Thursday, October 2, 2008

Did I hear that right?!?

Harper on the Volvo plant closure and the loss of 500 jobs:

"I understand some people lost some jobs. It's a terrible thing. I understand - I've been between jobs before."

Between jobs?! Holy crap what an asshole!

5 comments:

  1. Remember just a few weeks ago? Harper suggested that people who lost their jobs could always move to Fort McMurray.

    I suppose in some circles this passes for leadership. It is absurd for someone who has never held a "real" job in his life (unless you consider being a political hack to be real work) to suggest that he knows how people who have lost their jobs feel. Harper's statement makes it clear that he deserves to be "between jobs" after October 14.

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  2. What I wonder is why people never mention that the only REAL job Harper ever had was working for Imperial Oil...

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  3. I'm not sure what you are so offended about? I think Harper was genuinely trying to relate to the individuals who have had a difficult time. But let's be honest here. Government has no role in propping up free enterprise, nor should it seek one. Volvo closed, people lost their jobs, and they have to find new work. Government can't artificially regulate what is an affordable way to run a business.

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  4. OK, so why did Harper announce a $2000 grant to graduates of apprenticeship programs to help start their businesses? Why does BDC provide low-interest loans and grants to start-up small businesses?

    The belief that "Government has no role in propping up free enterprise, nor should it seek one" is consistent with Harper's head-in-the-sand approach to the looming economic crisis. Granted, should things get worse, a neo-Keynesian approach will be required and this is simply anathema to Harper's free market ideology.

    However, my initial point was that real leadership involves more than saying to people that life's a bitch and "suck it up princess." Let's see how Canadians, regardless of their political stripe, respond to Harper's hollow words when the crisis turns into recession (and perhaps even worse).

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  5. "I'm not sure what you are so offended about?"

    well, I'm offended as well, precisely because of how you try to soften it up.

    Harper was genuinely (maybe) trying to relate to those who have had a difficult time. That's offensive, because he has never been there, but is only pretending to have been there. That is patronizing and dishonest.

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