This week marks the 10th anniversary of the election of Canada's best Provincial Premier ever.

Yes, it was 10 years ago that Mike Harris and his Tories rode to power on a wave of support that washed the loser incumbant NDP and also ran Liberals out to sea further than any Tsunami ever could.

I realize there may be some who disagree with my assertion that Harris was Canada's best Premier.

Fair enough. I'm open to suggestions. It could be argued that Ralph Klien has been better. I would disagree though. Although I'm an admirer of Ralph, I wouldn't put him in the same league as Harris. He'd be Canada's Second best Premier ever, but a far second to Mike.

Then there's Campbell in BC. I like him too. Even though he's a Liberal. Then again, you can't compare the BC Provincial Liberals to their corrupt namesakes in Ottawa. Same name, but different party. The problem with Campbell is that he's really just a very centrist, middle of the road type of guy. BC politics are so fucked up and off to the left though, that just being middle of the road get's you labelled as a neo-con on the Left-Coast. Still, Campbell deserves credit for what he's done, and my hat goes off to him as Canada's third best premier ever.

But Harris, oh, man, he was great. Ontario was a basket case when he took power. The NDP had been in government before him and they'd fucked things up royally!

Finances were in a mess, with a 10 billion dollar deficit.

The unions were running the show.

Teachers demands were out of control.

NDP employment equity legislation had pretty much locked out all white males, (and many white females) from jobs like teaching, police, firefighters, nursing etc.

Welfare costs were out of control with people deserting the workforce in droves and going on social assistance because NDP policies had made it more lucrative than working at low paying jobs.

Then came Mike.

Within a couple of years, he'd cut taxes, streamlined and reduced welfare payments, repealed employment equity, put the unions in their place and eliminated the deficit. He tried to kick the native terrorists out of Ipperwash park (only to get overrulled by the feds) and met the organized thuggery of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and Unions with baton wielding, tear gas firing, cops (just what those suckasses deserved!)

It was amazing!

The province never looked better, and in 1999, Ontarians rewarded him with a second mandate.

Unfortunately, by 2002, the government ran out of steam and got lazy. Harris retired, and his replacement decided to try buying off the unionized whiners and activists like in the old days before the Common Sense Revolution. The Tories got killed in the next election, and now Ontario is suffering under an inept and useless Provincial Liberal regime who can't balance the books, have paid off the teachers and unions, and are killing us once again with tax increases (which they promised they wouldn't bring in during the election).

Ah, I miss the good ole' days.

So what does everyone else think? Was Harris actually the best Premier EVER, or was it really Klien? I'm open to suggestions but you'll have a hard time convincing me otherwise.

   

I agree but think hes the best since i'm from BC

   

There should be some sort of law against the NDP seizing power over a province. They always just fuck shit up.

   

yep and then make commercials with your money telling you how good they are doing

   

Just like the BC Liberals.

   

yeah but atleast there not lying

   

The things I heard about Harris were pretty good. Unions, welfare & deficit were some good accomplishments. We would need a guy like that in Qc to place things back in order lol

   

LONG LIVE RALPH KLEIN!!

   

Klien? come on.. shit.. anyone can look good when they're sitting on a money pot.

   

hum, as a quebecer, i have said that the best premier minister in the history of canada was the "dream teams" of jean lesage.

Jean lesage as mark the history of quebec by the one that begun the "quiet revolution" of quebec.

and rené levesque... to be a charismatic leader in quebec during the quiet revolution.

jean charest should be the worst and uncarismatic premier minister of all time..... but i give him better cote comparated to jean CRéTIN

Jean LESAGE NUMBER ONE!!!

   

Are you kidding? Look at what the conservatives did to Ontario!

Tommy Douglas all the way!

   

The government of Jean Lesage became the symbol and the tool of a whole people on the road to self-assertion. The Quiet revolution was a period of intense social change, of modernisation of Quebec and of a profound redefinition of the role of Quebec and French Canadians within Confederation.

The government embarked on a series of reforms that altered substantially conditions in Quebec: creation of a provincial hospitalisation scheme, creation of departments of Cultural Affairs and of Federal-provincial relations, creation of the Société Générale de Financement- SGF etc.. For a while, there seemed no limits to the reforms that the government would bring about.

However, such limits, existed and they rested, above all, on the restricted financial capabilities of the province. To implement its programme, the government of Jean Lesage built up a substantial and competent provincial bureaucracy, raised taxes substantially (by 1963, Quebec already had the highest provincial taxes on corporations, succession duties, sales, properties, and licences in Canada; its income tax on individuals was the third highest and its tax on gasoline ranked fifth), resorted to heavy borrowing (the net debt of Quebec increased by over 300% while in power) and raided continuously the federal treasury, demanding an ever increasing share of the taxes collected in the province. This paragraph is key to this whole text. So you see...... the fact that you consider him the best ever is little far fetched.

   

lOOK WHAT THE SEPARTIST PARTIES ARE DOING TO qUEBEC AND cANADA AS A WHOLE. sHOULD WE BANN THEM TOO? aND gORDON cAMPBELL SUCKS!

   

Klein is terrible...most people don't know that he originally was a Liberal until he lost the party leadership to Decore. Then he suddenly became a Conservative and defected to them and acted like he was born a PC.

Yes, he paid off our debt, but he did it with billions in oil revenues, not with any fiscal responsibility or any real leadership. He instituted a 5% rollback for all provincial employees, but within 5 years, most of them were back up to their old wages. Some unions like nursing, got double digit raises. He didn't cut taxes here, but kept spending and spending.

He rules the province like a king and does pretty much whatever he wants, which really sucks if you're not a Tory. The right here constantly bitches about the Liberal slant in federal politics, but doesn't see the huge Liberal/NDP minority in the province that has to put up with his BS and the continual PC dominance in provincial politics. Where else but in Alberta has one party ruled continuously for over 30 years? And that was preceded by 30+ years of So Cred rule.