Don’t confuse us with the facts!
Feb 04
Posted: under general.
To me, it is apparent that Stephen Harper completely misread the mood of Canadians when his government released last year’s economic statement. He thought the population wanted facts. Actually, they wanted feel-good rhetoric of the kind that was galvanizing the country to the south.
He thought people would be glad to hear that Canada was in relatively good fiscal shape because of sound management, from both his government and that of Paul Martin before him. He thought that not spending yourself into a deficit hole because every newspaper headline screamed “Crisis, crisis, crisis” was a good way to preserve our ability to weather the financial ups and downs.
Foolishly, he thought people would see that despite all the billions and billions rushed into banks and propping up various ventures in trouble globally, nothing was making an actual difference in the financial markets.
He somehow thought that telling people the truth was the right thing to do.
Another painful political lesson learned by Harper, one which I’m not sure conservatives actually want him to learn: If Canadians don’t want to hear facts, if they don’t want the truth, if they want to be reassured by the perpetrators of big government (i.e. liberals) that panic is good for them and the country, then as their elected representative, you need to give them what they want.
That’s why Harper has embraced deficit spending; not because he wants to, but because Canadians do.
