{"id":14407,"date":"2012-04-02T09:14:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T14:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=14407"},"modified":"2012-04-02T09:14:19","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T14:14:19","slug":"kelly-mcparland-judge-harper-not-on-what-he-says-but-what-he-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/04\/02\/kelly-mcparland-judge-harper-not-on-what-he-says-but-what-he-does\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelly McParland: Judge Harper not on what he says, but what he does"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the National Post<\/em>, Kelly McParland<\/a> scrutinizes the entrails of the federal budget to determine what Prime Minister Stephen Harper is really<\/em> thinking:<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s pretty self-evident that prime ministers reveal a lot of their own character in the content of their budgets, but it may be particularly so for Stephen Harper. The guy is an economist, after all. Messing around with graphs and figures was what he planned to do with his life, if seizing control of the country\u2019s government didn\u2019t work out. And since we know he\u2019s a bit of a micro-manager, it\u2019s probably safe to say there\u2019s at least as much Harper as there is Jim Flaherty in the nitty gritty of the latest budget document. So let\u2019s use it to figure out what Stephen Harper believes — really believes<\/em> — when it comes to running the country.<\/p>\n

We know what he says he believes in: smaller government, fewer bureaucrats, restrained spending, less intrusion, an end to taxpayer-financed welfare for businesses and governments. Accountability, prudence, fairness. Individual responsibility rather than the smothering embrace of the nanny state. No more currying favour with every special-interest advocacy group that captures the attention of congenitally correct.<\/p>\n

Maybe on some plane he does honestly hold those values dear to his heart. But we all profess to believe in ideals we never quite get around to displaying. Mr. Harper has been Prime Minister for six years, and since last May has had the majority needed to have his way with legislation. Yet, as Andrew Coyne has so clearly demonstrated on more than one occasion, Mr. Harper\u2019s actions habitually belie his words. If he were applying for membership in the True Conservative Believers Club of Canada, they\u2019d turn him away as unqualified.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the National Post, Kelly McParland scrutinizes the entrails of the federal budget to determine what Prime Minister Stephen Harper is really thinking: It\u2019s pretty self-evident that prime ministers reveal a lot of their own character in the content of their budgets, but it may be particularly so for Stephen Harper. The guy is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,25,84],"tags":[697,431,258],"class_list":["post-14407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-economics","category-government","tag-budget","tag-conservatism","tag-stephenharper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-3Kn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14408,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14407\/revisions\/14408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}