Stephen Harper promises to turn over a new leaf

In last month's Throne Speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government outlined their plans for Canada within the next year. The Speech was delivered by Her Excellency the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, and delineated the party's plans to provide a more open and accountable government while reaffirming Canada's influence on an international stage.

It is unfortunate then that the Speech should suffer from such a blatant neo-liberal ideological bias. Since the greatest emphasis was placed on tax cuts, harsher attitudes toward crime and maintaining a healthy capitalist economy, there was virtually no regard for social or environmental issues. For many liberal publications, this was where the Speech failed to meet the needs of the Canadian people.

With Harper's decision to keep Canadian troops abroad until at least 2011, the government let down those Canadians who have impatiently waited for a change in direction on the war. It seems that, even now, far too many Canadians are still finding it difficult to understand why their troops are in Afghanistan, or what they plan to accomplish there. Choosing to stay four extra years is not going to sit well with these people.

Those opposed to the speech may also wonder when profit and capitalism began to take precedence over real issues affecting Canadians every day. Many average and lower-income families would benefit greatly from increased aid. If the government chose to make provisions to the welfare system and the lower income cut-off line, the hardships faced by these families could undoubtedly be alleviated. Also, from a social perspective, anti-poverty is considered to be of the utmost importance as so many Canadians are finding it difficult just to make ends meet. Similarly, the homelessness issue should have probably been dealt with considering it is rapidly becoming more prevalent.

Also mentioned in various news publications was that the government should have made clearer commitments to climate change instead of merely re-working the already re-written Clean Air Act. It was felt that new commitments should have been introduced with the enactment of more concrete plans for change. Many remarked on how absolutely unacceptable it is for Canada to have such high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, hence the sudden urgent cry for new action.

As for the media coverage on the Throne Speech, many publications such as The National Post, The Globe and Mail, and CBC.ca, followed the story thoroughly. Numerous headlines were devoted to the Speech with many articles focusing on where the Speech failed and succeeded. As expected, the more leftist publications viewed the Speech as being a "disappointment" while the more conservative papers, like the National Post, were quite pleased with Harper's new apparent readiness to govern the country.