The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Stephen, Gary and Tina After his first hundred days as prime minister, Stephen Harper has tried to show Canadians that he intends to keep his promises. He has presented the Accountability Act to reform government, and as predicted, began starving the long-gun registry to the consternation only of eastern liberals and some of the media. The Auditor-General presented her report on the blatant misuse of funds and lies about the amount spent on the gun fiasco. The government is standing firm, and it looks like, at long last, we will be rid of this useless law. Harper, as promised and expected, has shown strong support for the military, especially our troops in Afghanistan. That includes a very successful personal visit to our soldiers. He also presented the extension of our Afghanistan commitment to Parliament for debate and vote. Amazingly the idea was bad-mouthed by a number of Liberals, including former defence ministers and the Flin Flon MP. They said there wasn't enough time for debate, conveniently forgetting that when the Liberals made the commitment there was no debate and no vote. The Grits also approved the new aggressive role of the troops, quite different from peacekeeping, then seemed to object to it. This new attitude raised the ire of Senator Dallaire, who tried to convince Liberals not to send the wrong message to the troops, but only two dozen listened Ð enough to barely pass the bill. What about the NDP? They voted solidly against the extension, pleading instead for a return to Canada's former peacekeeping role. As one political writer claimed, the NDP is "fossilized." Today's terrorists do not want peace, and better to eliminate them in their own countries than in ours. Areas like Darfur do not want Canadian or American peacekeepers. There are plenty of nations in Africa Ð let them provide the peacekeepers! By voting against the Afghanistan extension, the NDP and most Liberals are seen as voting against the troops. In fact Jack Layton and his small gang of members are gradually eliminating a lot of their support across the country. They're antagonizing organized labour, which is withdrawing from the party partly because Buzz Hargrove was kicked out. And now the military. Too bad! What about Creighton-Denare Beach's new MP, Gary Merasty. The MP recently seconded Paul Martin's private member's bill to restore the Liberal-promised Kelowna Accord. He hopes it will be supported by the Bloc and NDP. Sorry, Gary, this won't happen, as it means the promise of a $5 billion addition to the budget. If it passed it would trigger an immediate election, which the Bloc and Liberals desperately want to avoid. By the way, what is a Churchill River MP doing living in Saskatoon? It is highly unusual for a rural/northern MP to live hundreds of miles from his/her riding, and should be an issue in the next election. Tina Keeper? The best one can say is that she sure is no Bev Desjarlais. She as well as Merasty voted against the extension of the Afghanistan mission and was quite proud of her vote, which she strangely links with support for the troops. Most military people do not see it that way. Keeper will most likely suffer the same fate as Elijah Harper. Remember him? Harper lost because of the Liberal gun registration law, as did most rural Liberals. Where does Ms. Keeper stand on long gun registration? What about Merasty? It is really quite unfortunate that both of these ridings have Liberal MPs. The Liberal Party is in disarray, and most pundits predict many more losses for them in the next election. Unless things change, The Corner predicts that both Keeper and Merasty will lose next time. Keep in mind there were hundreds of snow birds away who didn't vote for Conservative Jeremy Harrison, former Churchill River MP, as they had in 2004. They fully expect Jeremy to run again. Would you be surprised if Bev Desjarlais ran in Churchill again Ð but this time as a Conservative? After all, she has left the NDP and is now working for the Tory Defence Minister. Maybe Stephen Harper can recruit her. Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.6/21/2006
