Goodale: 3 Issues With Legs

Another astute observation by Ralph...

April 9th, 2012

THREE POWERFUL ISSUES “WITH LEGS”

The House of Commons is not sitting this week or next. The Harper government is hoping Canadians have short memories, so all the damaging turmoil of the last few weeks can be forgotten.

But that’s not likely, because at least three outstanding issues are profoundly serious:

• a massive on-going investigation into election fraud involving elaborate telephone-calling scams (robo-calls), designed to confuse voters and keep them from the polls last May;

• a mean-spirited federal Budget that slashes up to $30,000 from the retirement incomes of those modest-income Canadians who are now under the age of 54; and

• an Auditor-General’s report about stunning incompetence and dishonesty in the bungled attempt to purchase F-35 fighter-jets, including feeding disinformation to Parliament to the tune of $10-billion.

Unlike other Harper wrong-doing, these issues have grabbed public attention. Walking down the street, waiting in the airport, working out at the gym – I find a lot of people spontaneously asking “what’s going on?”


The election fraud issue “has legs” because a scheme to interfere with voting rights is a direct attack on individual Canadians. It’s personal, unlike the previous Conservative “In-&-Out” financing scam which seemed more like an offence against another political party. (An offence, incidentally, for which the Conservative Party was charged and convicted.)

The attack on old-age security “has legs” because it’s a future threat. It dangles over the necks of everyone who’s 54 years of age or younger. It’s a broken promise. It’s totally unnecessary. It won’t reduce overall public spending. It’s primarily an assault on the poor. And it will be a “ballot question” in the next election.


The F-35 fiasco “has legs” because of the money at stake (more than $30-billion all-in) and because the revelations of wrong-doing come from Mr. Harper’s new hand-picked Auditor-General. It destroys Conservative claims of being competent managers, and exposes flagrant dishonesty.



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