The Vancouver Scrum

On the move!

Agh! You’re still here? My new site and weblog, ianking.ca is now up and running; new posts are building up over there, never to be mirrored here. Go! What are you waiting for? All the stuff worth keeping has been migrated over to the new server, and I don’t anticipate making any more posts here.

Bloggers and webmasters: Update your links! Simply replace vancouverscrum.blogspot.com with www.ianking.ca in your blogrolls or bookmarks to point to the new site. Old posts will remain on this server for as long as the people at Blogger/Google allow them to remain; unfortunately, I’m not going to bother to come up with any way of converting permalinks on this blog to their corresponding posts on the new site. Yes, I plead laziness. I also realize the irony of switching away from Blogger just it starts to add features that the demanding blog nerds insist upon.

Thanks for reading and linking, and see you over at ianking.ca!

—Ian King, December 13, 2004

Monday, September 23, 2002

 
Harper also got into hot water in Atlantic Canada earlier this year when he accused Maritimers of being "defeatist" and claiming that a "can't-do attitude" pervaded the region. Harper claimed that he was criticizing the federal government's policy towards the region, blaming the federal government's regional-development schemes for the region's woes.

Of course, the message was received rather differently; it was seen as a giant slap in the face. Maritimers of all stripes condemned Harper's remarks.

Or, as the joke goes, "Harper might not be able to unite the Right, but he sure can unite Maritimers."

However, Harper's potential problems go further. Prior to his election as Alliance leader this year, Stephen Harper was the president of the National Citizens' Coalition, a very conservative advocacy group. He was a public man during this time, making many speeches and contributed many opinion pieces to various publications during his tenure at the NCC.

Those speeches and articles are part of the public record, and therefore fair game for his critics. His writings show an adherence to a rigid brand of conservatism that has not yet proved popular at the federal level in Canada. It's true that some of the ideas that he contributed to the old Reform Party were implemented by the Liberals in the 1990's, but they were scarcely recognizable to a true-blue Reformer. They were "kinder and gentler" or, if you prefer, "wetter."

Now, Harper's critics can paint him as vengeful and intolerant as well as being a rigid ideologue whose vision of Canada is supported by only a small minority of Canadians.

Great Right Hope? Maybe not.

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