What's Going on with Stephan

What in the Sam Hell is going on with Stephan Harper? This is the man that we all love to hate, Canada’s little Hitler.

But lately, I’m a little confused.

His policies are starting to make sense. Sure, he’s still opposed to gay marriage and same sex rights…but otherwise, he’s been making some completely logical decisions

It’s not like he’s my new hero or anything, but maybe he’s not as evil as we all thought. I mean our boys are still in Afghanistan, but on the other hand, they were there before Stephan came along. What is new are a set of policies that have a distinctly non-Harper lean to them. Harper has drawn a lot of criticism for most of these moves from the opposition, but then again, that’s what the opposition does.

Let’s review:

Removing the Income Trust loop hole that allowed huge corporations big tax breaks…I see this as a good thing. Critics argue that by doing this Canada becomes less appealing to foreign investment, as we are perceived as an unstable investment environment. Translation, foreign corporations can no longer make huge tax free profits by using income trusts to shuffle their taxes on to the backs of Canadians. Harpers view: Canadian taxpayers don’t get screwed by huge corporations trying to make huge tax free profits. I’m going to give this one to Stephan.

Criticizing China for its poor human rights record, instead of sucking up to build a better trade relationship. Critics argue that pushing the human rights issue with the Chinese was wrong, because the approach was too aggressive. They suggest that we should put the human rights issue on the back burner and use our trade partnership to guide (presumably through osmosis) the Chinese to better a better Human Rights record. Harper’s view: make a statement that says human rights come before a smooth trade relationship. I’m giving this one to Stephan too.

Instead of spending billions of dollars on an ineffective gun registry that just pisses off gun toting rednecks and has no impact on gun toting criminals…make stiffer penalties for gun toting criminals and deny bail for those who use guns in crimes. The critics didn’t have much for this one; it’s hard to argue that violent criminals should be given much. Again, Stephan gets a point.

Letting Quebec say that they are a separate nation within a united Canada without giving them any more special treatment than they already have. The critics argue that this is a divisive move that threatens the unity of a nation. Harper argues (presumably) that allowing Quebec to cling to a meaningless definition is harmless, and may appease them…it’s not like he’s the one who gave them the distinct society clause. Viewed as a semantic issue (which at this point it clearly is) a speedy resolution to the nation within a nation question is in my view, a good thing. Score another for Stephan.

So you probably get my point by now. Stephan’s doing things that we (I) would not have expected. It’s not like he’s my new hero or anything (unless he gives Bush the finger and pulls our troops out of the middle east) but it’s beginning to look like a Conservative leader in a minority government isn’t as bad as we (I) would have expected. Perhaps having Stephan on the right, and Jack Layton on the left, moves us in to an effective middle ground. Sure, we won’t be meeting our Kyoto commitments until 2050, and sure our net debt is just a media spin phrase, but hell, I’m impressed.

The only catch to this political bliss I’m experiencing is the haunting feeling that perhaps this is all a contrived ploy be Harper to build our trust while he unfolds his true (and hidden) evil agenda. On the other hand, he made Rick Mercer a sandwich, and it looked like a tasty one at that. The verdict is still out on Stephan. Maybe it is possible to be just a little bit evil. That said, remember one thing….he’s a damn sight better that George Walker Bush. Also, as I'm sure you've noticed...dude looks a little stoned in every single picture I've ever seen of him...this could explain a lot.