Tory slip-ups go unpunished

Susan Riley, PostMedia News:

You want a Christmas miracle? Stephen Harper's Conservatives still lead the polls despite their unrelenting efforts to alienate everyone outside their loyal base.

How do they manage that? A mediocre and divided opposition helps. But to survive the strategic miscues, startling policy reversals, ethical slip-ups and financial irresponsibility that have marked this government's last 12 months, you need a bitterly resigned, indifferent, or inattentive electorate. That, they appear to have.

Consider the handling of the F-35 fighter plane purchase. It is a textbook example of reckless, impulse-driven shopping. Would any frugal government -- never mind any average household -- take on a $16-billion expense when it is saddled with a $50-plus-billion deficit? The prudent (old-school conservative) response would be to defer the purchase, downsize the order or, better still, find an affordable alternative.

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