Michael Ignatieff and His Coalition Stooges

Herman Cain Listened to Stephen Harper's Warning

Every time there's an election in Canada, it seems to happen like clockwork: some far-left organization rolls out Stephen Harper's 1997 speech to the Council for National Policy, an American conservative think tank.

"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, a standard of living substantially lower than yours, a massive brain drain of young professionals to your country, and double the unemployment rate of the United States."

Of course, Canada's left hopes Canadians will listen to the first sentence of that passage, get disgusted, and stop reading. They tried it in 2004, again in 2008, then again in 2011.

But instead, something amazing happened; something the left never expected.

Canadians thought about it. And they realized Stephen Harper was right. They realized that Canada had for too long settled for government-cushioned mediocrity. Each time the left has rolled out the "Northern European welfare state" quote, more Canadians voted for Harper.

Because it's rather simple: Canadians don't want to live in a Northern European welfare state. Certainly, there are those who have convinced themselves that they do. But they haven't paid attention.

Having not paid attention, the left continually wanted Canadians to mistake this quote as an expression of contempt for Canadians (and because they never learn, they'll probably try it again in 2015), as opposed to what it was: a warning.

It's hard to say if Herman Cain was in Montreal in 1997 when Harper delivered that speech. But it's clear that he must have heard about it. Because one can hear a lot of Harper's solemn caution in Cain's declaration that Republicans and conservatives will not allow President Barack Obama to turn the United States of America into the United States of Europe.

Canadians don't want to live in a Northern European welfare state, in any sense of the term. Nor do Americans.

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.