“Hey, where’s our PM?”
Stephen Harper, you need to stop confusing us.
For years, a stock caricature has reliably informed our image of you. So before you do something crazy, like join Greenpeace or march in a gay pride parade, let us recap the rules of your public persona.
Rule No. 1: We, the voting public, expect you, Stephen Joseph Harper, to be awkward, standoffish and vaguely sinister, like a robot powered by the fears of small children.
Rule No. 2: When leaving 24 Sussex, your suits should be ill-fitting and limited to a shade that suggests you are a mortician, an actuary or a retired dime store salesman.
Rule No. 3: Without exception, your mien should be ashen and dour, as if your son just came home from school and excitedly said, “Dad, what this country needs is way more welfare!”
Rule No. 4: Even when asleep and dreaming about tax cuts, your hair should look as if sculpted from Silly Putty by a blind orangutan armed with crude gardening implements and an upturned salad bowl.
Rule No. 5: Under no circumstances are you to smile, laugh, exhale, inspire, seem relaxed, make self-deprecating quips, trigger admiration or create the impression that you are a warm-blooded mammal.
Remember? No, clearly you do not.
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Crux of the Matter » PM Harper performs at NAC: Mr. Piano Man rocks! Says:
[...] What have you done with our PM? – Toronto Star — Vinay Menon (H/T Jack’s Newswatch) [...]
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Anna Keightley Says:
The above writer’s humour re our Prime Minister’s showcasing his personal talents, inspired by the very lovely Loreen Harper, only adds to the myriad talents that are coming, literally on line, for Canadians every day.
We can all take in that after the daily grind, hard work, we can play hard too in all fields of endeavour.
That PM Harper was always since youth a hundred percenter, is a given. He’s garnered that rating in the international arena along with his backers in this country. But now as he’s been seen at play, in a leisure moment, apparently many thousands have witnessed an extraordinary human being, multi-talented and USING those talents for the betterment of all Canadians, he’s beaten the image — wrongly ascribed, of the automaton robot. That was of course ridiculous to begin with.
He’s achieved promoting Canadians’ interests in a way forward, out of this international economic mess. We can thank and appreciate many of his colleagues — Jim Flaherty is another sorting through the unemployeds’ plight, promoting job sharing and retraining. Our banking system’s solid promotions of late also helped our Prime Minister showcase to the internationals, how business can prosper and redirect with the right financial programs.
What we’re seeing is ‘teamwork’ at its level best and that is the way forward. I personally hope and expect we can get support for our gov’t, now recognized by the many talented (the above writer for one) in media relations, that we get his polling support approaching eighty percent at the voter booths whenever that occurs.
Look at it this way, Intellectual ‘geeks’ suffer the ridicule, up until the time they pull it off, go to the head of the class, and everyone recognizes they are indeed the ‘real hunks’ over the whole program of events. We’re looking at that now I believe and it spells good things for Canada and Canadians. We should be in this to win and win large.
Reinvigorating business and industry to profitability again is the main challenge ahead of us where the stimulus injections can be retrieved towards the balancing of the books. That’s the key and it does involve a high degree of teamwork from all quarters. First, it requires leadership in place, ready, willing and able. Canadians have that prospect now, thanks to Prime Minister Harper’s multi-talents/expertise which he employs for others, with all humility and in good humour. We can’t lose this opportunity and we can achieve 80 percent support for this OR HIGHER.
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” That’s where we’re at and we can ‘go for the gusto.’
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 10:18 am
nomdeblog Says:
That’s right Anna “‘geeks’ suffer the ridicule, up until the time they pull it off” . But now that PMSH may have won over some of those on fantasy Island who swoon over emotional images versus weighting their choices based on reason; do we really want him to spend much time going down that road?
It is a strange world where choices are made around the image of a leader instead of what policies they champion. In today’s world Abe Lincoln would probably not get elected because he looked too much like Bob Stanfield. Or in the Country music business Patsy Cline would probably not cut it in a Madonna world of imagery, packaging and marketing.
We seem to let image trump content and substance. That may be why the left has ended up with Iffy and Obama who never implemented anything but look good on stage.
There is nothing wrong with fantasizing because that is what makes invention possible. But sooner or later a product has to get developed and sold or the fantasizers will go bust. We need some balance and it appears PMSH has given us a bit of cool. But let’s not go “Crazy” as Patsy Cline would sing, let’s get back to the business of running the country.
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Anna Keightley Says:
What we’re both trying to point out, nom is that character and c ompetence trumps ‘artificial image manufacture’ everytime in the adult world.
