Harper was happy to smear Paul Martin, even giddy beyond belief to smear Stephane Dion, but I still don't see how he can possibly risk the blowback of trying to smear Michael Ignatieff.
Harper was able to snipe at Martin and poke sticks into Dion's side from a position where he was pretty much safe from retaliation. There's no longer any safe place where Harper can hide.
Want to look into Ignatieff's past? Good luck with that. It's L'il Stevie who's got the problem with his past now and that he's got in spades.
Harper came into politics literally cloaked in self-righteousness and smug, uber-conservatism. Canada was a northern European welfare state. Kyoto was a socialist plot to steal from the rich. Afghanistan was where we drew the line to defeat Islamist terrorism.
Harper has literally abandoned just about every position he once stood for and promised to uphold. Accountability? Transparency? You name it, he's ditched it. Stephen Harper has turned himself inside out in his quest to cling to power.
Poor old Boss Harp. He's messed himself up so badly that he can't take a swing at Iggy without clobbering himself in the process. Let the games begin.
I'm looking forward to it since on foreign and economic policy, they are both pretty much the same. So really, what will it come down to -- the world weary "intellectual" versus the straight laced provincial "economist". Canada, under either leader, is doomed to lose everything we ever considered valuable.
ReplyDeleteThey shouldn't find it too hard. Remember they aren't bound by reality.
ReplyDeleteLook at it this way, if Ken Dryden had won, the ads would have read "Not a goalie" and played up how Harper played goal for the Habs when they won the Stanley Cup in 1971.
I'm pretty sure I don't have to explain my reservataions about MI to you, BY. Harper will have a tough time distancing himself from Ignatieff on key policies to get much of a swing at him on those things.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure you're right, CV. I think the best of Harper's lying days are behind him. He's pretty vulnerable at the moment and I doubt he can bear any blowback from this.
"They shouldn't find it too hard. Remember they aren't bound by reality."
ReplyDeleteI'm more in agreement with CV. Don't forget Harper & thugs can say anything they like in HoC without recrimination - just like PP did in reference to the Cadman tape being doctored after the lawsuit was "settled".
And the media does report what's said in HoC, so they can get away with it. Also, Ignatieff has a few issues that can be played on - like his returning to the country (being away for such a long time) so as to become leader of the Lib Party.
Ignatieff is going to get pilloried.. if you don't believe that, well, you're in great denial.
ReplyDelete- his ignorant and demeaning remarks regarding Ukrainians seeking an independent state ("Ukrainian independence conjures up images of embroidered peasant shirts, the nasal whine of ethnic instruments, phony cossacks in cloaks and boots, nasty anti-Semites. Going further and stating that “My difficulty in taking Ukraine seriously goes deeper than just my cosmopolitan suspicion of nationalists everywhere. Somewhere inside, I’m also what Ukrainians call a Great Russian, and there is a trace of old Russian disdain for these ‘little Russians’”)
- his almost neo-conservative support for Bush's entry into not only Afghanistan, but Iraq as well, referring to those opposing the wars as "Michael Moore-style liberals" who were creating their own "pseudo-Marxist reality";
- his advocation indefinite detention of suspects, "coercive interrogations", targeted assassinations, and pre-emptive wars in order to combat the greater evil of terrorism
- he is a Canadian of convenience, having spent the great part of the last three decades living elsewhere, and, apparently, referring to himself as "American". When asked about it by Peter Newman in a Maclean's interview published on 6 April 2006, Ignatieff said: "Sometimes you want to increase your influence over your audience by appropriating their voice, but it was a mistake."
- he loves/hates Israel - take your pick - In August,2006, Ignatieff said he was "not losing any sleep" over dozens of civilian deaths caused by Israel's attack on Qana during its military actions in Lebanon. Ignatieff recanted those words the following week. Then, on October 11, 2006, Ignatieff described the Qana attack as a war crime (committed by Israel).
Yes, yes, I know, there will be comments regarding Harper changing his attitude regarding Afghanistan, regarding the severity of the economic crisis, but strikes me that the Canadian public will be much more lenient with a "true" Canadian than someone who spend the better part of the last three decades somewhere else and actually referred to himself as "American".
Perhaps you're right Roblaw but I still think Harper is going to come out of it wounded himself.
ReplyDeleteI think Layton is in a far stronger position to attack Ignatieff, to weaken him from his most vulnerable flank. Were I Layton, however, I wouldn't go after Iggy right now. I think he's bleeding out a lot of left and centre-left Liberal support all on his own. If Ignatieff doesn't want to shore up his leaky left flank, why should Layton give him any incentive to change?
It must really suck to be a left leaning Liberal MP right about now.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Dion is too classy to publish a tattle tale memoir when he finally leaves public office but I sure would love to read what really went on in those two years of sabotage from within.
Et tu, Brute?
ReplyDeleteIgnatieff resembles Harper in some crucial ways. Both are mesmerized by their own self-importance and by anything American. Neither feels the need to account for not following through. And neither offers a distinctly Canadian voice or employs humour in that singular Canadian way - to bridge differences and deflate tensions.
ReplyDeleteHarper's Achilles Heel is his confrontational mean-spiritedness, so he has to be careful. Ignatieff stands to benefit from the onslaught.
Yes, yes, I know, there will be comments regarding Harper changing his attitude regarding Afghanistan, regarding the severity of the economic crisis, but strikes me that the Canadian public will be much more lenient with a "true" Canadian than someone who spend the better part of the last three decades somewhere else and actually referred to himself as "American".
ReplyDeleteroblaw, a true Canadian would be standing up for Canada & its citizens instead of doing what Harper has been doing for the past few years. He's a joke, and I don't care what he says and oes in the future, he will stlii be joke.
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