Stephen Harper and the Buying of the Next Election

It looked like a remake of the 1950s TV show Dialling for Dollars. Or one of those Christian TV programs where the lame are made to walk.

But it was only Stephen Harper strutting around a stage in a Jewish school in Julian Fantino's riding.

Announcing plans to buy the next election.




And really all anyone needs to know is that income splitting won't help those who really need a tax break. 

The Harper government’s parental income splitting plan is designed in such a way that guarantees it will only make a difference to the richest Canadians. By design, it cannot help those who need assistance with child care the most.

Especially single parents who are mostly women.

The federal government seems to expect single parents to live in poverty to raise children and to support them in that impoverished condition.

And that the increase in the so-called Universal Child Care Benefit will arrive in the form of a lump sum payment, just three months before the scheduled date of the next election.

And since the Cons will put all their new tax measures and benefits in the same bill, the opposition will not be able to oppose the taxation proposals without voting against those big juicy cheques.

Which may gave Stephen Harper the excuse he is looking for to call an early election. 

Stephen Harper is about to get a bump in public approval. It comes with the turf for a leader after a period of national trauma, which then manifests itself in flag-waving, resolve and defiance.

Before the wave of patriotic feeling triggered by the murder of those two soldiers subsides.

Before Justin Trudeau and the Liberals are ready.

Harper would catch Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau flat-footed with an empty policy book. Liberal protestations to the contrary, Trudeau is not ready for a national campaign, particularly if he is being scrutinized as a potential prime minister while Conservatives are carpet bombing the airwaves with attack ads highlighting many of his ill-considered public musings.

And of course before the Duffy trial...



If he goes in the winter, Harper will be able to escape the drip, drip, drip of Mike Duffy’s trial set to begin in early April.

This prime minister is facing an uphill climb to re-election, but if he and his strategists believe this is as good as it gets, we will be campaigning with the sound of snow crunching beneath candidates’ boots.

But beyond all that there is another problem. And that is the fact that if they are to counter the Cons effectively, the opposition will have to make the case for taxes. 

And that won't be easy in a country like this one...



And the good news? That case can be made if the Liberals and the NDP can focus on the big picture. Properly explain where this tax cutting mania is leading us.

To the end of government as we know it, and a Canada we don't recognize.

If they can also portray the Cons as dangerously irresponsible for vaporizing the surplus even as the economy could be heading for rough waters.

There are worrying signs of a new recession in Europe, while falling oil prices and growing geopolitical strife in the Mideast, Eastern Europe, Africa and elsewhere are negative indicators for future growth.

The International Monetary Fund warned in its latest report advanced economies need structural reform to support long-term growth. It also said some countries may have to consider yet another stimulus plan. Canada is on track for modest economic growth, but that could easily change.

And of course, if they can portray the Cons as sleazy scumbags trying to buy an election...



Because that is what they are trying to do and it couldn't be more shameful.

But then that's who they are, and we know what must must do.

Fight them harder than ever in the next two months.

Before their vote buying scheme pays any dividends.

And before their monstrous corruption destroys this country...

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