Private ed tax credits show Harris is Master of Political Distraction

Every time the picture starts looking bad, Harris changes the channel

Commentary from Larry Solway

  Confession. Most Canadians pretend to avoid acclaim but I delight in taking bows. When I am right I crow. When I win I enjoy applause. So un-Canadian. We are proud of aw-shucks modesty. Hockey players who have just been carried to victory lower their eyes, scuff their toes on the ground and blushingly attribute their success to either Good Luck or The Lord. I share no such self-effacing virtue.
  Bernard Slade, the author of Same Time Next Year, one of Broadway's most successful plays, told me that after his play opened to high critical praise and line-ups around the block for tickets, he was so excited he hung around New York for a week taking bows. Not Canadian at all.
  I believe devoutly that people who disagree with me are simply dead wrong. None of that modest crap about "everyone being entitled to his/her opinion". If your opinion sucks you are not entitled. Even the Globe and Mail, in its TV commercials bows to opinion but asks whether or not it is "informed" opinion.
 

The Canadian Jewish Congress' endorsement for Harris' private school credit plan is shameful support of a single issue to the general detriment of the province

  After my examination of the world of affluent (and wannabe affluent) males and their tilt to The Right, where whiners and bleeding hearts are not welcome, I was vindicated by a short B.C. election note that when CBC Vancouver dared to interrupt the telecast of the game between St. Louis and Colorado (the Vancouver Canucks weren't even playing for heaven's sake) to flash the latest election results, the male bozos who place sports above sainthood circled the CBC headquarters with their car horns blaring disapproval. I remembered of the national fury in the U.S. years ago when the network aborted overtime coverage of a New York Jets football game to show their scheduled performance of "Heidi". Guys rule!
  So in politics you cater to those intolerances. In B.C., Glen Clark torpedoed any hope of retaining power, quit, and left the wreckage in the hands of the hapless Ujjal Dosanjh, who predictably was massacred. Gordon Campbell is about as "Liberal" as Bill Bennett. In fact, there was Bennett on TV praising the win. A real guy, Mr. Bill. Campbell will take the province down the right wing road where all "good guys" want him to go. Away from the whiners and socially caring. Away even from the so-called upstarts of The Green Party. Back to the comfort of Big Business and decisions that reflect the "reality" of the marketplace. Ho bloody hum!
  Mike Harris has it down to a science, the science of political distraction. When it appears that the bleeding hearts who care about Health Care or Education or Social Housing may be eroding his affluent male power base, he changes the subject.
  A few months ago his popularity was in the tank. The Opposition was all over him. He was chronically absent from question period, health care was getting no better, the teachers were winning, he kept toughing it out over tax cuts, and Ipperwash wasn't on his radar screen.
  He was under siege. The McGuinty Liberals were 20 points ahead. Howard Hampton was nipping at the Hydro privatization plans and even he was making yards. But they never quit even when they seem to be down. Credit the politics of distraction.
  A few crumbs like money for education and softening the extra curricular activities log-jam, a little more for health care mixed in with a return to ideology.
  Badda-boom went the big guys on caucus. Jim Flaherty unveiled a new program to enrich the parents (at least the affluent ones) who send their kids to private schools. Score big on this one. Even the Jewish Community (or at least The Canadian Jewish Congress) is on side warning the other parties that support would erode unless they came on side with the Tories on tax breaks for private school fees. It amounts to the most shameful support of a single issue to the general detriment of the province.
  Bingo again as the Premier drops a "trial balloon" on private corporations taking over some of our health care. Harris says that if they can do it for less they should be given a chance.
  Stir in a little more ideology with the newest attack on the helpless. Those chronic welfare cheats had better watch out because in addition to drug testing they were going to have literacy testing. I'd make all the Tory MPPs pass the literacy test first.
  What could be next? An echo of the "guyism" of George D. Bush, who puts economic prosperity ahead of the environment. Hints of it in the declared campaign to not only privatize Hydro but to get into the business of high-priced export. Bigger claims on hydro will always mean more pressure on power generation which in turn will mean more demand for coal-fired facilities.
  I am an ardent conspiracy theory devotee. I see what is patently plain: the tax break on private school fees is the opening gun in the (George Bush loves it) voucher system. Hasn't the Premier already announced that parents will be able to choose the best performing schools.
  For years we knew that as the Tories said health costs were out of control they were heading toward a two-tier solution.
  I am not alone in the realization of the Harris brilliance in returning to his roots. Ian Urquhart wrote in the Star a couple of weeks back about how the Tories are "regaining their ideological groove".
  What next indeed? Toll roads. Curbing spending. A token bow to municipalities where transit is in dire peril. But mainly a stay the course approach. The delay of the tax break is probably the only concession the government has made to the economic crisis.
  Once again we are distracted by the master of distraction politics. Gridlock persists, health care shortfall continues, classroom sizes are not getting smaller, welfare people are all under suspicion. And for the guys - The Olympics. Athletes Village to be waterfront condos sold in advance and then vacated for the Games. Hot diggety. He may not be able to manage his own life, but he's doing one hell of a job among the people who would rather play golf than think.

What about you? What's your opinion of tax credits for private school education? Will it make public schools second-rate, as they are in Britain? Is it long overdue?

Tell Straight Goods and see what others are saying...

Then Take the Straight Goods poll on Private School Tax Credits

Posted: May 21, 2001

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