Federal Conservatives Want To Stay

Sometimes people surprise you. Sometimes clowns surprise you. For Anyone that isn't a Tory it doesn't take much to provoke them into calling a Stephen Harper a clown. He's had a "wishy-washy" approach to politics since the conservatives have come into power. To be fair he has had a lot to deal with. The Liberals leaving a dynasty of corruption(not saying the other parties don't have corruption, but they weren't running the country for over a decade). Appeasing Quebec, trying to prove to them that his party isn't that bad after all. On top of this and its been really good for Canadian politics, he has a minority government. It may not be a stretch to say the conservative are going to win the next election. The economy is doing well, and conservatives have always had a pro-business focus, so would make sense to allow them to do what they do best, capitalism. And in ten years when the bubble bursts, we'll be back to a more socialist government... hopefully. The recent throne speech certainly seems like the Tories are wanting to stay in power, after all they got a lot to prove to the rest Canada.

It would seem the Harper has bowed to the opposition and is slowly pulling out of Afghanistan. By 2011 he wants to shift the focus to training the Afghan army and police. Which is fair, it would be wrong to pull out immediately. After all we came in and disrupted their government and way of life. Now, we seem to be providing a sense of stability for the country even though its they are focusing on fighting us rather than each other. I am sure that our forces provide much more security than an Afghan warlord(s) would/did.

As for strengthening the Youth Criminal Act seems somewhat dubious. They want to "ensure that young offenders who commit serious crimes are held accountable to victims and their communities." While this does seem to hopeful, they are going to have to release more details for it to convince me that they want to rehabilitate, rather than incarcerate.

He wants to implement a national strategy to reduce Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 70 per cent by 2050, but I thought serious climate change was happening now? Maybe they're giving time for corporations to react...

This is interesting "placing formal limits on the use of the federal spending power for new shared-cost programs in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction."

Personally I love this, "bringing in legislation to allow for the direct election of senators and limits on their tenure." WOO! Hey how many times to they get together? Its not often. In 2006 the salary was $122, 700 and the may get additional salaries depending on their office. An interesting note New Zealand abolished their senate completely and are doing fine. Granted they are a small country, but it certainly makes one think.

Harper wants to "[modernize] Canada's military to strengthen surveillance and protection across Canada and meeting responsibilities towards the United Nations and other allies." Good we have exellent soldiers, imagine how much better they'll be at surviving when they aren't using second hand tanks, planes, etc.

Also they want to "[reinstate] a bill to give aboriginal people on reserves the same protections as other Canadians under the Canadian Human Rights Act." GOOD!

There more points but I felt those were the main points, but for once I read about our government and kinda felt hopeful. It was nice feeling. Hopefully the opposition keeps the conservative on the "straight and narrow" as much a possible.

I pulled quotes of the crown speech from http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=d93a5e2d-5e44-4a97-aaeb-c8cfee28feb2

and the info on senators salaries is from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Senate