I feel like I need to get out my pompoms and whistle and lead a cheer here. We can't give up and concede the next election. Winning has to be top priority (along with party reform). I know, I know, I'm preaching to the converted and preachiness is obnoxious, but I'm sensing a bit of defeatism and complacency.
Let's never forget that our opponent is not the Progressive Conservatives. Harper orchestrated a hostile take-over of that venerable party and appropriated its brand, but Harper is Reform/Alliance. He's no Preston Manning either. Preston Manning was a populist perhaps even more than conservative and believed in social programs and a government that represented the people. Harper took the party Manning started and moved it far to the right.
At the beginning of the last election campaign the media cut off Martin at the knees by announcing that he was planning attack ads to make Harper look scary, thus discrediting that entire line of the campaign. The fact is that Harper is scary. He has extremist views that are counter to the values of most Canadians. If he wins a majority he will probably change Canada in fundamental ways that will be odious to most Canadians. When Harper tells American neo-conservatives that "Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term," we need to understand that he is announcing his plan to destroy our social safety net and universal health care.
I think it's fair to say that the Liberals lost the last election because of the sponsorship scandal, and not because Canadians want a Harper-style neo-conservative country. Harper is not a good choice for Canada and is not what Canadians want. Furthermore, in the top candidates for the Liberal leadership we have three men (Rae, Ignatieff and Dion) who are exciting, progressive, and qualified to lead the country. The next election is very much within our grasp.
2 comments:
The January 2006 federal election was a false election, falsely won, with a false mandate for Harper's minority government.
The next election will not be a similar false one, and the results will more clearly reflect voters considered opinions.
Why was the 2006 election a false one? Because:
1. Harper ran on a false platform (hiding rightwing candidates; focusing on shrill accusations of corruption; refusing to be drawn on his basic, core rightwing necon agenda).
2. The NDP joined in the chorus, also falsely embellishing the degree of perceived corruption in the Liberal government. Then the Bloc chimed in, chanting corruption corruption ..
3. The degree of corruption since disclosed is pitiful, but nowhere near what the troika chanted.
4. The Martin government ran an appallingly inept campaign, being slow to react, bumbling in concept, and reactive throughout. This gave a false impression of weakness for the Liberal Party.
The results were also a false reflection of the true beliefs of Canadian voters. The voters were far more astute than the New Tories, Bloc and NDP parties were: the urbanites checked out Harper, kicked the tires of the New Tories, and decided that the rightwing, anti-pluralist, theocratic tendencies of this new bunch of neocon flat earthers was just a touch too crazy for them, so most did not give Harper their vote.
Come the next election, with a new Liberal leader and Harper's Mr Clean image looking more an more sullied with each passing day and each newly surfaced indiscretion, the voters will once more weigh the parties in their balance.
Harper is unlikely to get away with the nonsensical stealth campaign he waged in January when faced with one of the nimble footed Liberal candidates.
Especially if Bob Rae is elected leader. He will eat Harper for breakfast.
The January 2006 federal election was a false election, falsely won, with a false mandate for Harper's minority government.
The next election will not be a similar false one, and the results will more clearly reflect voters considered opinions.
Why was the 2006 election a false one? Because:
1. Harper ran on a false platform (hiding rightwing candidates; focusing on shrill accusations of corruption;
refusing to be drawn on his basic, core rightwing necon agenda).
2. The NDP joined in the chorus, also falsely embellishing the degree of perceived corruption in the Liberal government. Then the Bloc chimed in, chanting corruption corruption ..
3. The degree of corruption since disclosed is pitiful, but nowhere near what the troika chanted.
4. The Martin government ran an appallingly inept campaign, being slow to react, bumbling in concept, and reactive throughout. This gave a false impression of weakness for the Liberal Party.
The results were also a false reflection of the true beliefs of Canadian voters. The voters were far more astute than the New Tories, Bloc and NDP parties were: the urbanites checked out Harper, kicked the tires of the New Tories, and decided that the rightwing, anti-pluralist, theocratic tendencies of this new bunch of neocon flat earthers was just a touch too crazy for them, so most did not give Harper their vote.
Come the next election, with a new Liberal leader and Harper's Mr Clean image looking more an more sullied with each passing day and each newly surfaced indiscretion, the voters will once more weigh the parties in their balance.
Harper is unlikely to get away with the nonsensical stealth campaign he waged in January when faced with one of the nimble footed Liberal candidates.
Especially if Bob Rae is elected leader. He will eat Harper for breakfast.
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