I never know what to think of our esteemed prime minister, Mr. Harper.
Every so often he comes across as eloquent, competent, knowledgeable and trustworthy. But just when I am ready to start trusting him…
There is of course his planned copyright bill, with its Draconian DRM provisions, which he seems determined to ram through Parliament despite opposition by many (who, incidentally, were dismissed as “radical extremists” by Harper’s Industry Minister).
Then there is Harper’s much disputed crime bill, introducing tougher sentences and such in an era of declining crime rates. Why? Is this a policy based on fact or ideology?
And now, we hear, Harper may want to fix our old age security pension system. Which presumes that the system is currently broken. But is it, really? An article today in The Globe and Mail suggests otherwise: in Canada, Old Age Security consumes only 2.41% of our GDP (compare this with places like Italy, where the figure is closer to 14%) and even in 20 years, this figure is expected to reach only 3.14%.
Mr. Harper has several more years at the helm, even if he is not re-elected. I sure hope that he will be more inclined in the future to push aside ideology and base his governing instead on facts and reality.