
I realize a humanitarian godsend like Harper needs to appease all Canadians, but we really couldn’t have that many totalitarian NDP freaks in Canada to appease.
I’m talking to everybody who supported the CPC despite they’re being fiscally left of the ’90s Liberals which is just about everybody here.
BTW the 10% CBC spending cut is over the next few years ie that is the most cutting we’ll ever see for the CBC.
I don’t know about people in the ROC but here in BC the feds are non existent other than the naval base in Esquimalt and the tax collectors in Surrey and Victoria. Other than that Ottawa could burn to the ground and no one here would notice. FIRE. THEM. ALL.
@Mike in Calgary
The CBC’s main priority is its news division, so even if you cut it by 50%, the first areas where it will trim will be in TV shows like Heartland, etc. Don’t expect the news team to be hurting.
$21 billion deficit?
Not good, not bad. Low enough so that the debt per GDP should drop.
And compared to the banana republic just to the south of us, bloody brilliant.
CBC news can’t possibly cost much to produce. They just make that sh*t up.
Mike in Calgary, thanks for the link but it’s not working for me.
Kevin,
great comment !
So, LAS, which party would do a better job than the CPC? (And I’m not really pleased with this budget either.)
I see welfare bum plow jockeys are still riding first class on the gravy train. I can hear spike and bartinsky popping the champagne corks as I type.
I am sure everyone will fall over each other expressing how much more rightwing the budget should be, but realistically this budget works just fine.
If Harper dropped a nuke of a budget, it would cause a Mike Harris situation and he’d never be trusted again and we’d get stuck with a PM Dalton after 2015.
Remember, the only reason this budget isn’t introducing a carbon tax and raising corporate tax and funding overseas abortions and gay pride parades and slapping registry fees on guns and starting Soviet daycare, and building windmills and shutting down the oil sands and paying out unions and giving kadhr a ticker tape parade………..
is because of Harper and his voters.
Got a better alternative LAS? Or are you just here to insult us?
What Jeff said.
Very true Jeff and also I guess we have to keep in mind that the program review was undertaken prior to the writ even being dropped. In other words, the budget was largely written / planned before the election.
Call me crazy, (and some do) but when you have to trot out the old at least we aren’t doing a carbon tax blahs blahs your just trying to look good by default.
Kinda like a gal who left her guy because he beat her nightly and then is thrilled that the new guy only beats on her once a month. The new guy is still an a$$.
Knight, thank you for your earlier comment. It echoes my thoughts very closely. In contrast to your wisdom was this comment by a troll named Alexandra on Sun News’ Facebook page:
“About a week or so ago I asked all you small “c” conservatives whether you felt Harper was moving his party towards the centre—in other words to the left. To my knowledge no one answered my question. Well, Jim Flaherty just delivered a red Tory budget so I ask you all again, is Harper leading his government toward the centre? How long before more long knives are sharpened?
This comment is just for you Scotty; a 10% cut to the CBC, over three years, hahaha…. The mothership will outlast your rage, you may as well put the torch and pitchfork back into your closet.”
Sadly, her mindset (and more deranged) is what will rule the narrative throughout the Media Party.
Jeff >
True – it will take years to unwind decades of Liberal abuse of power. We need to remember how long it took to crush the Liberal 2 billion dollar Long Gun Registry.
After this though, “Never Again”, the healing process is simply too painful.
Alternative: Libertarian. Or any party that doesn’t sully Canada’s right.
@Jeff: Oh noes! Not Mike Harris-an actually SUCCESSFULL Rightist. So much better we follow the MO of ‘victory by giving out opponents 90% of what they want’. Call it the Bill Davis way. Good thing the NDP never took power after he-oh wait. Nevermind. You guys just enjoy failure.
I would remind everyone that Trudeau moved Canada slowly, almost imperceptibly to the left. It was reported that he said that with a small change of course, the destination arrived at would not be the one everyone expected. So it is to unravel the mess that he began.
Way off topic – I think I have tomorrows headline for you:
A very highly placed bird told me that the poll to be made public tomorrow has the wildrose increasing its lead over the pcs from 41-31 to 41-29. The makings of a rout perhaps?
