Bryan

Absolutely, yes to all of those. He's done a tremendous job.

Thanks for the video CR. Looks like several FN "warriors" attempting to intimidate the soldier. He held his ground, and kept his cool, while they were the ones to keep walking away. Hiding their faces like cowards at that.

People who wanted the things that he was promising, and are pleasantly surprised that he's actually doing them.

Are you a minister of a federal government attending an international conference?

It's called keeping their promise to the people who elected them. I know that's a foreign concept for the other parties.

That remains to be seen. So far the Conservatives have been the best of a bad lot. Least bad might be more appropriate. There's a lot I'm disappointed in, but I would hate the other guys' solutions even more.

The crime bill will save us a lot of money. http://www.danieldickin.ca/2011/12/real-costs-of-bill-c-10.html

It's the current rate of automatic 6% per year increases that is unsustainable. The only plan on the table right now for health transfers is to tie future increases to the rate of inflation. The cuts are going to be 5-10% across the board to federal departments.

One World Government!!! New World Order!!! Black helicopters! Buy Gold!! [/alex jones]

The budgets that the Liberals did write were worthless. We are in this mess specifically because the Liberals were horrifically bad fiscal managers who thought that not paying your bills was the same thing as saving money.

That is not true. There is no plan to cut health transfers. The only plan is to continue to increase the funding levels. The idea is to plan for how much those increases will be capped at.

If CPC promised, but never delivered, absolutely I'd give the credit to the one that DID the job. I wasn't always a Conservative. I was a Liberal supporter/voter at one time. I switched because I got sick of their goddamn lying about what they were planning to do, but never actually did.

That's the most important point. If aboriginals really cared about retaining their traditional culture and wanted "OUT" of the white man's culture, no one would oppose that. I don't see too many of them living in TeePees, wearing caribou pelts, and subsistence hunting/fishing. They don't want that anymore, and why should they?

Liberals came to a lot of decisions that never materialized. How did that national daycare plan work out? How about Kyoto? Eliminating the GST? That is the fundamental difference: Liberals talk a big game about caring about healthcare, while making cuts to it. Conservatives were pilloried as being anti-healthcare, yet they are the ones who actually DID increase the funding. Not "planned to do it", DID IT. They are also the ones who are working out a long term plan to make that funding sustainable by tying it to the rate of inflation.

We aren't paying more, we're paying less. Federally, a lot less. Unfortunately defense was ANOTHER area where the Liberals left their funding obligations unmet so that they could post their fake 'surplus'. Yes, it's insanely expensive, but Canada has not been pulling her weight internationally for a long time, and our troops need new equipment. Some of that equipment comes with an astronomical cost, that would not have been nearly so bad had the programs been adequately funded all along. We have some huge catch-up to do, and it's going to be very expensive no matter how you slice it.

You are completely full of it. Putting plans in place means nothing when a Liberal does it. They talk a big game, but never follow through. Even signing a 'binding' agreement doesn't mean anything unless they DO it. The Liberals signed a lot of agreements that they never followed through on. What they DID do was cut health care funds substantially. What the Conservatives DID do was increase funding. What they've continued to do is increase funding. There is no talk whatsoever about cutting healthcare spending. The only thing they are looking to do is manage the rate of INCREASE. It's still going to be more year over year.

Liberals said a lot of things, but did very little. According to Liberal policies, we've already had a national daycare system for going on 20 years. After all, that was in writing too, for several consecutive elections at that. What matters is action. Conservatives are actually doing what they promised.

Your opening post was a rant about how terrible it is that the Conservatives are cutting spending. Which is it?

The Liberals CUT over $25 billion from healthcare. Not paying the basic bills is where their fake "surpluses" came from. A big part of the reason the Conservatives had to increase spending so much is because the Liberals left so much of their basic obligations unpaid.

Feel free to start a thread about these other topics. This one is about the Wheat Board.

The money is not there. A deficit means the amount of available funds is a negative number. Cuts are an unfortunate necessity. No one likes it, but they have to be done. Pointing to other spending excesses is not a reason to continue with excess, they are just other places to look to make sure that spending is held in check in the future. However.... The Conservatives have increased healthcare funding substantially since they've been in power. They promised to continue with 6%/yr increases until the end of the current agreement. What they want to do after that is cap healthcare funding increases to no more than double inflation. All across the board, it's always been increases, not cuts, when it comes to healthcare funding. Compare that to what the Liberals did; cutting healthcare funding.

It doesn't screw the farmers over, it gives them a choice. They will vote Conservative because the Conservatives kept their promise. You think that freedom is stupid?

That is not an honest assessment of what's happening though. If "DenPar" had bothered to read the bill he'd see that it specifically spells out the transition period where the government will over see the board temporarily to ensure that the changes are actually carried out, then it will be returned to the farmers.

There it is again: The soft racism of low expectations.

In all seriousness, I think you have at least a partial point: in the long run, Harper most likely will be judged as one of the true greats. Sure, the opposition hates the ideology of some of the things his govt. is doing right now, but how many other politicians in recent times actually went about doing the very things they promised to do during an election? It's an incredible thing to behold. I hope you're right about the crushing socialists part though.