Monday, November 5, 2007

...but for now, Mulroney!

I've got a bunch to blog about - Afghanistan, Paul Wells (back from Afghanistan), the NDP's surprising call for a referendum on the Senate's existence - some of which I'll hopefully get to this evening. For now, though, mosey over to read Mulroney-era PC MP Garth Turner's bang-on comments about the Liberals' current strategy of going after Mulroney.

(Incidentally, I've always thought that Stephen Harper was, for a successful politician, a pretty honest and forthright guy - way more so than, for example, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Stockwell Day, or Jack Layton. Or Brian Mulroney. But his frequent praise of Mulroney seems to be very slightly at odds with his record of being a major builder of a party whose initial raison d'etre was dissatisfaction with the Mulroney government.)

7 comments:

Catrin said...

How about a holistic perspective of fixing things:

We'll outsource all this ridiculous partisan bellowing to the senate, which would give it a raison d'etre, and parliament would have time to govern.

Voila!

Daniel Kaszor said...

I question the purpose of using the phrase "raison d'etre."

Catrin said...

If you're referring to my comment, then the answer is clearly "to mock steve". If you're referring to Steve's post, the answer may be "to mock and/or emulate Paul Wells".

Patrick Ross said...

Well, one can't dispute the fact that, in terms of purely being a politician, Brian Mulroney was successful -- at least in the fickle sense that he won majority governments.

However, does anyone else wonder about the wisdom of those who consider Mulroney to be one the "big three" "neoconservative" leaders of the 1980s (Reagan, Thatcher, Mulroney) considering that public spending increased under Mulroney? He spent taxpayer dollars to colour-code military uniforms, for god's sake.

Mustafa Hirji said...

I think Harper's praise of Mulroney is as sincere as his stated support for same-sex marriage: he's keeping the base happy so they don't abandon him.

"Steve Smith" said...

How much of Harper's base do you think really likes Mulroney?

Mustafa Hirji said...

I meant to write "opposition" to same-sex marriage above, not "support".

I think Mulroney commands great respect amongst the old party faithful. At the very least, amongst the old PC operatives.