Whether you like it or not PM Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty still have to balance the fact that Ontario, the engine of Canada, is still so thick into the LIBeral goo that it will take a number of years to pull out of the nose dive.
Yes, Jim Flaherty could have chopped more, like a billion to the CBC, but letting the dollar rise relative to the US would certainly kill off any potential recovery on which the export sector still depends.
The unregulated derivative market is still estimated at $600 Trillion while the world economy is about $60 Trillion which is still whatever your metrics a Sword Of Damocles.
Further, you should know by now that the Conservatives aren’t given to rash financial moves taking the long rather than the expedient move which would only play into the hands of the opposition.
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
phil; I thought that with the inside track to your new job at Walmart you would be feasting and not complaining about us indentured serfs out here in rural Canada.If you think that farming equals in any way a federal or provincial govt. job,with their high salaries and pension benefits with NOTHING INVESTED,then you better do some research.You would be an utter idiot to take my advice and buy a farm.I will give you one piece of advice tho,grow a garden and a big one,farmers are getting tired of the likes of you that think food comes from Safeway.
Gord, it’s not yet my birthday but thank you for that wonderful present!!!
I agree with Jeff. It would be a serious political error to make sudden deep fiscal changes. This would incite the NDP and Liberals (and BLOC), – who are desperate, absolutely desperate for an emotional apocalypse to use in a campaign and who would use it as a major political platform to campaign on the notion of ‘Canadians as Victims of the Evil Harper’.
Instead, Harper works incrementally – and that’s his trademark; I call it ‘the drip method’, like a grain of sand or water, drip, dripping until suddenly, the infrastructure changes – and it has done so, with the agreement of those concerned.
To instead, act in an authoritarian manner, ‘just because I have a majority’ (cf Obama’s claim of ‘I Won’) – is arrogant and disrespectful of the population. All people become used to ways of life and to change them, even for the better for the whole, involves losses of power for some.
Not everyone in Canada is a committed ideological Conservative, but, we are all interested in our own well-being. Harper’s incremental tactics show us that conservative changes can occur and not only not harm our well-being but actually increase it.
Think about what he’s done so far with this majority: ended the Long Gun, the Wheat Board, the tax-support for political parties, the Kyoto; is transforming immigration; building up a sense of Canadian identity and heritage; opened up new export routes in Asia; etc, etc.
Now, he’s moving on the economy and using the same incremental, no-shock, no-confrontation tactic, of slowing introducing change. To expect him to, just because He Won, introduce major conservative changes, is not merely to insist that he Be A Powerful Authority, but it ignores human nature. We don’t react well to authoritarianism.
Now, watch the NDP and Liberals in a fury because there’s not enough there for them to arouse The Mobs.
Relax guys, we’ve got another eight years.
A challenge for you ET: when, on planet Earth, has your (faux)-incrementalist strategy ever worked?
I agree with Jeff and ET.
After a lifetime(mine) of political lunacy, it’s a feat in itself to turn this Titanic called Canada around at all. I’ve used this quote more times than I can count at SDA regarding PMSH. I suspect PMSH is a fan of Hank Stram who said “Just keep matriculatin’ the ball down the field, boys.”
LAS is an idiot, Jeff is right, though I too, would have liked to have seen bigger cuts to various govt. departments and increases for seniors. Mike, if you’ll lend me a bumper, I will get the sticker.
Amen to that larben…
After I saw Micheal Mann Hockeystick Man on CBC’s Strombo while channel surfing last night they could have cut the CBC completely…
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
‘Penny for my thoughts … ain’t worth nothin’ now!
I think it’s a good decision. Who needs $3.99? How about $3.95?
LAS – incrementalism has been well-analyzed by the social historian Karl Popper, who contrasts its ‘bricolage’ realism of decisions made within the control of, and by, the people… with the unworkable and ultimately disastrous utopianism of top down authoritarianism found in fascism and socialism.
The development of the market, of capitalism, and of democracy, in Europe and the USA are all examples of incrementalism, where we see complex systems – made up of numerous parts (people, resources, economic actions, trade etc) networking, building on each other and working issues out within and among themselves, as they occur, over a period of time, rather than by means of an imposed utopian authoritarianism.
