It's not that a solid majority of Canadians don't trust Sideshow Steve Harper or find him ethically sleazy. That should come as no surprise.
I suppose what is impressive, from a Conservative perspective, is the size of the minority that thinks Steve's okay or simply isn't sure.
In the last election two out of five Canadians voted for Harper, three out of five wanted someone else. That translated into a solid majority for the Harper Cons. His numbers are down a little bit in the latest Ipsos poll but a guy like Steve can engineer the political equivalent of anti-matter when he needs to top that up.
Three out of five versus two out of five. I suppose that tells us that the Canadian public has pretty much made up its mind on this underhanded, double-dealing, secretive bastard.
Steve knows that two out of five gives him a controlling position on the Board of Directors of Canada Inc. He's the C.E.O. and can't be challenged while the majority of the board members squabble among themselves. With those numbers holding, it's actually good news for Steve.
It's all in the eye of the beholder and nobody knows that better than a sideshow barker like Steve. Even as Canada is shedding jobs like crazy, even as our status as a classic, sluggish petro-state is confirmed by reports that Canada hovers at the bottom of the OECD in things like innovation, even as our resource companies and biggest banks are sneaking in guest workers for jobs that should be going to Canadians, Steve bombards the airways with continuous commercials telling us that his Canada Economic Action Plan is delivering results. It's not, the facts show it's not, but who cares? Steve says it is and he's using your tax dollars to get that message, his message out. Nothing remotely Orwellian about that, is there?
It's plain that the facts are out there for all to see and that they show Sideshow Steve is doing a terrible job, that he uses deceit and distraction to cloak his incompetence and mislead Canadians and that, for Steve, it works.
Where is the opposition? Why are they not knocking down Steve's House of Cards government?
Just a little reminder, fewer than two out of five people voted for Harper when we consider all those who didn't vote. (Plus we should consider all those living in the country who have not yet received citizenship and therefor can't vote.) I suggest that fewer than one in five adults living in Canada actually voted Conservative.
ReplyDeleteMeh. This overestimates Harper. It's the structure, and I'm not even talking about Canada's archaic FPTP electoral system.
ReplyDeleteBasically, we see all the stuff Harper does wrong, and much of it isn't precisely suppressed, but it's deeply underreported compared to right wing narratives.
It's not like Harper is some hypercompetent electioneer capable of pulling wins out of his hat at the last moment. Really, his campaigning last election was barely competent. He simply made the same rather uninspired speech many many times and refused media access, resisting attempts to discuss anything he didn't want to discuss. This is a sensible approach given the media milieu, but it's far from bulletproof and far from genius. If the media had been interested in calling him to account, they certainly could have. They chose not to, and they chose not to because their editors were endorsing Harper, and their editors were endorsing Harper because their owners are plutocrats who back Harper and his upward redistribution policies. Meanwhile the Conservatives have plenty of money for campaigning and ads because those with money like Conservatives.
Despite that, Harper doesn't usually get up to 39% in the polls. He got that high in the last election because Ignatieff was busily self-destructing (with a little help from the press). And few of his scandals, authoritarian tendencies
The problem for the two main opposition parties is distinct, but for neither is it Harper as such. The problem for the Liberals is getting the usual power-broking suspects to decide that the Liberals are a going concern again, the Cons' singlemindedness is dangerous, and so they should start skewing the media and funding playing field back towards the Libs again like the old days. Justin Trudeau's honeymoon may actually accomplish this, or it may not.
The problem for the NDP as usual is how to get around the media's tendency to sideline and belittle them and demonize particularly those NDP-style policies otherwise most likely to really resonate with the public. 'Cause the NDP aren't going to get the powerbrokers onside without dumping the base and going Full Blair.
In both cases, I think concentrating too much on Harper as Wizard Chess-player of Doom is counterproductive. Yes, make sure to devote some energy to beating him at chess, but if you build a big enough party and a big enough movement and push the country's agenda hard enough, all the cute little tactics of dishing some dirt here and targeting fringe voters in this and that riding there become less important.
Well stated 'violet bookish being'. Agreed that "… concentrating too much on Harper as Wizard Chess-player of Doom is counterproductive."
ReplyDelete"He simply made the same rather uninspired speech many many times and refused media access, resisting attempts to discuss anything he didn't want to discuss."
If the media had balls, like they used to when they were FAR less corporately owned, they should simply have stated "If you're not going to be available for questions-and by questions we don't mean questions vetted by the PMO-we simply won't cover you for the duration of the election.
Imagine a politician of any stripe with no media coverage. Quid pro quo Stevie. Quid pro quo.
Let's not forget that harper was as good as defeated in the last election, but for the fraud.
ReplyDeleteHe would have won a minority (from the votes of the greedy and the simple) which would have been unceremoniously turfed by a coalition.
Until the opposition gets organized, Harper knows he can divide and conquer.
ReplyDeleteIt's in his interest of keep them squabbling amongst themselves.
Many of those who vote have a set point of "don't rock the status quo" and all opposition parties pander to that setting, hence uninspired and lackluster performances. But this has been the case for over 30+ years and things have changed so dramatically that rocking the status quo is actually necessary for surviving these sweeping economic and environmental changes.
