The Harper – Dion Financial Standoff
The fists never really started to fly until this week between the two front runners, but Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion are at odds over the financial crisis. The financial fight is on.
Dion scored some major points over the last couple of days, playing on fear and uncertainty of Canadian investors opening bank statements and falling over. The Liberals did an amazing job of turning around the polls in a matter of days, making up a smashing 15 points to the Conservative rivals. They did this by successfully tying the Conservative leadership to the economy, joined with the fact that the Tories do not have a ‘plan’ to address the crisis at hand. The momentum was in their favour until today.
Enter the green shift plan, the Liberal game book for a greener, cleaner Canada – that comes with a notably high price tag, a price tag so high that to implement in an economic storm would be suicide. The blood was in the water and the Tory sharks were circling. It wasn’t long after the green shift came back into the light that another fact of some Liberal in-fighting between Iggy and Dion had been released – apparently over the green shift and it’s impending implementation regardless of the economy. Dion argued for the green plan no matter the times, while Iggy purposed changes to the plan to help weather the financial issues at hand should they return to office.
The Conservatives, looking to gain back the losses in the polls this week were quick to pounce on the problem and create a further financial standoff. Much like the scene in the Untouchables, apparently in Canadian politics “if you don’t have the bookkeeper, you got nothing.“