Piecemeal social change, carried out under realistic conditions, within the current experiences of the population, can effect long term change – without the heavy hand of a self-asserted Wise Man Dictator who involves the whole society in an apocalpytic phase.
Some things Harper has done quickly, BUT, BUT, these issues have long been debated, such as the Wheat Board, the Gun Registry, etc. and therefore, are actually incremental decisions, made within and BY the people.
The gradual introduction of reduced taxation, of reduced federal powers, of reducing the civil service (via retirements), a new retirement age (67 rather than 65..wow), a new approach to penal reform, to aboriginal lifestyles (ie, Harper is planning on private property on the reserves) – all have their incremental repercussions throughout the society without an enforced authoritarian to-down remodelling of society.
That is, the most successful social modes of life have all been the result of this piecemeal, incrementalism, which sees decisions by the governments which are actually decisions made within and by the real experiences of the people.
The most disastrous modes of life have all been due to utopian authoritarianism, where govts have imposed their Will on the people.
Why don’t they keep the penny and kill the CBC?
ET-you are either seriously confused or disingenuous I’ll opt for the former. When the government size is reduced in a quick manner (or at all, in contrast to the ceaseless expansion under Harper), that is not authoritarianism. That is the opposite of authoritarianism. When the large size of government is maintained, as it is here, that is maintaining authoritarianism.
I asked for a specific example of Leviathan being rolled back in the first-world west by incremental-ism and I’m pretty sure I’m never going to see it.
Not often I get a chance to disagree with ET, and it isn’t gonna happen today. Pretty hard to argue with the truth so confidently and clearly put.
“Well, Jim Flaherty just delivered a red Tory budget …..”
Well, he’s from Ontari-fairie-oooooh, home of the f/n red torys! What did you expect? They are still getting used to the idea that Mike the Slasher isn’t in power, so the ROC can’t expect Ontarioans to get with the program so fast, they still voted Premier Mom provincially, not too long ago. Mike, then Little Mike have been gone what, 8-10 friggin’ years now?
Now that’s “increMENTALISM” for ya! Besides, ole’ Dalty has ta milk a few years of equalization outta the west before we get a Conservative government in Maotario, while the red tory feds stroke their little hurt egos.
Poco a poco … slow and steady wins the race …
I’m disappointed because the budget still grows. They couldn’t find $3.0 Billion more to cut?
LAS – first, stop with the insults and deal only with the issues.
This is what you asked of me: “when, on planet Earth, has your (faux)-incrementalist strategy ever worked?”
I provided my answer. Now, you change your question and tell me that you actually: “asked for a specific example of Leviathan being rolled back in the first-world west by incremental-ism “.
Kindly show some consistency in your questions.
The cuts of 19,000 to the civil service is not maintaining the size of the govt; the several programs being shut down, the other cuts (defense, CBC), the decentralization with more responsibilities to the provinces (health care transfers) is the opposite of a Leviathan centralist mode, with Harper reducing the intrusion of the central govt in many areas.
The basic examples of Leviathan ‘being rolled back in the West by incrementalism’ fit into the examples I provided. We could begin with the Magna Carta, move into the expanding power of the markets in the 16th and 17th c, the increasing power of parliament to make the laws, the US Declaration of Independence and its Constitution, etc. All of these reject Hobbesian authoritarianism and centralism and insist on power being held within, by, and for – the people.
Kindly show some consistency in your questions.
Oh brother. I thought it was implicitly clear the first time I was really only interested in examples of rolling back Levi in modernish times in western democracy.
The ‘cuts’ you mention don’t even reverse Harper’s own increases. This budget still spends more than the last one. For every minor paring back of government here, there is or has been an expansion. Ethanol mandates and subsidies. More regional economic development agencies. Massive increases in equalization. Amping up the War on Drugs. Further, the CWB still exists and gets lots of subsidy. The CMHC still exists with not even talk of letting it go. Supply Management too. Lots of authoritarianism for all.
I am not happy with the budget either. Not enough and the CBC gets a prick on the finger instead of the firing squad.
Ah, well… some say here rather than give fodder to the NDP and the Libs. They really don’t need fodder, they become rabid on the least excuse.
