NOT A FLIP-FLOP, A WINDSOCK

I was living in Calgary when Reform got their first MP and saw as the party rose to dominance, but as a Conservative I couldn't understand how people would fall for their rhetoric, as indeed that's all it ever was.

Every "Reform" they spouted sounded good but was unworkable in the real world so it was obvious to me that a Reform government would get elected by promising things that were popular but then break those promises as they discovered their reforms were unworkable or put them at risk.

Sure enough, 20 years later, the Reform party is the de facto Government of Canada.  And sure enough they've gone back on nearly everything they've ever promised.  I won't bother listing them, this forum doesn't have enough space for all of it.  Go to standupforcanada.ca if you want 50 examples.

The point is a leader doesn't change according to the direction the winds of polls and focus groups dictate.  A leader has a vision and taps their own inner reserves to communicate that vision to the electorate so they can make that vision reality.

Obama says what he does because he believes it.  Harper's tune changes so often because he's saying what he thinks we want to hear.  Harper is not leader.

The only people who believe in Harper are sitting in his choir, they would vote for him regardless of what he says because they hate the alternatives more.

But the vast majority of Canadians aren't in the choir and when the opposition realizes all they need to do to nail Harper is show ads with his own words contradicting himself from one speech to the next they'll have him.

Mr. Harper isn't a flip-flop, he's a wind sock.