Tory times are tough times

a letter to the editor

Williams Lake Tribune

Editor:

I would like to comment specifically on two major Stephen Harper/Conservative party policy blunders which (thankfully) have not seen the light of day.

First of all, on Iraq, the Conservatives would have put Canadian troops into that country at a time when everyone outside of his party adamantly opposed his position. The fact that weapons of mass destruction did not exist was well known at that time by anyone who bothered to find out.

The Conservatives in this country bought into the Bush/Cheney lie lock, stock and barrel. That was 2003. Thankfully, Stephen Harper’s party did not hold government. It would have cost us billions of dollars and created a huge mess, had Harper been PM.

More recently, right around the time that the two major mortgage providers in the U.S. (Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) were going down, there was an article in the Vancouver Sun business section.

The article pertained to a speech that Harper had given in front of a group of business people where Harper said that the banking industry in Canada needed to be further de-regulated.

Even as the ship was sinking in the U.S., Harper was giving a speech in favour of aligning our financial sector more closely with that of the U.S. This is another example of Harper’s Conservative party lack of foresight.

Now we see Harper saying that the “economic fundamentals” in Canada are sound. My view is that the so-called “fundamentals” are not sound, but we would be in a much worse situation had Harper held a majority government.

On both of these huge issues, Harper was wrong. On both of these issues it’s Stephen Harper and his Conservatives who would have made decisions which would have directly brought Canada to the brink. This is the kind of leadership that Canadians deserve?

If Harper had been in a majority over the last few years we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about how and when the economic crisis will hit Canada.

We’d be sitting here asking what to do to pick up the pieces. It’s the fact that Harper has not been in a majority government that has ironically saved his butt.

Tommy Douglas used to say “Tory times are tough times.” That statement still applies decades later.

DL

Williams Lake, BC