BUT it is something. Not nearly enough, and I disagree totally with ANY funding for that perennial nanny state known as “First Nations”.
Public sector unions need to be ended because we cannot afford them nor their pension requirements nor can we afford MP’s pensions as they stand.
However, if this WERE a Lib or NDP budget, God Forbid, you would never see anything like this.
We would have the nanny state gone way over the top with funding for every wild eyed ‘green’ initiative, Cap and Trade and full on capitulation to the UN and Agenda 21.
There would be a never ending ‘hearing’ on enviromnental impact for Northern Gateway and Keystone XL. As it is , it is capped at 24 months.
Again, doesn’t make me happy, but at least there IS a cap on it now, AND they recognize the inroads made by groups outside this country funding undermining initiatives to ensure this country ends up with an entire socialist make over, the likes of which Trudeau only dreamed of.
Baby steps, maybe and after all the abuse we have suffered lo these many years under Chretien, Martin et al, we are anxious to see things move much faster.
We have to reinforce our MP’s with our direction on a constant basis to ensure even minor moves forward.
Still, I am really disappointed with the CBC cuts.
NOT enough, not nearly!
Agree that Harper has changed course, and he holds the long view. He will strangle the left in Canada. Expect the left to seethe with silent rage over this budget as it does not compromise conservative principles in any respect but chips away at the left’s power base.
The good news is that even with a 10% cut to the CBC, you won’t notice a change in quality.
Well that’s it then. That’s the apex of Canadian ‘conservatism’ brought to us by the partisan CPC drones. A 3.4% increase in spending. Good job guys you’ve destroyed Canada’s political right. But what are principles but barriers for The Tribe, right?
Who are you talking to, exactly?
CBC’s 10% funding cut is a start, but we need MUCH more. Buy a bumper sticker and show your support!
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170815449320
CBC’s 10% funding cut is a start, but we need MUCH more. Buy a bumper sticker and show your support!
http://tinyurl.com/d8h3ldv
Considering they have a majority I would have expected a little (much) more in the way of cutbacks an spending reductions.
I am so glad that I stockpiled those pennies in that old Texas Mickey of C. C. I suspect that they will be collectors items in the 25th century. I’ll make out like a bandit then
They only cut 377 mil in foreign aid, and 10% of the CBC budget. Could that with increased welfare for the First Nations and I’m starting to think the National Socialist NDP party is in charge.
Over a billion in cuts to National Defence?
Did the NDP/ USSR alliance just infiltrate Canada?
I realize a humanitarian godsend like Harper needs to appease all Canadians, but we really couldn’t have that many totalitarian NDP freaks in Canada to appease.
I’m talking to everybody who supported the CPC despite they’re being fiscally left of the ’90s Liberals which is just about everybody here.
BTW the 10% CBC spending cut is over the next few years ie that is the most cutting we’ll ever see for the CBC.
I don’t know about people in the ROC but here in BC the feds are non existent other than the naval base in Esquimalt and the tax collectors in Surrey and Victoria. Other than that Ottawa could burn to the ground and no one here would notice. FIRE. THEM. ALL.
@Mike in Calgary
The CBC’s main priority is its news division, so even if you cut it by 50%, the first areas where it will trim will be in TV shows like Heartland, etc. Don’t expect the news team to be hurting.
$21 billion deficit?
Not good, not bad. Low enough so that the debt per GDP should drop.
And compared to the banana republic just to the south of us, bloody brilliant.
CBC news can’t possibly cost much to produce. They just make that sh*t up.
Mike in Calgary, thanks for the link but it’s not working for me.
Kevin,
great comment !
So, LAS, which party would do a better job than the CPC? (And I’m not really pleased with this budget either.)
I see welfare bum plow jockeys are still riding first class on the gravy train. I can hear spike and bartinsky popping the champagne corks as I type.
I am sure everyone will fall over each other expressing how much more rightwing the budget should be, but realistically this budget works just fine.
If Harper dropped a nuke of a budget, it would cause a Mike Harris situation and he’d never be trusted again and we’d get stuck with a PM Dalton after 2015.
Remember, the only reason this budget isn’t introducing a carbon tax and raising corporate tax and funding overseas abortions and gay pride parades and slapping registry fees on guns and starting Soviet daycare, and building windmills and shutting down the oil sands and paying out unions and giving kadhr a ticker tape parade………..
is because of Harper and his voters.
Got a better alternative LAS? Or are you just here to insult us?
What Jeff said.
Very true Jeff and also I guess we have to keep in mind that the program review was undertaken prior to the writ even being dropped. In other words, the budget was largely written / planned before the election.
Call me crazy, (and some do) but when you have to trot out the old at least we aren’t doing a carbon tax blahs blahs your just trying to look good by default.
Kinda like a gal who left her guy because he beat her nightly and then is thrilled that the new guy only beats on her once a month. The new guy is still an a$$.
Knight, thank you for your earlier comment. It echoes my thoughts very closely. In contrast to your wisdom was this comment by a troll named Alexandra on Sun News’ Facebook page:
“About a week or so ago I asked all you small “c” conservatives whether you felt Harper was moving his party towards the centre—in other words to the left. To my knowledge no one answered my question. Well, Jim Flaherty just delivered a red Tory budget so I ask you all again, is Harper leading his government toward the centre? How long before more long knives are sharpened?
This comment is just for you Scotty; a 10% cut to the CBC, over three years, hahaha…. The mothership will outlast your rage, you may as well put the torch and pitchfork back into your closet.”
Sadly, her mindset (and more deranged) is what will rule the narrative throughout the Media Party.
Jeff >
True – it will take years to unwind decades of Liberal abuse of power. We need to remember how long it took to crush the Liberal 2 billion dollar Long Gun Registry.
After this though, “Never Again”, the healing process is simply too painful.
I rarely read Well’s crap but this one was actually interesting :http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/03/29/harpers-very-political-budget.
Alternative: Libertarian. Or any party that doesn’t sully Canada’s right.
@Jeff: Oh noes! Not Mike Harris-an actually SUCCESSFULL Rightist. So much better we follow the MO of ‘victory by giving out opponents 90% of what they want’. Call it the Bill Davis way. Good thing the NDP never took power after he-oh wait. Nevermind. You guys just enjoy failure.
I would remind everyone that Trudeau moved Canada slowly, almost imperceptibly to the left. It was reported that he said that with a small change of course, the destination arrived at would not be the one everyone expected. So it is to unravel the mess that he began.
Way off topic – I think I have tomorrows headline for you:
A very highly placed bird told me that the poll to be made public tomorrow has the wildrose increasing its lead over the pcs from 41-31 to 41-29. The makings of a rout perhaps?
Whether you like it or not PM Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty still have to balance the fact that Ontario, the engine of Canada, is still so thick into the LIBeral goo that it will take a number of years to pull out of the nose dive.
Yes, Jim Flaherty could have chopped more, like a billion to the CBC, but letting the dollar rise relative to the US would certainly kill off any potential recovery on which the export sector still depends.
The unregulated derivative market is still estimated at $600 Trillion while the world economy is about $60 Trillion which is still whatever your metrics a Sword Of Damocles.
Further, you should know by now that the Conservatives aren’t given to rash financial moves taking the long rather than the expedient move which would only play into the hands of the opposition.
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
phil; I thought that with the inside track to your new job at Walmart you would be feasting and not complaining about us indentured serfs out here in rural Canada.If you think that farming equals in any way a federal or provincial govt. job,with their high salaries and pension benefits with NOTHING INVESTED,then you better do some research.You would be an utter idiot to take my advice and buy a farm.I will give you one piece of advice tho,grow a garden and a big one,farmers are getting tired of the likes of you that think food comes from Safeway.
Gord, it’s not yet my birthday but thank you for that wonderful present!!!
I agree with Jeff. It would be a serious political error to make sudden deep fiscal changes. This would incite the NDP and Liberals (and BLOC), – who are desperate, absolutely desperate for an emotional apocalypse to use in a campaign and who would use it as a major political platform to campaign on the notion of ‘Canadians as Victims of the Evil Harper’.
Instead, Harper works incrementally – and that’s his trademark; I call it ‘the drip method’, like a grain of sand or water, drip, dripping until suddenly, the infrastructure changes – and it has done so, with the agreement of those concerned.
