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This article has gained the attention of citizens of the USA with the most clicked on piece from the iconic New York Times when it was published.  
 
The U.S. rarely pays attention to Canadian politics but with Harper and his antics, it has grabbed the interest of many American Citizens paying attention to the upcoming Canadian October election.  
 
The comments that follow on the piece are interesting.  
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/opinion/sunday/the-closing-of-the-canadian-mind.html?_r=0  
 
Thoughts?  
 
Edited by Tarry, 2015-08-20 20:36:27

Obviously written with extreme prejudice.  
 
Media doesn't care about the good that leaders do, they are just there like hungry wolves, just waiting for a slip up, ready to take anything out of context, and contort a story if it means selling papers. I don't blame leaders for avoiding the media.

and, in my opinion, it is spot on. Like Mulcair said in the debate: "When asked about the recession, Harper is the only Prime Minister in Canadian history that will be able to ask which one."  
The issue of missing and murdered women is not an issue "high on his radar" (Harper's words). He has muzzled our scientists, greatly reduced the number of lakes that are protected. Look at how he's treated our veterans, what he's done to Canada Post. I fail to see any good that Harper has done. He came into power with a financial surplus thanks to the Liberal gov't and now we are living in a deficit. That surplus disappeared long ago. Balanced budget for 2015? Only because he took the money from our veterans, from our health budget & funding for Indian Affairs.  
He called an election months earlier than usual because he's hoping that the other parties will run out of money before he does. He called the election just a week before the Duffy trial was slated to begin, yet refuses to answer questions about how much he knew. Not only are the reporters muzzled, but their bags are searched by sniffer dogs.  
The media is there to report the news. That Harper hasn't done anything good worth reporting speaks more about Harper than the media.  
A slip up? Harper's whole reign as PM has come at a colossal cost to Canada, to it's reputation abroad. Harper is truly turning Canada into a "country we don't recognize" (his words.)  
Harper is the only party leader avoiding the press.  
The press's job is to report the news in an unbiased fashion, which,in my opinion, they have been.

Enfyre said "Obviously written with extreme prejudice.     Media doesn't care about the good that leaders do, they are just there like hungry wolves, just waiting for a slip up, ready to take anything out of context, and contort a story if it means selling papers. I don't blame leaders for avoiding the media. "

A left-wing biased rag. They are always saying the same kinds of things about Republican politicians, but Obama and any other Democrat, for that matter, can do no wrong. I wouldn't put much into anything that they have to say about anything.  
 
 
 
Edited by Triplethreat, 2015-08-21 01:54:39

I actually thought it was a very good, factual article that could have gone further...  
 
Remember when the gov. was pushing to record all your online movement for later scouring?  
 
Remember to get out and vote sheeple  
 
 

Both the reads in this topic are political crap that are to rally the troops or more to preach to the choir.  
I thought it might contain some insight on how the average American felt about our election and the direction our country was going, but honestly they don't care.

Valerie under your system where would the money for veteran affairs, proping up the economy, improvements to Healthcare and searching for the missing aboriginal women come from?  
Well we could tax business for this except that will drive more businesses to leave Canada not have them invest in candy.  
We could raise the taxes of individual Canadians because the 40% I pay in personal income tax is not high enough not counting get and fuel tax. Never mind that this province that has had an NDP government for so long is the second highest taxed province in Canada followin the highest tax province that have had the longest running liberal government. By the way the 3rd and 4 the highest provinces are bc and Ontario which have both had liberal and NDP governments. The lowest taxed provinces by the way Alberta and Saskatchewan now have had Conservative governments and Saskatchewan was one of the higher taxed provinces until they dumped the NDP.  
Veteran affairs is a sad thing for sure but when you figure that it was a duplication of services that are available through health care andgovernment funded EAP programs and programs are still there for veteran assistance maybe it is a cut that could be made it was not that anybody said we don't need it was programs that was said we already have.Do not get me started on ptsd and guilt associated with this. But it is something that is a fairly new problem no different than ADHD which happened after we as a society started looking for an easier way.  
The missing aboriginal women is another issue entirely and the way we deal with first nations can be a hotly debated subject that at this time I would prefer not to discuss in words on a site like this.  
Harper can not be blamed for this recession our economy is so closely related to natural resources such as okl and mining of minerals such as coal, gold etc. But both the liberals and the NDP of made multiple statements about leaving our resources in the ground who can honestly believe that leaving over 80% of our GDP in the ground helps our economy. If we have no jobs and our tax base dries up because of this how do you think we can pay for all the social programs everybody wants for free what happened to going out and hustling to make a dollar to buy what you want or pay for what you need.  
Harper has been a good PM and a lot better choice than born rich kid Justin Tudeau or I can't decide which wing I am Tom Mulcair who incident was a Quebec Liberal MLA then tried to join the Conservative Federal Government and when he was told that he would not get a cabinet position reinvented himself as leader of the NDP seems like a guy who just wants a government job.  
 
