Really, Chuckles, Really?

Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer, seems intent on fighting this year's federal election on the destruction of our planet and the ruin of Canadian society. By that I mean, Scheer is on a climate change rampage, one that will be sold on expanding a high-carbon future for Canada.

I'm no fan of Trudeau's paltry carbon price initiative. Too little, much too late, and a lot of the damage he claims to want to avert will be subverted by his very own bitumen and pipeline policies and his government's ongoing multi-billion dollar subsidies to the Bitumen Barons. Think of it as cognitive dissonance at its best. That said, a minuscule carbon tax is better than no carbon tax.

Scheer, the member from Regina-Qu'Appelle, is going for the low-hanging fruit of rightwing populism. Part of that includes worshiping at the altar of 'everyday low taxes' and that means stoking up fears among the voting public over Trudeau's carbon price regime.

These rightwing populists are all the same whether they're named Duterte, Orban, Erdogan or Trump. They don't seek to unite their people but to divide them. It's an ugly tool that they use, not against their adversaries, but to intimidate and manipulate their own base.  They seek to corral their dupes, hoping that with just enough undecideds, they can eek out yet another false majority government of the sort that has served Canada so well in recent decades.

And Scheer intends to follow their playbook that, incidentally, is really quite similar to his own predecessor, Stephen Harper's. He will lie his ass off, stoke fears, and appeal to dark and base instincts.  He will inflate the paltry carbon tax as a monster that Trudeau is hiding behind the curtain to spring on the already impoverished public upon re-election.

Had Trudeau not betrayed the Canadian people on his promise of electoral reform, a guy like Scheer would be far less menacing to the future of Canada and our people, you and me.  Governance in Canada is decided by slightly less than two out of five voters.  Even Trump's numbers (46.4%) against Clinton
(48.5%) were far better than that.  When you score a majority win with less than 40 per cent of the vote, that's not democracy because you haven't garnered the informed consent of the electorate. You don't govern legitimately. You merely rule.

To me, a Scheer win will be even more disappointing than a Trudeau win but, ultimately, they're both on the wrong side of the issues that matter to me.  I hope that those leaning toward the Conservatives will somehow see through Scheer and how destructive he would be to our society but, then again, the other guy has taught me not to trust him either.