ReplyDeleteIt's no longer a case of promoting radical ideas to usher in revolutionary change for an equitable and just society. It's a case of stalling the arrival of a new dark ages, some feudal throwback where no middle class exists and no sustainable environment flourishes. The new black plague will be the chaos of one natural disaster after another. It sounds dramatic but when I think about how much ground has been destroyed in just three decades on the labour, environmental and social fronts, just getting back to what we had in the 60s and 70s will be a challenge.
The 'opposition' is organized .. Owen
ReplyDeleteGo look in the mirror..
You'll see exactly who & what I mean ...
It would take 1,000 bullshit faux-con twit trolls
to even begin to conceive where you're coming from .. and the weight you bring
Look at your fellow Canadian exemplars ..
the spectrum and contributions are outstanding
That's Canada... and the way we skate
You don't and won't.. lack for support & strength
Thanks MOS.. and so many other exemplars
for having a selflessness and outstanding conscience that Stephen Harper will never ever comprehend.. and his lizard louts either..
That collective wisdom, common sense, commitment
and special way of being that defines ..
Canadians and Canada eh ..
That's a good point, B.Y. Most Canadians have been brought up to abide authority on the understanding that, in our country, it would be exercised benevolently and wisely. That acquiescence has been exploited in recent decades by governments incapable or unwilling to keep their end of this grand bargain.
ReplyDeleteListen to Trudeau and you see clearly a fellow who, like all the others, cannot envision Canada in a world wracked with economic, environmental and political break down. Trudeau has shown no ambition to actually govern, to lead Canada out of the dysfunction that is spreading through so many countries.
It's as though all the monthly bills were coming in now with a bold red "Past Due" stamp on them and nobody is paying attention. They all want power but they're all intent on ducking the enormous responsibility that goes with it today.
It is crucial that the voice of Canadians is not just heard.. but that it is nourished, welcomed.. and implemented. Our collective knowledge, instinct, wisdom far exceeds any platform, policy or reason that a political party would come up with.
ReplyDeleteYet in the context of a poisonous, captured government incapable of validating to Canadians its election majority.. we look to alternative parties such as Liberal, NDP, Green etc for a return to sanity. Why ?
We need a 'shadow government' of Canadians speaking for Canadians and to Canadians for assent, critique, opinion, balance, sensibility, honesty and common sense.
Canadians don't particularly support what China wants. Nor do we care about the profit/loss of Norwegian farmed salmon entities. Do we agree with Israel colonizing Palestine and bulldozing olive groves? Likely not.
So why does our so-called government of elected public servants, or a political party in waiting think they should decide those issues without our input or assent.. or issues like muzzling biologists, or a pipeline that will bring supertankers to our marine ecosystems, or overload us with temporary season workers or purchase light bombers to patrol our remote airspace? We did not elect them to think too hard.. we elected them to represent our needs and wishes.
The Harper Government, and other political parties are mustard or relish or lettuce for our hamburger & buns. We decide, we tell them how we want them cooked and served to us. The moment we let toadies, partisan troglodytes, incompetents, partisan fools try to take over democracy is the day we should be converging on Ottawa.. en masse, no fooling around.. we mean business.
We see our citizens response to RBC and Jason Kenney's tactics, so where is our outcry re the staggering and secretive FIPA trade agreement with China ? Or the killing off of wild salmon, or eliminating the Experimental Lakes Area, or money down the sewers re Harper's Economic Action ads ?
Fine.. if Harper wants to play panda when concerned First Nations youths approach the city gates. Let's see how he behaves when 100,000 arrive.. with 400,000 others enroute bringing tents, food, water and fuel for fires.. and crowbars to open Parliament to the people and eject the political animals
Just who's country is this ? If we say no pipeline to Kitimaat, that's the collective will of Canada. And nothing pimps like Joe Oliver, Peter Kent, Joe Flaherty or Tony Clement have to say, holds a thimbleful of water or weight..
Government, political parties, bureaucrats, hacks, corporations, foreign interests, cronies, special interest groups, lobbyists etc need to reacquaint themselves with the concept and practice of democracy, Canadian style ..
Democracy has been significantly subverted, Sal, even in Canada. Democracy has to be exercised on a set of principles that keep it healthy and balanced. Without those principles it can readily morph into a much different system of political organization such as plutocracy.
ReplyDeleteDemocracy is supposed to serve the interests of the majority while respecting and safeguarding the interests of the minority. Today's wedge politics, practiced so effectively by Harper and others, reject that essential balancing so critical to democracy.
Democracy is supposed to be anchored in the past and reaching out to the future. Again it's a matter of balance - putting in perspective from the past our current wants and comforts while balancing them with some regard for the needs of the future.
Today we embrace a system of maximized production and maximized consumption that, fueled by population growth, technology and rising standards of living, are, for the first time in our planet's history bringing us to the point where our consumption exceeds the planet's capacity to meet these demands. We're eating our seed corn and it's tangible. The evidence of it is everywhere from collapsed global fisheries, to emptied aquifers, to deforestation and species extinctions, to desertification of once productive agricultural land.
These are growing realities that our political apparatus does not even recognize much less attempt to address. Government is shrinking in the scope of its ability and willingness to meet its duties to the public. The only means to do that comes from the power we collectively vest in them and they chose not to use the power we have given them for our benefit. Breathtaking. And that goes for the Libs and New Dems as it does for the Harper Cons.
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ReplyDelete