Hello George.

20 Dec 05 15:55, you wrote to Gord Hannah:

 GH>>    Harper has advocated reducing Canadian tax rates to below
 GH>> American levels.

 GP> How is that even POSSIBLE, without completely GUTTING all that
 GP> makes
 GP> Canada Canada? (ALL social services, ALL government bloat, ALL
 GP> provincial transfer payments)

Perhaps some insight into what Stephen Harper really stands for can be
gleaned from a speech he gave in 1997 to the American Council for National
Policy. The full text of the speech can be viewed at: 
http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/leadersparties/harper_speech.html

Some of the comments are quite interesting. For example...

"But seriously, your country, and particularly your conservative
movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and
across the world... ...It may not be true, but it's legendary that if
you're like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own
country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than
most Canadians."

"Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the
term, and very proud of it. Canadians make no connection between the fact
that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have
very low economic growth... ...In terms of the unemployed, of which we have
over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these
people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're
receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance."

"The NDP could be described as basically a party of liberal Democrats,
but it's actually worse than that, I have to say. And forgive me jesting
again, but the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in
the affairs of men...  ...Some people point out that there is a small
element of clergy in the NDP. Yes, this is true. But these are clergy who,
while very committed to the church, believe that it made a historic error
in adopting Christian theology."

"The establishment came down with a constitutional package which they
put to a national referendum. The package included distinct society status
for Quebec and some other changes, including some that would just horrify
you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights,
and a whole bunch of other things."


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