I Think Stephen Harper is Starting to Crack Under the Pressure

The opening of Parliament put Stephen Harper on the hot seat for a number of bad decisions made this summer. He answered them all with the usual blah, blah, blah.

And to all those who still believe he's a brilliant strategist ... Hmmmm.

1. Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe asked why he is so intent on killing the registry, given the number of groups that support it.

Harper responded by saying the Conservative position is clear and the government wants "targeted gun control that targets criminals, not farmers and hunters."

"Not farmers and hunters"?

We've learned this week that the American NRA have been the ones making all the noise. I have no doubt that several of their members are farmers and hunters, but they are American.

And if you want to know what this is all about, besides Garry Breitkreuz's insanity, you just have to go back to the starting of the Reform Party. One of the right-wing groups that campaigned on their behalf was the National Firearms Association:

David Tomlinson, of the Alberta-based National Firearms Association, the principal anti-gun control lobby in Canada, has placed repeated ads in the organization's magazines urging its members to join the Reform Party and get anti-gun control resolutions passed at the constituency level. It has provided a draft resolution for its members to place on Reform Party local meetings. The resolution promotes the notion of gun control by an advisory committee of gun owners and firearms dealers. (1)

They want to police themselves.

And what is the NFA saying today?

It is true that C-391 does not go far enough in resolving our issue with the flawed and ridiculously expensive Firearms Act – laws enacted by successive Progressive Conservative and Liberal governments. Its passage would be a good first step towards reclaiming some of the rights constrained in decades of offensive firearms control law. Let me write that again – a first step – most assuredly not the last or only one. Many issues remain that need to be dealt with in order to get us on an even keel. Being able to fully enjoy, use, buy, and sell all firearms regardless of status would be nice.

I'll let him write again: "a good first step". If we give them this, it will only be the start.

2. When Michael Ignatieff opposed the notion to build more prisons, Harper responded by saying he has no difficulty explaining to Canadians the government's priority when it comes to crime "is having criminals in prison, not out on the street."

The first problem with that is that he obviously does have trouble explaining it to Canadians, because he never even tried. He doesn't speak to us. Ever. He lets his minions take the fall. And what criminals is he putting in prison? Stockwell Day said they were for unreported crime. It's gonna' be kind of hard to get a conviction.

3. His answer to the huge corporate tax cuts in the works, was that the government wouldn't raise taxes on corporations in a recession. And yet he has no problem with raising taxes on ordinary Canadians. Besides, we're not suggesting that he "raise" corporate taxes, though I think it's a good idea. We're just asking that he doesn't give them another bloody tax break.

4. He then nattered about supporting the troops with these new jets that are only supporting the American Lockheed Martin.

Yep. He's definitely cracking up.

Sources:

1. Preston Manning and the Reform Party, By Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg.