Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Cleaning up the mess

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 6:23pm - 22 Comments

Stephen Harper salutes Rob Ford for cleaning up the “NDP mess” in Toronto and salutes himself for cleaning up the “left-wing mess” in Ottawa.

~~http://youtu.be/s8wgfKHHT9I~~ (The video seems to have been removed.)

At the same event, Jim Flaherty was apparently presented with a championship belt.

Tags: Jim Flaherty, Ottawa, Rob Ford, Stephen Harper, Toronto

More by Aaron Wherry

Anonymous

That comment doesn’t even make sense.

Anonymous

How could you tell?

Anonymous

His lips are moving.

TonyAdams

Yes …. I sure am glad Harper cleaned up left wing mess … wherever would we be without Cons?

Parties that crow about how government and universities doing their part but don’t recognize business is actually paying for them to do their part is very left wing indeed.

We have three reactionary parties who think Canadians are too dim and feckless to take care of their own affairs. Would be nice to have one liberal party that said people over 18 are adults and can take care of their own lives without supervision from witless public servants.

Tony Clement ~ “Governments are doing their part. Universities are doing their part. Where’s business? When is business going to do its part?”

Coyne, Hard Right? Hardly:

Under the Conservatives, spending, which conservatives once promised to cut, has been growing at a rate of 8 per cent a year. The budget, which conservatives once aimed to balance, is now in deficit to the tune of $54-billion, with literally no end in sight.

Corporate subsidies, which conservatives once vowed to eliminate, continue to be doled out by the billions every year; much of the auto industry has been nationalized; the number of regional development agencies has increased by one. Conservative MPs now run around the country boasting of the pork they are bringing home to their ridings, complete with novelty-cheque signing ceremonies.

The top marginal rate of income tax remains where it was a generation ago, while the tax system has been further complicated with the addition of a slew of special credits for children’s sports, transit passes and other good causes. Employment Insurance has been larded up with supplementary payments that make a return to insurance principles more remote than ever.

The Canada Pension Plan has been allowed to swell to Caisse de Depot-like dimensions. The great statist vehicles of the 20th century — Canada Post, Via Rail, the CBC — likewise continue to stalk the land, subsidies and privileges intact, while private oligopolies in air travel, finance and telecommunications remain largely protected from foreign competition. All were once the objects of conservative reform efforts. No longer.
Anonymous

Geez guys, my mother caught, killed and cleaned her own fish. What a wuss.
Anonymous

Rob Ford was elected in October. The NDP gained six seats in Toronto in May.

Anonymous

They don’t let facts interfere with the narrative. Winning!!!

Anonymous

My fellow Canadians, our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity has finally come to an end!

Anonymous

This witty remark is quite devastating for the PM, one is sure.

http://twitter.com/dangouge dangouge

Yes, the “NDP mess” of having a livable city.

Anonymous

Another bit of devastating witless wit.
Anonymous

Yeah, that garbage strike was awesome. Toronto’s finest hour.

Anonymous

I live in Toronto, and this place is still a mess. There’s all these libraries everywhere. Many of the buses are on the streets all night long, as if there are still people working at night! When it snows in the winter, gently covering all the mess with a pristine white blanket, they actually send out snow plows, sometimes promptly, to peel the lovely cover away. And as far as I’m concerned there are way to many police and firefighters around here.

Not to worry though my fellow Torontonians, the mayor who GUARANTEED there’d be no service cuts whatsoever during the election is apparently working on fixing all of that. Thank God too, because we need the money. After all, it’s absolutely imperative that we connect one subway stop few people use to another subway stop few people use at a cost of $4.7 billion.
Gary Harrington

Yah, the left wing mess that made us one of the most successful countries in the world, give Harper enough time and we will be in the same mess as the Americans ,might as well rename the Conservative party….how about the Canadian Tea party….
Anonymous

Cutting services is never popular – but sometimes poor management of looming structural deficits have to be addressed, or, they get worse.

“Once, the tiny city of Central Falls, in the US state of Rhode Island, was a proud boomtown – textile mills and other manufactures dotted the landscape and anchored it in prosperity. Today, its website may still claim it to be a “town with a bright future” but the reality is a different story; one where the money ran out and the city had to file for bankruptcy.
What broke Central Falls was its way too generous pension system mixed up with a good amount of mismanagement. In 1972, the town created its own pension plan for public safety workers like firefighters and police officers. They used their collective bargaining power to negotiate agreements, which allowed them to retire after 20 years of service and receive 50 percent of their final year’s salary and full health benefits.”

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2011/08/02/small-us-town-files-bankruptcy

Anonymous

Cutting services is even less popular when it’s done by someone who explicitly promised during the election campaign that there would be no cuts to services.

During the election, Ford not only guaranteed there’d be no cuts to services, he even used public libraries as an example. He said that eliminating Sunday hours for a public library would be a “major service cut” and that such a cut was the sort of cut he GUARANTEED wouldn’t happen under his administration. Now they’re apparently talking about closing down entire branches all together.

No one should have believed Ford when he prattled on about all of the unspecified “gravy” he was going to eliminate, and how services wouldn’t be affected, but surely the people who voted him in to office are justified in being a bit surprised that he found so little gravy to cut, and is ALREADY turning to potentially major service cuts to make up for the fact that there was so little gravy around to be eliminated. If one believed the things Ford said on the campaign trail during the election, one never would have gotten the impression that before the Summer was out there’d be talk of closing libraries, curtailing snow removal, shutting down city attractions, getting rid of hundreds of cops and firefighters, eliminating night-time bus service, shutting down daycare centers and senior homes, eliminating water fluoridation…

Luckily, I’m positive we’re going to get our $4.7 billion subway extension to connect two stations that hardly anyone (relatively speaking) use, and which likely won’t have ridership high enough to justify a subway in my lifetime.

So, Huzzah?!?!?
Anonymous

This is not a tiny city. This city is is more populous than many provinces with a budget bigger than most. The challenges and problems facing Toronto are complex with no easy remedies. Toronto needs competent leadership. How it was delivered to the hands of a mayor resembling Tommy Shanks is mystifying.
Anonymous

This is not a tiny city. This city is is more populous than many provinces with a budget bigger than most. The challenges and problems facing Toronto are complex with no easy remedies. Toronto needs competent leadership. How it was delivered to the hands of a mayor resembling Tommy Shanks is mystifying.

San Diego Dave

When was the last time a right wing government did NOT leave things a bloody mess when they were finally turfed from office? In Canada? In the world?

PS- The Chretien/Martin Liberals don’t count.
Anonymous

Was he wearing an “I’m with stupid” T-shirt?