To instead, act in an authoritarian manner, ‘just because I have a majority’ (cf Obama’s claim of ‘I Won’) – is arrogant and disrespectful of the population. All people become used to ways of life and to change them, even for the better for the whole, involves losses of power for some.
Not everyone in Canada is a committed ideological Conservative, but, we are all interested in our own well-being. Harper’s incremental tactics show us that conservative changes can occur and not only not harm our well-being but actually increase it.
Think about what he’s done so far with this majority: ended the Long Gun, the Wheat Board, the tax-support for political parties, the Kyoto; is transforming immigration; building up a sense of Canadian identity and heritage; opened up new export routes in Asia; etc, etc.
Now, he’s moving on the economy and using the same incremental, no-shock, no-confrontation tactic, of slowing introducing change. To expect him to, just because He Won, introduce major conservative changes, is not merely to insist that he Be A Powerful Authority, but it ignores human nature. We don’t react well to authoritarianism.
Now, watch the NDP and Liberals in a fury because there’s not enough there for them to arouse The Mobs.
Relax guys, we’ve got another eight years.
A challenge for you ET: when, on planet Earth, has your (faux)-incrementalist strategy ever worked?
As usual, Andrew Coyne sees things clearly: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/03/29/andrew-coyne-on-budget-2012-this-is-the-terminus-of-tory-radicalism/
I agree with Jeff and ET.
After a lifetime(mine) of political lunacy, it’s a feat in itself to turn this Titanic called Canada around at all. I’ve used this quote more times than I can count at SDA regarding PMSH. I suspect PMSH is a fan of Hank Stram who said “Just keep matriculatin’ the ball down the field, boys.”
LAS is an idiot, Jeff is right, though I too, would have liked to have seen bigger cuts to various govt. departments and increases for seniors. Mike, if you’ll lend me a bumper, I will get the sticker.
Amen to that larben…
After I saw Micheal Mann Hockeystick Man on CBC’s Strombo while channel surfing last night they could have cut the CBC completely…
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
‘Penny for my thoughts … ain’t worth nothin’ now!
I think it’s a good decision. Who needs $3.99? How about $3.95?
LAS – incrementalism has been well-analyzed by the social historian Karl Popper, who contrasts its ‘bricolage’ realism of decisions made within the control of, and by, the people… with the unworkable and ultimately disastrous utopianism of top down authoritarianism found in fascism and socialism.
The development of the market, of capitalism, and of democracy, in Europe and the USA are all examples of incrementalism, where we see complex systems – made up of numerous parts (people, resources, economic actions, trade etc) networking, building on each other and working issues out within and among themselves, as they occur, over a period of time, rather than by means of an imposed utopian authoritarianism.
Piecemeal social change, carried out under realistic conditions, within the current experiences of the population, can effect long term change – without the heavy hand of a self-asserted Wise Man Dictator who involves the whole society in an apocalpytic phase.
Some things Harper has done quickly, BUT, BUT, these issues have long been debated, such as the Wheat Board, the Gun Registry, etc. and therefore, are actually incremental decisions, made within and BY the people.
The gradual introduction of reduced taxation, of reduced federal powers, of reducing the civil service (via retirements), a new retirement age (67 rather than 65..wow), a new approach to penal reform, to aboriginal lifestyles (ie, Harper is planning on private property on the reserves) – all have their incremental repercussions throughout the society without an enforced authoritarian to-down remodelling of society.
That is, the most successful social modes of life have all been the result of this piecemeal, incrementalism, which sees decisions by the governments which are actually decisions made within and by the real experiences of the people.
The most disastrous modes of life have all been due to utopian authoritarianism, where govts have imposed their Will on the people.
Why don’t they keep the penny and kill the CBC?
ET-you are either seriously confused or disingenuous I’ll opt for the former. When the government size is reduced in a quick manner (or at all, in contrast to the ceaseless expansion under Harper), that is not authoritarianism. That is the opposite of authoritarianism. When the large size of government is maintained, as it is here, that is maintaining authoritarianism.
I asked for a specific example of Leviathan being rolled back in the first-world west by incremental-ism and I’m pretty sure I’m never going to see it.
