Tories Look to Make Death With Dignity a Wedge Issue for 2015 Elections

Well, that didn't take long.  Just days after the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the criminal prohibition on physician assisted suicide, Harper justice minister Peter MacKay let's slip the Tories see it as a possible election issue.

[MacKay] noted the court provided a calendar year to deliver its answer, but said the government will be taking "the time we need" after describing it as an important and far-reaching issue for Canadians.

He acknowledged the decision's timing ahead of a federal election expected in October and said input from a broad array of people will help inform and instruct the government's path forward.

"How it will impact or how it might impact on an election I suppose depends on what happens between now and October, if anything, and how people view this as moving their vote."

For a prime minister like Harper, nothing that can be turned into a wedge issue is off limits.  Nothing.  And if there was ever an issue to pique Harper's basest fundamentalist instincts this is it.

Politicizing death and suffering - Conservatives at their finest.  They'll turn anything and anyone into a political football, even the terminally ill.

Tory Desperation - Reviving Grewal

The Grumpy Voter has posted a warning to the Libs not to get too haughty over the Cadman affair lest they be forced to again wear the shame of the Grewal scandal. Oh, that was a Liberal scandal, Grump?

What's Grewal up to these days, Grump? You might remember that he resigned in disgrace. And, as for his "smoking gun" tape, do you recall what happened with that? Recall how Grewal's tape was found to have been fiercely edited? Recall how Grewal "chose" not to produce the original? And, for the record, Dosanj was investigated - and cleared.

So, don't lecture the Liberals on the Grewal Scandal, Grump. Point your finger in the other direction. Yes, and we're talking about the same bunch that lurks behind the Cadman story.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051129/gurmant_grewal_051129?s_name=&no_ads=

See also the delightful blog, "Buckets of Grewal"

http://bucketsofgrewal.blogspot.com/

The Tories must be in a psychotic fit of desperation to drag Grewal to their defence.

Blogging Tories - What Is Their Major Malfunction?

Anyone who runs a blog from the Liberal (moderate) side has to expect to be routinely attacked by seemingly fanatical right wingers. Their comments are notable for being full of sexual and scatological references. They tend to be jingoistic, unflatteringly aggressive and hostile, ill-considered and, ultimately, sophomoric, juvenile even.

I'm old enough to remember a time when Liberals and Conservatives could hold a civil dialogue without either side abusing the other or having to sacrifice its values and beliefs. We agreed to differ and we still respected each other.

Those, of course, were the days of Progressive Conservatism. Liberal or NDP or Progressive Conservative, there was always a common denominator of Canadian values that allowed us to make progress together.

Back when I was a member of the working press in Ottawa, I sometimes ran into political extremism. In those days that tended to come from the far left, the radical left. These types would rant and rave and spit fury without end, castigating anyone whose beliefs did not comport with their own.

Today, that very sort of conduct comes from Conservative supporters. The party, following Dick Cheney's roadmap, has shifted to the right, to the far right. In the process it has energized the radical right who, true to course, resemble in their carrying on nothing so much as the radical left of the 60's.

The voice that comes from these people is the voice of extremism, the strident screed, the impulse to try to heap ridicule and abuse on anyone who lies beyond their narrow, angry vision.

Now I know there are many intelligent, informed and thoughtful Conservatives out there and we should be glad to have them. Unfortunately they have not held their own, their part of the centre, but have surrendered their voice to the Cheneys and the Harpers and their followers, the far right.

It won't last, if only for the simple reason that the uber-right is at odds with core Canadian values. Study upon study shows that. Reality, however, is of no moment to these types. Long denied the limelight by sensible conservatives, the ultra-right nutjobs are now released onto their rampage and intent on making sure all of us know it.

Relax, they'll be gone soon enough.