Edited by Black Star, 2015-08-21 06:59:32

I'm just wondering if you think the Liberals would have been able to run a surplus during the recession? Very unlikely. And why does every think the government running big surpluses is a good thing? That just means they are taxing us too much. Did the liberals ever give us a tax break worth talking about? Nope.  
Missing and murdered aboriginals... Why would this be a higher priority than any missing woman regardless of skin colour? Why is it the governments job to solve this problem? That's what the police are for. Do we need government involved in every single social aspect of our life?

Actually this is an OPINION piece and should be viewed as such .  
Stephen Marche is a known Pro - Liberal writer and his opinions could be taken with a grain of salt.  
Dictionary.com  
Opinion : a personal view , attitude , or appraisal  
a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty

Well, the almost $800 million spent on partisan advertising (some of which was for programs that didn't and still don't exist) could have went a long way to help the veterans. And the millions spent on lawyers to fight the veterans in their fight for help and easily accessible services could have been spent actually helping them instead. That being said, you've made it clear you don't have a lot of respect for our veterans considering you've likened PTSD to ADHD, and seem to imply you think it's bogus.

All I can say is careful what you wish for folks. I said to my boss last week that in the near future we could have Trudeau as PM and Donald Trump as the US Pres.......is this what we really want people?????

What I find hypocritical is when people believe that right wing politics leads to a better economy. Our neighbours to the south are supposed to be the most capitalist and free country, and yet if we look back to 2008 we see one of the greatest financial crisis,short of the Great Depression, and that happened after 8 years of right wing government.  
Governments don't really control the economy but the economy can control government .

KJ2013 said "I'm just wondering if you think the Liberals would have been able to run a surplus during the recession? Very unlikely. And why does every think the government running big surpluses is a good thing? That just means they are taxing us too much. Did the liberals ever give us a tax break worth talking about? Nope.   Missing and murdered aboriginals... Why would this be a higher priority than any missing woman regardless of skin colour? Why is it the governments job to solve this problem? That's what the police are for. Do we need government involved in every single social aspect of our life? "

Surpluses would mean that we could start paying back the debt that we have already heaped on our children and grandchildren!!!  
 
The current Harper gang has basically stolen billions from their chance of future prosperity. If you think that is ok, well....  

You don't think that repayment of debt is included in every budget? And the debt will NEVER go away. As long as we want all the social programs.  
Like I said... If the Liberals were in power they would have to run a deficit. Stimulus was the name of the game and when you do that you're not going to be running a balanced budget.  
So I guess you're in favor of paying more taxes than you should instead of a government making smart decisions and making cuts where you have to-You can't please everyone. It's always about the children, etc and that's the lamest excuse. Did the debt go away in the 90's? Every government will spend more than it brings in overall.  
If you want a government to bring down the debt than in that theory you should be in favor of huge cuts and put the savings towards the debt.

KJ2013 said "You don't think that repayment of debt is included in every budget? And the debt will NEVER go away. As long as we want all the social programs.   Like I said... If the Liberals were in power they would have to run a deficit. Stimulus was the name of the game and when you do that you're not going to be running a balanced budget.   So I guess you're in favor of paying more taxes than you should instead of a government making smart decisions and making cuts where you have to-You can't please everyone. It's always about the children, etc and that's the lamest excuse. Did the debt go away in the 90's? Every government will spend more than it brings in overall.   If you want a government to bring down the debt than in that theory you should be in favor of huge cuts and put the savings towards the debt. "

Be concerned about our future generations is nothing but selfish.  
Past governments have shown with proper fiscal management that services can be effectively delivered AND our rising national debt can be paid down at the same time. It just takes a government to stop squandering money for their own selfish reasons.  
If it takes more taxes and less handouts to selfish people that are doing fine, you bet I am in favour.  
After NINE years plus of this government proving they can't manage our money it's time to elect someone who can.