You’ve read the question “you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?” a number of times on this page over the past 18 months or so, and basically it suggests you can blab all you like, but until you step up to the plate and actually do something, you may as well just button it because if you don’t, you’ll risk end up looking ridiculous.
Take the federal government for example who, while flapping off to voters in Canada about how devoted they are to fixing the economy, how terribly concerned they are about protecting families and jobs, and how they’re the only party capable of dealing with the crumbling economy, but based on their latest antics, one really has to wonder about all of the above and just exactly whose interests our government is allegedly protecting.
Oh sure, they committed $4 billion to the auto industry last month despite the fact that a recent national poll conducted by Canwest News Service and Global National from December 18 to 21 said 66 per cent of Atlantic Canada, 65 per cent of those polled in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 63 per cent in Quebec, 62 per cent in British Columbia and a whopping 69 per cent in Alberta were all opposed to the federal government dishing out that kind of money on an industry that could take years to recover, if at all.
Of course the only province that supported the bailout was Ontario, which makes perfect sense for both their citizens and the prime minister. After all, Ontario – especially southern Ontario is where most of the jobs will be lost with or without the bailout, and the prime minister gets to pat himself on the back and try to squeeze out a few more votes for the inevitable upcoming election that you can expect real soon, even if it means throwing the rest of Canada under the bus.
And that’s all fine and dandy, I guess.
What isn’t all that fine and dandy, was the announcement last week that the federal government awarded a contract in the amount of $254 million for the purchase of 1,300 new military trucks.
In case you missed it, while the government “talks the talk” – that being saving the auto industry, they seem to be having problems mastering the “walk the walk” part, especially in light of the fact that while a number of auto plants sit idle and empty in Ontario, the federal government awarded that massive, taxpayer-paid contract to a United States-based manufacturer.
What’s up with that?
In these times of dire economic conditions, does that make fiscal sense to anyone other than the prime minister?
“If we are going to try and stimulate the economy in Canada and specifically, where manufacturing is at an all time low and job loss is unprecedented, your government must recognize how critical it is to ensure that Canadian tax dollars are spent to put Canadians to work,” said Canadian Auto Workers President Ken Lewenza. “The workers in these facilities absolutely deserve the support of their government as we go through these very difficult and challenging times in our country.”
So exactly whose jobs is the prime minister protecting with our tax dollars is up for debate because it sure doesn’t look like it’ll be Canadian jobs.
In light of his precarious position and the fact that he dodged the proverbial bullet thanks to the Governor General’s prorogation of Parliament allowing him to remain in his position rather than across the floor, one can deduce that the prime minister and/or his advisors haven’t fully thought this through.
After all, in another recent poll conducted by The Strategic Counsel for CTV and The Globe and Mail, a majority – albeit a slim majority of Canadians (57 per cent) now believe the prime minister has a hidden agenda and exactly what that is, is anyone’s guess but by the looks of it, it wont be pretty, at least that’s the prediction coming out of those who conducted the poll.
“Clearly (Harper’s) not been able to shed some of his history with the Alliance and Reform party,” said Timothy Woolstencroft, a managing partner with The Strategic Counsel. “There is a real profound sense out there that Stephen Harper has got a hidden agenda. And the Liberals have been successful in implanting that image.”
Furthermore, according to Lewenza of the CAW, there are three perfectly good automotive plants in Canada – Chatham and St. Thomas, Ontario and another in Quebec that are under threat of closure, yet the prime minister has decided he’d rather see the $254 million contract go to a plant located in Texas.
Well, at least some jobs will be saved on the Canadian taxpayer’s nickel. It’s just a pity none of those jobs will go to Canadians leaving thousands of unemployed auto workers in our industrial heartland, and a good number of the rest of us wondering what to expect in the upcoming budget and what exactly the prime minister’s hidden agenda will turn out to be.
Clearly, this guy isn’t prepared to “walk the walk”, so why should any of us fall for his “talking the talk”?