Angry in the Great White North
But I thought we were a country of "progressives"?
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 11:33 AM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
Leader

The left in this country has, not unreasonably, pointed to the popular vote in the last election as indicating that, without vote splitting between the three left-of-centre parties (the Liberals, the NDP, and in Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois), the Conservatives would not have won. As it is, the Conservatives were only able to get a minority. They argue that the majority of Canadians really want a "progresssive" government, and that this current Conservative government is an electoral aberration.

But the latest Angus Reid Poll suggests something different:

How do the Conservatives’ priorities compare to your own?

Identical: 9%
Similar: 56%
Different: 20%
Very different: 10%
Don’t know: 5%

Is this a case of the Conservatives masking themselves as some sort of Liberal-lite? But 65% of Canadians in the poll say the Conservative priorities are their priorities. So what are the Conservative priorities?

Thanks to the 5-priority list, we know what those priorities are:

  • Clean up government by passing the Federal Accountability Act;
  • Provide real tax relief to working families by cutting the GST;
  • Make our streets and communities safer by cracking down on crime;
  • Help parents with the cost of raising their children; and
  • Work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee.

No hiding the conservative agenda here. Lower taxes. More choices (and responsibilities) for parents. Tough on crime. Push the provinces to meet their obligations in health care. Clean up government and eliminate the culture of entitlement.

What about the environment? What about world peace? What about being different from the US? What about more laws to protect workers? What about higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Canadians?

What about those things that make Canada Canadian, at least according to the NDP and the Liberals and their fellow travellers?

Maybe those left-of-centre parties had better do some serious reconsideration about what Canadians really want. They might not like the answer. So far the answer seems to be that they really want Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

Donate to the AGWN Legal Fund
Main Story

Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords