Sunday, August 05, 2007

"Mired in Minorityland"


That's how the Montreal Gazette depicts the sad state that we call Stephen Harper.

It's as if he hasn't noticed yet that the recipe he follows almost religiously remains unpalatable to a majority of Canadians. This week's summer retreat with his caucus in Charlottetown confirmed that he still doesn't get it.

There, in all its glory, he displayed again his obsessive control of his caucus and of short, simple and sometimes simplistic messages - something that helped him get elected, but that has started to put off more and more voters.

When reporters were "escorted" by RCMP officers from the hotel where the Tory caucus was meeting, allegedly because the families felt intimidated, it was just another embarrassing episode of Harper's continued paranoia about the media.

Still keeping his MPs and his ministers on a painfully short leash, Harper seems to feel that even after 18 months in office, most members of his government can't be trusted, or aren't smart enough, to have a conversation with a reporter without risking derailing his tightly controlled messages.

But even if the PM keeps repeating his tired recipe, he could still pull off another minority if Liberal leader Stphane Dion doesn't get his own act together in a more serious fashion.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does seem simple.
If you don't give the media a story - leaked tidbits of the caucus meeting say - they will find their own:being evicted etc.
Is the Harper group that dumb??
Or are they terrified that one of their members will reveal the truth (ala Randy White) about their right-wing-cult-disguised as-a-mainstream-party.

Anonymous said...

It might be an idea to just leave them to their own desserts.
We can take encouragement however from the possibilities of Jason "flabberbasted" Kenney rising in the ranks. I've missed that pompous little bastard.
Foot'

The Mound of Sound said...

Just as an aside, take a close look at this picture of Harpo. Notice the "helmet head". How much hairspray does this guy use? Not a hair out of place, each and every one neatly glued down. I guess he views his hair exactly the same way he sees his caucus and cabinet members. I've heard of control freaks but this guy seems a tad unhinged.

Anonymous said...

Enna says......In that picture, he even looks like Mulroney.