Canada's Most Underated PM, The one who wasn't supposed to Win

[harpercanuck]

As my name suggests I am talking about Stephen Harper, who I believe Post WW2 is the greatest PM of Canada. He has achieved significant wins on policy and became I believe the 5th longest serving PM of Canada more than Brian Mulroney and had he been there 5 more months more than Chretien. Had he won the 2015 election he woulda tied Pierre Trudeau with 4 election victories and been in very elite company. In 2003 he merged 2 right wing parties became party leader and in 2006 became the PM.  Nobody thought this project would go through. Paul Martin was supposed to win even bigger majorities than chretien.

Now when it comes to his achievements: Number 1 is Childcare. Libs and NDP were always about a govt run natl daycare program. Harper believed the best policy was childcare tax credits. This credit is now so ingrained that Trudeau has not only continued it he has expanded it greatly. Harper against all conservative and economic orthodoxy cut the GST down from 7 to 5% to not only cut taxes but to starve the federal govt of revenues. He cut small business taxes including corporate down to 15%. He led the country out of the recession of 2009 better than any G7 country(there was a time when canada had a lower unemployment rate than the US back in 2010-2013 a feat that almost never happens). He did that all while increasing healthcare transfers to the provinces(so much for the liberal lies of he will privatize and americanize healthcare) while still returning the country to a surplus in 2015 and the plan was to use the surplus to cut the taxes most effecting people: cutting payroll taxes. The TFSA account was a great tool to save for retirement and to encourage saving overall. Not to mention income splitting and pension splitting to save on taxes.

On international policy, he expanded free trade from 5 trade deals to almost 50 trade deals including one with EU and TPP. He asserted that Canada should stop being a passive state and stand up for values along with our allies. He was Israel's strongest defender and took a ton of crap from our media for it. He opened the doors to a relationship with india that had been frosty since the days of Indira Gandhi. Trudeau has ruined that relationship with his shenanigans and inviting a murderer to a state dinner in india. But Harper even out of office has kept a great relationship with Modi and Bibi. While our crime laws are still weak he was the only pm to push through atleast some bills to fix the issue. He abolished the Natl gun registry eliminated the cdn wheat board. He did all this while having a minority govt for most of his tenure, a media that was downright hostile and partisan and branded him as a cold blooded dick cheney style evil person(something i believed till 2014). He no doubt responded with almost a nixonian secrecy but looking at the current scandals zoolander trudeau is embroiled in or the mulroney airbus scandal, the chretien martin sponsorship scandal, the harper years are now a beacon of good govt. Finally it was under harper that canada truly achieved natl unity. No govt program or forced bilingualism has ever worked but under harper the bloc was destroyed(and now its back) and western alienation was also defeated(and now its back big time). The state run propaganda communist machine of the CBC will paint him as an evil "american" something which sells in canada as a big insult but Harper was the best PM post ww2 and the fact that he now chairs the IDU, gets invited to speak on complex issues, and works with companies and govts demonstrates his skills in managing organizations thru an era of unprecedented environment. Canada was lucky to have him as the PM for 9 years!

[OSR stands with Israel]

Harper is not only a great PM for Canada but he is definitely the best world leader in the past 20 years as well. Its sad to see what Trudeau has done to Canada post Harper and I hope in the next election O'Toole can restore Canada to Harper Era Canada and then take the next step forward

[Boobs]

Hope he sees this, bro!

[Devout Centrist]

As my name suggests I am talking about Stephen Harper

Lol

[Continential]

Harper is not only a great PM for Canada but he is definitely the best world leader in the past 20 years as well. Its sad to see what Trudeau has done to Canada post Harper and I hope in the next election O'Toole can restore Canada to Harper Era Canada and then take the next step forward

If O'Toole is elected leader, he'd lose due to Trudeau being popular. Even McKay would lose.

[DC Al Fine]

Harper is not only a great PM for Canada but he is definitely the best world leader in the past 20 years as well. Its sad to see what Trudeau has done to Canada post Harper and I hope in the next election O'Toole can restore Canada to Harper Era Canada and then take the next step forward

If O'Toole is elected leader, he'd lose due to Trudeau being popular. Even McKay would lose.

Eh... I wouldn't be so confident given the self-inflicted wounds he's sustained the past couple weeks.

Giving sole source contracts to the folks who gave your Mom and brother several hundred grand is not a great look.

[Continential]

Harper is not only a great PM for Canada but he is definitely the best world leader in the past 20 years as well. Its sad to see what Trudeau has done to Canada post Harper and I hope in the next election O'Toole can restore Canada to Harper Era Canada and then take the next step forward

If O'Toole is elected leader, he'd lose due to Trudeau being popular. Even McKay would lose.

