{"id":1876,"date":"2011-05-04T12:08:13","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T16:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=1876"},"modified":"2011-05-04T12:12:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T16:12:18","slug":"a-few-observations-in-the-election-aftermath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=1876","title":{"rendered":"A few observations in the election aftermath"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/LO-RES-CAN-NEW-Election-May-2-AP110502121970-615x422.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1877\" title=\"LO-RES-CAN-NEW-Election-May-2-AP110502121970-615x422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/LO-RES-CAN-NEW-Election-May-2-AP110502121970-615x422-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>A strong national Conservative majority government\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>C&#8217;est ca.\u00a0 Now, consider\u00a0the remarks made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper once the reality of these election results sunk in for him and his Conservative team. In post-election interviews, the PM has given us a glimpse of how he views his responsibility through the next four \u2013 five years:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are intensely aware that we are and must be the government of all Canadians, including those that did not vote for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got that mandate because of the way we have governed, because of our record\u2026. Canadians expect us to continue to move forward in the same way, to be true to the platform we\u2019ve run on and be true to the kind of values and policies we\u2019ve laid out before them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Harper also intimated that he feels the burden of Canadians\u2019 trust and their vote for a majority government:\u00a0 \u201cIt feels great but at the same time I am very much aware of the immense challenges that lie before us in the government and the responsibility that this office carries with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is all refreshing that we have a Prime Minister with these\u00a0reflections after having been\u00a0handed the keys to absolute power in the Nation\u2019s Capital.\u00a0 Furthermore, the fact that he immediately jetted back to Ottawa and is back in his office today to attend to the country\u2019s matters speaks volumes for the type of man he is. (Most elected representatives and candidates are cacooning themselves with their families and friends and putting their feet up from their grueling campaign schedules &#8211; but not Stephen Harper.)<\/p>\n<p>Let us take this point one step further in saying that PM Harper\u2019s immediate response to the Canadian public is both refreshing and reassuring. Can you remember hearing this type of comment\u00a0from previous PMs in the wake of their\u00a0majority mandates? We did not hear it from PMs Chretien or Mulroney \u2013 and, in fact, we heard the exact opposite &#8211;\u00a0an arrogant bravado about the dawn of a new Liberal era &#8211;\u00a0from former PM Trudeau. So, given this comparison, we are ever-hopeful our current PM\u2019s observations are a sign of many good things to come\u2026<\/p>\n<p>So, <em>By George\u00a0Journal <\/em>will complete our 2011 federal election commentary with a final fractured poem (and note we\u2019ve moved to sailing analogies from flogging that horserace analogy):\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">crashing blue wave<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">a striking Orange undertow<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">drowned Grits and separatist<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">forward now, wind in sails<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">calming waters, edging to the right<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A strong national Conservative majority government\u2026. C&#8217;est ca.\u00a0 Now, consider\u00a0the remarks made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper once the reality of these election results sunk in for him and his Conservative team. In post-election interviews, the PM has given us a glimpse of how he views his responsibility through the next four \u2013 five years:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[35,44,30,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1876"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1879,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions\/1879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}