Stephen Harper likes to play to the stereotype: conservatives are competent fiscal managers. Your Conservative government isn't scandal-mongering, politicking and wasting its time on frivolous issues; it's focusing on balancing the books and nursing a weak recovery back to health 'til that free market goodness can kick in and resume providing prosperity for all. We've hit a bump in the road but Harper and the gang are focused on minimizing the damage until we can get back to business as usual — or their idea of the way business as usual ought to be. That's our No. 1 priority and conservatives are all about prioritizing.
And the next time he uses that to brush off questions about his government's policies regarding the environment, and specifically about climate change, perhaps someone could refer him to this post: Climate change is bad for business.
Climate change will have a profound impact on the global economy. Enacting policies to limit carbon emissions would certainly have serious economic consequences but so will doing nothing and being forced to deal with the results, of which we're getting a good preview this summer. Business as usual is not an option and a competent government attempting to work in everybody's best interests would be explaining that, not denying it and actively opposing the efforts of others to deal with it.
It is true that factually climate change is bad for business. But that does nothing to counter my belief that climate change is a hoax. See how easy it is to be Stephen Harper?
I have a feeling that Harper does not take what you and I would think of as the long view, and he doesn't think of business in that way. To him, it is precisely by taking the short view that you make a killing in business, and that's what he believes in.
He's probably looking forward to his next new career in short-term business too. God knows, I am (looking forward to a new career for Harper).