Stephen Harper's New Worst Nightmare

Canadian Taxpayers' Federation appoints new, familiar, director

Ever since Michael Ignatieff's abrupt ascension to the leadership of the Liberal party, many have been predicting that he's Prime Minister Stephen Harper's worst nightmare.

But one can rest well assured that Harper's nightmares are a good deal worse than Ignatieff.

Considering the deficit that his government has just budged for the coming year -- one that may increase as the government reportedly considers richening the stimulus pot -- Stephen Harper's worst nightmare is trouble in the fiscal conservative base of his party.

With the appointment of Kevin Gaudet as the new federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, Harper's nightmares may be set to become as dark as they've been at any point of his political career.

Kevin Gaudet is best known for the "Fibber" campaign that lambasted Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for various broken tax-related promises.

One can only wonder what Gaudet has in store for Stephen Harper. Readers of the Western Standard have already gotten a taste.

"With Mr. Harper in power, many Canadians thought they had a federal government interested in keeping its promises to control spending, balance the budget and reverse decades of overspending," Gaudet wrote in an op/ed. "They were wrong."

"In a hysterical over-reaction to calls for ‘stimulus,’ after eleven straight years of surpluses and debt reduction, the latest federal budget takes a giant leap back into deficit," Gaudet continues. "‘Stimulus’ is merely a new code word for deficit. It is used by those organizations, businesses and special interest groups with vested interests in convincing government to ratchet up spending. They succeeded."

Gaudet should be a fairly familiar face to Harper. Gaudet was the director of Opposition Research -- which Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella long ago dubbed "oppo" -- for former Reform party leader Preston Manning.

Even the National Citizens' Coalition, a group Stephen Harper used to be the director of, has pulled no punches.

“The big spending of this Conservative government will take generations to pay off,” said NCC President Peter Coleman. "The federal government has a poor track record when it comes to creating meaningful and long-lasting jobs."

Stephen Harper is likely having very dark nightmares, but Michael Ignatieff very likely couldn't be any further away from them.