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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew who wrote (9205)	4/12/2006 12:12:06 AM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Respond to of 37260

Not to be too flippant but won't our first nations get pissed off ? That's a lot of revenue... :0)

To: Andrew who wrote (9205)	4/12/2006 12:13:44 AM
From: Stephen O	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37260

Latte-land falls in 'like' with Harper MARGARET WENTE From Tuesday's Globe and Mail My friend Catherine, the Pilates queen, has her feet on the ground. She's got a business to run, and only thinks about politics when she has to. Three months ago, she told me she'd rather vote for a rosy-bottomed baboon than Stephen Harper. "How do you feel about him now?" I asked her the other day. "I've got to say he's not bad," she said. Memo No. 1 to Michael Ignatieff: Maybe you're the thinking woman's heartthrob. But you could be 64 before the Liberals have another shot. "Not bad" sums up the current view in Latte-land. If Mr. Harper had a rocky start, the Pilates crowd didn't notice. They liked it when he went to Afghanistan. David Emerson? Not an issue. Smart businesses raid talent all the time, so what's the problem? They're also impressed that so far he has managed to contain the bozo factor (although they're certain the bozos will eventually pop out). Well, then. How about our man's control-freak habits and the outrageous way (according to the media) he treats the media? Alas, outside the press gallery, these issues have no legs. Au contraire. Mr. Harper appears to be a refreshing change from Mr. Dithers, who yakked and yakked and never did a thing. What matters to these women is whether Mr. Harper will do what he says. They say they'll judge him by the promises he keeps. For someone who claims he doesn't govern by opinion poll, Mr. Harper has done a brilliant job of calibrating middle-class concerns. Take child care. Lots of women aren't sure which child-care plan is better. But they all think parents deserve more help and, even though Mr. Harper's plan is pretty stingy, so does he. The GST cut? Tax-policy wonks may not like it, but they do. Crime? These women would be outraged to be called rednecks. As they see it, kids are being shot up in their streets and knifed in their schools, and they give Mr. Harper credit for paying attention. Memo No. 2 to Mr. I.: Nobody at Pilates brings up the vision thing. Unlike you, they are not longing for a new sense of national purpose. Competence, decency and accountability are good enough for them. Civility would be a major plus. Boring is okay, too. Canada is in the sweet spot, and they just want someone who won't screw it up. Memo No. 3 to Mr. I.: What could be the rotten spot? Afghanistan. Women I talk with are deeply conflicted about Afghanistan. Most support our troops, and are prepared to pay a certain price to do good deeds. But can't we do them in a hurry and then get the heck out of there? In other words, their support is limited and provisional. Unless the bad guys miraculously vanish, the longer we are in Afghanistan, the more skeptical they're going to be. Lofty rhetoric about democracy-building and women's rights is all very well, until you realize that democracy and women's rights, such as they are, don't extend beyond the suburbs of Kabul and won't any time soon. Sadly, there are no good answers to the questions that were debated in Ottawa last night. Does fighting the Taliban really make us more secure? How will we know if we're making a difference? How do we measure progress (never mind success)? How long will we have to be there, and how will we decide when it's time to leave? And if the idea of exporting democracy was so stupid and naive when the Americans tried to do it in Iraq, what makes it any smarter now? Then there are the moral hazards. To say the least, we haven't thought them through. For example, we've decided not to turn over prisoners to the Americans, because they're thuggish human-rights abusers. Instead, we're going to turn them over to those peaceable Afghans, whose methods of interrogation include God-knows-what. But hey! At least they won't flush Korans down the toilet. Memo No. 4 to Mr. I.: You're going to need more than your exquisitely nuanced arguments on torture to lead us through this moral quicksand. Mr. Harper's biggest weak spot is yours, too. You are an articulate man with uncommon charm, and Latte-land's your natural home. But the Pilates crowd is going to be a tougher sell than you might think. mwente@globeandmail.com the liberals are in real trouble next election