Eh... I wouldn't be so confident given the self-inflicted wounds he's sustained the past couple weeks.

Giving sole source contracts to the folks who gave your Mom and brother several hundred grand is not a great look.

But McKay is running a horrible campaign, and considering that SNC-Lavelin didn't sink Trudeau and blackface didn't, I'm pretty sure that Trudeau will win the next election, as he is leading 35:29:20 currently.

https://twitter.com/CanadianPolling/status/1288124137127387137

[Sestak]

oh good lord

[harpercanuck]

Harper is not only a great PM for Canada but he is definitely the best world leader in the past 20 years as well. Its sad to see what Trudeau has done to Canada post Harper and I hope in the next election O'Toole can restore Canada to Harper Era Canada and then take the next step forward

If O'Toole is elected leader, he'd lose due to Trudeau being popular. Even McKay would lose.

Eh... I wouldn't be so confident given the self-inflicted wounds he's sustained the past couple weeks.

Giving sole source contracts to the folks who gave your Mom and brother several hundred grand is not a great look.

But McKay is running a horrible campaign, and considering that SNC-Lavelin didn't sink Trudeau and blackface didn't, I'm pretty sure that Trudeau will win the next election, as he is leading 35:29:20 currently.

https://twitter.com/CanadianPolling/status/1288124137127387137

Unfortunately ishan seems correct. its gonna be a tough slog for whoever the leader is. That said peter mckay imo would be a disaster, erin o toole as long as there isnt an early election cuz most suspect a spring 2021 election perhaps hed be shrewed enough to do one for nov 2020, i think we got a decent shot. SNC and blackface didnt sink him this WE thing won't touch him. the big change tho now compared to prior years is liberal party is polling higher than justin trudeau is. it used to be the other way around. Id be thrilled if libs dumped trudeau and appointed Chrystia freeland shed be much easier to beat

[DC Al Fine]

Again, I'm not sure why everyone thinks Trudeau has a near guaranteed win next time. EKOS and Leger have him up 5-6 points in a country that regularly sees twenty point swings.

In the past ten years, the NDP have won majorities in Alberta and Quebec (federally), the Liberals went dropped to 30-something seats and then followed it up with a majority, and CAQ went from 3rd place to a majority, to say nothing of the crazy swings of the early 90's.

Against that backdrop, I just don't think it's that crazy to say Erin O'Toole or Peter MacKay have a reasonable chance of pulling a 5-10 point swing in a weak economy against a government in the middle of a corruption scandal.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Joke thread.

[harpercanuck]

Joke thread.

Says the guy from New york living under marxist deblasio and American Justin Trudeau: Andrew Cuomo

[Continential]

Joke thread.

Says the guy from New york living under marxist deblasio and American Justin Trudeau: Andrew Cuomo

Have you ever read any marxist works?

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Joke thread.

Says the guy from New york living under marxist deblasio and American Justin Trudeau: Andrew Cuomo

1) I don't like Bill de Blasio or Andrew Cuomo.

2) Neither de Blasio or Cuomo are Marxists. Also, you don't know what Marxism means.

[Crane]

Joke thread.

Says the guy from New york living under marxist deblasio and American Justin Trudeau: Andrew Cuomo

You sound like you definitely know what Marxism is and how DeBlasio and Cuomo govern.

[StateBoiler]

Went to Windsor middle 2019 and was talking to a native at a bar while I ate dinner. Boy did he absolutely hate Trudeau.

One thing for Harper's favor is his consolidation of western Canadian and eastern Canadian conservatism. I didn't even realize this until reading Wikipedia about the party, but he was Manning's policy man when they were formulating the Canada Reform Party. Prime Ministers and party leaders come and go. Even fewer people successfully play a key role in forming a party and toppling over one of the main existing ones.

Any chance for Mackay? He's a fellow rugby man.

[brucejoel99]

No PM is all good or all bad, but while there were some things Harper did that were helpful for Canada (i.e. fiscally, he wasn't bad; I'll be fair there), it's difficult - no: impossible, actually - to say something nice about (let alone like) a PM who's as anti-science as he is. It's the same sh*t that Trump & his administration have been pulling for 3+ years now down here, & it sucks. A dislike of facts & science - combined with repeated attempts to reduce transparency within government & socially-backward tendencies - do not make for "Canada's most underrated PM."

[Sumner 1868]

Wasn't supposed to win? The Conservatives had a clear lead before the election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2006_Canadian_federal_election