The lousy legacy of Stephen Harper

Dear Editor:

Re: “Save during the good years” by A. Nichols (Courier, letters, March 11).

Dear, dear, name calling so lowers the tone of this page, and to be clear, the travel referred to was within Canada — Ontario specifically. Still in Canada , I think.

“Blinkered” seems to apply but that term would only be intelligible to unlettered farm folk like myself.

“Beloved leader” usually refers to dictators and again, the Conservative obsession with “controlling the message” comes to mind.

Had the Conservatives (2006-2015) not appropriated funds from the Employment Insurance program, cut funding to 66 federal social programs (including veterans), even decimated the library and archives in Ottawa, for a paltry $1.7 million, sold off everything but the gold in grandmother’s teeth, and muzzled every department to prevent the facts from being known, there would not have been a surplus of $1.9 billion , even in 2015.

“When I’m done with Canada you won’t recognize it.”

What a threat. What a legacy.

The Phoenix pay system fiasco, instituted to save $70 million, has cost billion and no price can be put on the anguish it has caused.

They left an empty coffer and untold harm, requiring remedy, which the present government has dealt with in spite of the ghastly “financial mess left behind” by the previous administration.

Deficit? Do you really want to go there? Under the Stephen Harper Conservatives, the federal debt was increased by over $150 billion, wiping out the reduction achieved under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.

In 1998, the deficit left by Brian Mulroney had been eliminated and the federal Liberal government ran surpluses for the next nine years.

In 2006, the Conservatives inherited a surplus of $13.8 billion which they turned into a deficit of $5.8 billion before the recession of 2008 was even on the horizon. That’s how they prepared for “hard times.”

To call them “profligate children” would be charitable.

Doubling contribution levels for Tax Free Savings Accounts , boutique tax credits for families, raising the Old Age Security age eligibility — who did that assist?

Overwhelmingly, high0income Canadians, and when queried Joe Oliver said, in Parliament, “Our grandchildren can pay for it.” Check your Hansard.

Now, are you sure you don’t think the prime minister is also responsible for the coronavirus?

By all means, check with the Fraser Institute. Elaine Lawrence Kelowna

Write:

In Kelowna: letters@ok.bc.ca In Penticton: letters@pentictonherald.ca