I hate to say this, but I am increasingly getting the impression that the last person in office in Ottawa who knew what “restraint”, let alone “CUT” means…was Paul Martin Jr. Then again, he may take his place in Canadian history as the best “Conservative” Finance Minister in our lifetime.

For Minister of Veterans Affairs.
When are you passing fair treatment of all veterans?

Our Prime Minister obviously is not listening to the Conservatives on the street, and certainly not to the numerous excellent suggestions put forward in these blogs over the past month. Such a huge increase in the size of the Cabinet is extremely wasteful and very costly to us taxpayers. Needless to say, the recent unnecessary and unwanted election cost us $300,000,000; Mr. Harper lost his chance to demonstrate that he can indeed manage a difficult and disorganized opposition. I see nothing ahead but massize government spending by the new Government across the country to try to get a majority in the next election whenever it might be held. It appears that the Etobicoke Guardian’s Editorial Page cartoon on Wed. Oct 29th, captured the essence of the new Cabinet; it was a halloween spoof showing a gang of kids at the front door of an elderly old couple’s house … they all wore “Stephen Harper” face masks. proclaiming to be the new cabinet. Has anything really changed with the new Government or with the Conservative Party? Perhaps it is time to consider a change in the Leadership of the party, and perhaps even in the Government.

It will be interesting to see where Jim Flaherty is going to cut.

My preferences: 1. Abolish Human Rights Commissions.
2. The C.B.C. 3. Stop making pennies.

To Douglas - are you joking??
The only restraint that Paul Martin Jr. ever showed was to drastically cut back Provincial transfer payments and in the process reap havoc on the ability of Provinces to fund the Country’s Healthcare and Education Programs! He did that only because Preston Manning was getting a lot of traction on the demand to eliminate deficits. In the process of cutting the Provinces off at the knees, Martin failed to make any serious cuts in Ottawa. So how is that being more “Conservative”?

I liked what Harper stood for when he was with the NCC , now I am not so sure but am willing to wait and see what he can do with what he has inherited. I didn’t like watching the pre-election debates and seeing Harper being “attacked” by the other party leaders like a bunch of spoiled kids. Why isn’t anybody giving him an honest chance to show what he is proposing for the country?? Why do the other parties keep pushing the “hidden agenda” thing that Harper is supposed to have? His agenda should ring as clear as a bell. It is what he fought for when with the NCC. Preceeding Prime Ministers have screwed up this country royally. And they were career politicians. Give Harper a little time and he will prove to be one of our greatest leaders. Lets get off his back for every move he makes and let him govern. So he has a large cabinet –so what. Lets not critisize until we see what he does with it.

Right on Dave S, Douglas must be smoking some wacky tabacky! As for the new cabinet, I am distrurbed that it has grown rather than shrunk. And, in particular very disturbed by the choice of Gail Shea as fisheries minister, we have some very qualified M.P.s here in B.c. that know this portfolio inside out, namely John Duncan ( North Island) and John Cummins ( delta). Cummins should be the one, but I guess he has crossed swords with the leader too often, ruining his chances. The fishing industry in B.C. is in a disastrous state due to mismanagement by the D.F.O, the beurocrats in this dept. are running the show and lead the minister around by the nose.
Also disturbed that the very competent Diane Ablonsky has been overlooked yet again, being denied a meaningful portfolio.

I agree with sentiment of enlarging the numbers in the cabinet. At a time when our neighbours south (and you can rest assurred we are not exempt but will follow) are at the edge of a Depression, it is imperative that we hunker down . For every new cabinet minister there is a number increase in bureaucracy , more government spending and less decision making. I am a conservative and I sure as hell didn’t vote for this so the NCC in my opinion should raise holy hell over this. This is tantamount to the double cross Harper did on us on the income trusts which he could have easily grandfathered in the existing ones but didn’t. Do we really have any conservative presence in Ottawa? By the way the Minister of Finance should have been fired for what he did to us on the Income Trust issue. By the way what is Harper’s email address?

Of course, I was joking - that’s why I said “I hate to say this”. “Cut” and “restraint” are very relative words - in Ottawa.