Not often I get a chance to disagree with ET, and it isn’t gonna happen today. Pretty hard to argue with the truth so confidently and clearly put.
“Well, Jim Flaherty just delivered a red Tory budget …..”
Well, he’s from Ontari-fairie-oooooh, home of the f/n red torys! What did you expect? They are still getting used to the idea that Mike the Slasher isn’t in power, so the ROC can’t expect Ontarioans to get with the program so fast, they still voted Premier Mom provincially, not too long ago. Mike, then Little Mike have been gone what, 8-10 friggin’ years now?
Now that’s “increMENTALISM” for ya! Besides, ole’ Dalty has ta milk a few years of equalization outta the west before we get a Conservative government in Maotario, while the red tory feds stroke their little hurt egos.
Poco a poco … slow and steady wins the race …
I’m disappointed because the budget still grows. They couldn’t find $3.0 Billion more to cut?
LAS – first, stop with the insults and deal only with the issues.
This is what you asked of me: “when, on planet Earth, has your (faux)-incrementalist strategy ever worked?”
I provided my answer. Now, you change your question and tell me that you actually: “asked for a specific example of Leviathan being rolled back in the first-world west by incremental-ism “.
Kindly show some consistency in your questions.
The cuts of 19,000 to the civil service is not maintaining the size of the govt; the several programs being shut down, the other cuts (defense, CBC), the decentralization with more responsibilities to the provinces (health care transfers) is the opposite of a Leviathan centralist mode, with Harper reducing the intrusion of the central govt in many areas.
The basic examples of Leviathan ‘being rolled back in the West by incrementalism’ fit into the examples I provided. We could begin with the Magna Carta, move into the expanding power of the markets in the 16th and 17th c, the increasing power of parliament to make the laws, the US Declaration of Independence and its Constitution, etc. All of these reject Hobbesian authoritarianism and centralism and insist on power being held within, by, and for – the people.
Kindly show some consistency in your questions.
Oh brother. I thought it was implicitly clear the first time I was really only interested in examples of rolling back Levi in modernish times in western democracy.
The ‘cuts’ you mention don’t even reverse Harper’s own increases. This budget still spends more than the last one. For every minor paring back of government here, there is or has been an expansion. Ethanol mandates and subsidies. More regional economic development agencies. Massive increases in equalization. Amping up the War on Drugs. Further, the CWB still exists and gets lots of subsidy. The CMHC still exists with not even talk of letting it go. Supply Management too. Lots of authoritarianism for all.
I am not happy with the budget either. Not enough and the CBC gets a prick on the finger instead of the firing squad.
Ah, well… some say here rather than give fodder to the NDP and the Libs. They really don’t need fodder, they become rabid on the least excuse.
BUT it is something. Not nearly enough, and I disagree totally with ANY funding for that perennial nanny state known as “First Nations”.
Public sector unions need to be ended because we cannot afford them nor their pension requirements nor can we afford MP’s pensions as they stand.
However, if this WERE a Lib or NDP budget, God Forbid, you would never see anything like this.
We would have the nanny state gone way over the top with funding for every wild eyed ‘green’ initiative, Cap and Trade and full on capitulation to the UN and Agenda 21.
There would be a never ending ‘hearing’ on enviromnental impact for Northern Gateway and Keystone XL. As it is , it is capped at 24 months.
Again, doesn’t make me happy, but at least there IS a cap on it now, AND they recognize the inroads made by groups outside this country funding undermining initiatives to ensure this country ends up with an entire socialist make over, the likes of which Trudeau only dreamed of.
Baby steps, maybe and after all the abuse we have suffered lo these many years under Chretien, Martin et al, we are anxious to see things move much faster.
We have to reinforce our MP’s with our direction on a constant basis to ensure even minor moves forward.
Still, I am really disappointed with the CBC cuts.
NOT enough, not nearly!
Agree that Harper has changed course, and he holds the long view. He will strangle the left in Canada. Expect the left to seethe with silent rage over this budget as it does not compromise conservative principles in any respect but chips away at the left’s power base.
The good news is that even with a 10% cut to the CBC, you won’t notice a change in quality.