How do Canadians feel about PM Steven Harper? (mortgage, live)

[Future Trooper]

Though I have never lived or been to Canada I have seen Steven Harper before and I think that he is a good PM who knows what he is doing, is very educated, very precise, and represents Canada very well. Ofcouse what I state is my opinion.

[Belinda_Cooperstone]

He is an Idiot

[OhioUberAlles]

I'm not a Canadian but I believe Stephen Harper is a thug. He shut down Parliament for a few months to avoid a three party (BQ, NDP, and Liberals) effort to push through a no-confidence vote and the dissolution of his minority government.

[sunshineleith]

Originally Posted by Belinda_Cooperstone

He is an Idiot

I'm with you. He's a wanker.

[mikeyyc]

Originally Posted by OhioUberAlles

I'm not a Canadian but I believe Stephen Harper is a thug. He shut down Parliament for a few months to avoid a three party (BQ, NDP, and Liberals) effort to push through a no-confidence vote and the dissolution of his minority government.

a) It was/is a permitted parliamentary procedure

b) It was not a three party coalition, but a two party coalition with a non interference agreement with confessed sepratists. The leader of the coalition had already been removed from his leadership position by his own party.

[ajau]

I think Stephen Harper is doing what he needs to do to keep Canada a respectable place. Canadians has a pretty large socialist-left element within the society (about 25% of population) and these folks would basically turn Canada into the next Argentina (or US if it regresses more) if given the chance. The majority of Canadians are also big government nanny state supporters and Harper helps keep this interventionist element down. Stephen Harper helps keep that element of society out of power and that is good enough for me.

[Future Trooper]

I agree with you ^^

[LeJeremy]

Most Quebecers--especially Anglophone Quebecers--and many Martimers dislike Stephen Harper simply because he's a Conservative. He's always trying to cut stuff out of the budget, and privatize companies. Whenever there's a conservative government in power, they always try to privatize government departments, including train service--which would be a disaster--, and even our postal service, health care, and the Canadian Mint!
A lot of Maritimers these days seem to be voting NDP or Green then used to, and many Francophone Quebecers vote BQ (Bloc Quebecois, the separatist party).
Plus, Stephen Harper is very bad with the PR. He doesn't know how to be funny when the comedy shows interview him, and he always talks in a very monotonous voice.

[ajau]

Originally Posted by LeJeremy

Most Quebecers--especially Anglophone Quebecers--and many Martimers dislike Stephen Harper simply because he's a Conservative. He's always trying to cut stuff out of the budget, and privatize companies. Whenever there's a conservative government in power, they always try to privatize government departments, including train service--which would be a disaster--, and even our postal service, health care, and the Canadian Mint!
A lot of Maritimers these days seem to be voting NDP or Green then used to, and many Francophone Quebecers vote BQ (Bloc Quebecois, the separatist party).
Plus, Stephen Harper is very bad with the PR. He doesn't know how to be funny when the comedy shows interview him, and he always talks in a very monotonous voice.

Seems to me that the Anglo's of Quebec and the Maritimers like to be coddled by big government. They like to have government dictate the economy to them and they like government corporations dictating the terms of business in the region. Stephen Harper represents moving away from that suffocating mentality. Look what public corporations in the US have done to the mortgage markets!

Entrepeneurs need not move to the Maritimes I suppose with that attitude.

That "culture of defeat" Stephen Harper was referring to in the Maritimes a few years back does have some truth to it. Many Maritimers now in Calgary agreed with Harper and that culture was one of the reasons they moved here. Maritime and Quebec population is shrinking! Western population (Harper support area) is increasing. People vote with their feet.

[LeJeremy]

Yes, in a sense we like to be "coddled" by big government. We like to know that things like medicare, welfare, and pension will be paid or, and we like public services, like transit, and cultural infrastructure to be supported.