You say, “sooner or later a product has to get developed and sold.” There’s the challenge ahead of us. R & D, manufacturing restructuring toward home-grown self-sufficiency, but counting the international trade mix in as well.
With regards to job sharing/retraining, there’s an a vital idea whose time has come. Over thirty years ago when the PC (via Bill Gates) took centre stage, the endless possibilities included a forecast that saw three day work weeks, stemming from the new efficiencies computers would entail.
I should really be posting this under the Jim Flaherty article of yesterday.
The corporate world needs to look squarely at three day work weeks and every job shared by two individuals/professionals. Not only that, but overhead could be greatly reduced if work was done at home with technologies like gotowork.com.
Work and commute stresses would be greatly reduced, gas savings, congestion of daily commutes reduced, family social and health benefits. Not to mention unemployment rates worldwide could be halved, if not eliminated.
Much of the waste in office tower infrastructures could be eliminated, giving way to agricultural projects (much needed and neglected at this time).
Think about three days at the office and four at home with families getting and staying healthier, a component of natural preventative medicine. Working harder, smarter with personal ethics ensuring that the job gets done. This idea would look closely and employ the Japanese team sharing work model and ethic.
The benefits would be multiple, including boosting international leisure travel while it winds up productivity in all sectors — new demands for goods and services.
Throwing out an old idea for consideration and adoption.
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 11:22 am
nomdeblog Says:
“The corporate world needs to look squarely at three day work weeks”
Anna they do, for example, lots of working mothers choose to work 3 days and/or have job sharing arrangements. That’s the advantage of a big urban pool of workers. But as you say it is up to the “corporate” world to figure out how to get the optimum brains on the job and retain good people to suit the employee/employer circumstances. We sure don’t want the geniuses in government dictating employment policies.
Moreover, we are headed for a labour shortage, as the baby boomers pull out of the work force. That will happen even though many don’t want to retire or can’t really afford it now that their Nortel shares imploded ( BTW Nortel is the “champion” that Iggy is really upset got sold to a foreign investor, but how would Iggy know a champion from a loser, he brags he never owned a stock) …but I digress.
Tax structures such as joint filing for couples with families would be a great idea. The DINKs (double income no kids) won’t like it, they’d rather we backfill the declining working population with higher immigration and since immigration never gets costed out, we are left with a hard selling job .. …kinda like the HST … :>)
Which brings us back to the post. Let’s hope Stephen “Steinway” Harper gets back to the dull routine of the files on his desk, we’ve had enough “cool” until his Christmas message ( whoops , very sorry, I meant “Holiday” message.)
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Anna Keightley Says:
As Mark Carney has recently and rightly pointed out the ball’s in the corporate/business court to efficiently restructure toward rehiring at living wages, costing salaries into their bottom lines.
I’d additionally point out that the trades and essential service sectors need to think about job sharing for the richochet social and economic benefits that would eminate.
Objective: creating demand for goods/services as a ‘jobless recovery’ is an oxymoron. As to the labour shortage due to retiring baby boomers that’s incorrect. There’s thousands upon thousands of unemployed now, not to mention those on the welfare rolls, that are prime re-training potential.
Enterprises out there thinking about reducing overhead and wasted infrastructures as they focus on their main resource, their employee base, retraining and rehiring.
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Anna Keightley Says:
nom, please scan the bloomberg.com site for the pertinent headlines. One in particular. “Wall St. cedes to Bay St….” Another, Obama considering tax cuts to prevent need for another stimulus, to that effect.
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
nomdeblog Says:
“There’s thousands upon thousands of unemployed now, not to mention those on the welfare rolls, that are prime re-training potential”
Yes that is a skills and retraining issue Anna. A lot of those jobs ain’t coming back. Our geniuses in government should have been encouraging the workers at GM to retrain to become …say nurses (I know a guy on the line who did just that, on his own initiative as he saw the decline of the automotive sector) instead of bailing out a US (White House) owned auto company and keeping its corrupt union leaders afloat.
Bloomberg “North American banks and brokerages cut 9.9 percent of their workforce in the past two years. Job cuts by comparison in Canada’s five biggest banks are about 1.1%.”
Doesn’t that simply prove that by not using the banks to intervene in social engineering like the US did, the Canadian banks are much healthier? You have me thinking, maybe the politicians should just play the piano and get out of the way.
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Mac Says:
When the Red Star runs an article like this, you know PMSH had an impact!!
Posted on October 6th, 2009 at 11:28 pm