I've seen a fair amount of comment about the different face that Stephen Harper is presenting to Canadians at the moment. His fans are expressing disappointment at his supposed betrayal of conservative principles while his critics are suggesting that he's beginning to look positively Liberal. But even if the Harper government presents a budget that Liberals can live with, what's to prevent them from dusting off all those poison pills they jammed into November's economic statement and bringing them back as separate pieces of legislation? Not much, apparently.
The Harper government appears to be charging ahead with plans to legislate wage controls and rollbacks on public servants, forcing federal unions into a united front for a possible showdown.Union leaders say Treasury Board officials have told them to expect the government to resurrect controversial plans that would freeze all federal salary increases at 2.3 per cent for 2007 and 1.5 per cent for each of the next three years.
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Last week, the RCMP, through their staff representatives, went to Federal Court to stop Treasury Board from rolling back its three-year wage agreement, which was settled last June.
After all, there's a base to pander to and they'll be pretty restless. I would expect that shortly after this budget passes — and I expect it to pass — we'll see a return of Harper the ideologue. In spades.
Agreed. Harper's ideology hasn't disappeared. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Harper must be stupider than we give him credit for if he is going after RCMP wages.
I mean, if they weren't pulling out all the stops to prevent/block investigations into their various election shenanigans - if they were squeaky clean - then maybe it would be a worthwhile pander to the base.
But as it stands it just sounds dumb. Not that I think the RCMP should pursue vendettas or politically motivated investigations. It's just that I think they do.
It's just that I think they do.
I wouldn't be surprised if they do based on everything else we know about them. As for Harper's relative intelligence, I don't think he's a stupid man. I just don't think he's as smart as he thinks he is. Humility is one of those things that doesn't seem to come naturally to him.
Oh good Christ. This is not what I need. My husband is a civil servant (and I make less than my personal tax limit - like about a third of it), and they've been without a contract for some time now. Why in hell they'd squeeze them, and not say, give them money they can then pump into the economy is simply beyond me.
Not what I need when I've got another kid on the way in 5 weeks. Oh well, at least I'll get another $100/mo for "childcare". *snort*
The RCMP wage thing was announced a couple of months ago, it just didn't make it into high rotation with all the broohahah going on at the time.
so glad you posted on this!
So the public servants will end up with tax cuts but are left worse off due to roll backs. PSAC and PIPS are screaming today. Quite a few mentions in the news, linked to the budget.
Steve just can't seem to stop himself from attacking the public service, and this is an attack. It makes no sense - agreements were signed without strikes - favouring what Treasury Board wanted - and the few remaining were moving along.
This is just a first step in a CON attempt to strangle not only the PS, but their powerful unions as well.
The unions held a lot of meetings during the last election, and the CONs were not pleased - hardly attended any of the panels when invited.
This was what PIPS was waiting to see before signing an agreement, and they were right.
This action reflects the corruption on the government - sign an agreement one day, then turn it to nothing the next. Today, I'm for a coalition. No point supporting an optics budget especially when you can be damn sure this lying bunch won't live up to it anyway.
(all that and a leak at the nuclear power plant in Chalk River! Damn!)
Today, I'm for a coalition.
I don't think you're going to see one unless an informal Conservative-Liberal coalition counts.
Ignatieff to support budget but with conditions
The "conditions" don't sound all that onerous and I suspect Harper will be happy to sit down with Iggie and come to some agreement.
The "conditions" don't sound all that onerous and I suspect Harper will be happy to sit down with Iggie and come to some agreement.
Of course. It seems like smart politics to me - the Liberals get to avoid an election but appear as though they are dictating policy to the Cons.
The country may well go to hell in a handbasket in the meantime, but I think the Liberals are quite happy to let the country be screwed over if it means they get to be in power again.
If the Cons bring back the stupid bills, why wouldn't they get voted down by the bloc, NDP, and Libs on principle? They wouldn't even be confidence votes, with all the "oh noes, you're toppling the government" hand-wringing by useful idiots that would bring.
I get the distinct impression that Ignatieff doesn't want an election right now. So what's to prevent Harper from waiting just long enough to be sure that a vote of non-confidence would definitely send us to the polls and then starting to declare everything to be matters of confidence again and daring the opposition to bring him down?