Sunday, November 01, 2015

Why the Con Leadership Race is Heading for Oblivion



OMG don't look now, but the Con race to replace Stephen Harper and become interim leader is turning into a hog stampede.

With Jesus Harper looking on and cheering because they're all his candidates. And Jason Kenney waiting to claim the big prize.

But if the Cons are hoping to renew their shattered and demoralized party they're definitely heading in the wrong direction.

Or heading for oblivion.



Because with just five days before the Con caucus gets to decide who they want as interim leader, Diane Finley, Erin O'Toole and Rob Nicholson are already in the race, and squealing up a storm.

And now now they have been joined by Mike Lake and  Rona Ambrose.



Yes, that Rona Ambrose who now claims she has a reputation for civility.

“A respectful tone and civil tone and working across the floor with other parties is something our members would welcome, that our caucus would welcome, and that Canadians would welcome as well,” Ambrose said in an interview.


Even though her crass attempts to distort facts about marijuana to attack Justin Trudeau, couldn't have been less civil or more appalling.

And her bid to close down the Insite clinic in Vancouver, even though it has saved thousands of lives...



Couldn't be more murderous.

And then there's Mike Lake, who although he did have some harsh words for the Con campaign.

“Our major communications tools literally contained no substance, despite having a leader whose greatest brand strength was substance,” he wrote. 

“In the final two weeks, while the Liberals ran the ads we should have been running, Conservative ads — in their tone — were easy to confuse with life insurance and pre-planned funeral ads.”

Has always been a faithful flunky of his depraved, bigoted master Stephen Harper... 



And his perfect report card from Campaign Life for his unrelenting assault on women's rights, and the human rights of LBGT Canadians, make him unfit for any office higher than dog catcher.

Just click the votes tab and you'll see what I mean.

But if that wasn't bad enough, then there's Candice Bergen. Whose claim that she also wants to set a more "respectful tone" couldn't be more dubious.

"Justin Trudeau literally cannot – I don't think he could say 'good morning everyone' if he wasn't reading it," she said to some laughter. "It's quite something to behold."

"Really. Ask yourself that question," she said. "Would you want him to be the principal of your children or your grandchildren's school, much less leading this country?"


And the way she led the charge to kill the gun registry couldn't have been more disgusting...



Which makes her just another member of Stephen Harper's porky Reform gang.

But what those ghastly Reform Cons don't seem to understand is that they are all linked to the worst crimes of the Harper regime, and could never renew that monstrous party, that has raped this country and our values, and shamed us in the eyes of the world.

And to make matters even worse for them, they all seem to think that they only lost the election because their campaign made "mistakes" and their "tone" wasn't right.

When as the old Con flak Geoff Norquay points out, maybe the Cons could have won the election, but the roots of that party's problems run much deeper. 



The roots of the Conservative demise were put in place long before the dropping of the writ. The war with the national media, the constant playing to the Conservative “base”, the abolition of the long-form census, the removal of health care benefits from failed refugee claimants, the denigration of caucus by the “kids in short pants”, the insults to the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the Duffy fiasco, the muzzling and bullying of federal scientists, the unrestrained partisanship, the Robocalls, and a remote and surly prime minister who refused on principle to communicate with the public except on his own terms — to name just a few — had all combined to reduce the possible Conservative vote to well under 40 per cent.

And the good news is that we shall use all of that against whatever interim leader they choose.

We shall point out that they are all members of the Stephen Harper Mystery Meats Club...



We will attack every candidate, discredit every attempt to renew the Cons, and then use electoral reform to finish them off forever.

We have destroyed their ugly past, now let's destroy their future.

Oh yes one more thing, in case you wondered. Do I have a favourite candidate?

Why yes I do, and it's Candy Bergen !!!

For as the Con porkers head for oblivion, or the slaughterhouse of history.

And we wait impatiently for their squeals to sound like music in our ears.

At least she can keep us entertained...



With apologies to Miss Piggy, they are all hogs, monsters, and bullies.

They are the scum of the earth.

And they're all going down together...

Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

That there are women like this in Canada running for office just boggles my mind and that they call themselves Christian reboggles it.

Omar said...

While Norquay's commentary was extremely welcoming, the old fuckwad still managed to go on CBC Power & Politics every chance he got during the campaign to defend Harper and his Conservatives. Apparently scum of the Earth have little time for scruples. Taste the hypocrisy Canada.

jrkrideau said...

Norquay writes Harper had always had a strange aversion to speaking in visionary terms about anything

Other than a firm belief that government and taxes were wrong I don't really think Harper ever had a vision and the equivalent of Sacking Rome is hardly strategic.

Norquay identifies some of the problems the Cons had going into the election but I don't see any hint that the main Con players are willing to admit that their loss was heavily do to bad policy and governance not just a poor campaign. I think that they are still in denial of the fact that 9 or so years of bad governance and retrogressive and often vindictice policies had some small effect.

Candace Bergen seems like a good candidate for interim leader but in the long run I'm hoping that Tim Hudak runs for the leadership. Now there's a man who could do great things (for us).

Anonymous said...

The big question which should be asked to every one of them is 'Why did you stand by like trained seals while Harper destroyed your Party?"

Anonymous-A

rumleyfips said...

To bad the electorate handed Calandra his ass in a hat. With him in charge the biblical bigots would get their 40 years in the wilderness.

Steve said...

$80,000 thats all folks, pigs at the last trough

Anonymous said...

Jason Kenney - per his Wikipedia entry - has never had a 'real' job. At least Harperman worked in a mailroom for a while (dad got him the job) before embarking on his political career.

Jason Kenney: He's just not ready.

e,a,f, said...

it is' too bad no one with some smarts is standing for interium leader. On the other hand it is a good strategy to not stand for interium leader, no one will be able to point at you later and the mistakes you have made. we can only hope their is some one who can take the con party back to the P.C. party so that Canadians who do not want to vote Liberal, NDP, Green, Bloc etc have a party to vote for. You need a right of centre party for those who want to vote that way. that is what a democracy is all about

David said...

The only one I think who has the ability to raise the Cons from the ashes is Michael Chong.

David said...

Federal Election 2015: Jason Kenney expects Stephen Harper to resign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUIxzF5dtw

Simon said...

hi anon...yes it is outrageous isn't it? I'm an atheist and still more of a Christian than all of them, especially their depraved leader...

Simon said...

hi Omar...you're right, he defended the Cons every time he appeared, but never ever criticized them like he is now doing. And of course he's still peddling the line that the election could have been won if the campaign had been better run. So he too is delusional...

Simon said...

hi jrkrideau...that's a perceptive comment, and one that has struck me through the years. When you look at Harper's record from his student council days in high school and university, he has never sought to build only to destroy. In fact I don't believe Harper can be properly understood without recognizing that obvious character flaw. And yes you're right, the Cons are all talking about tome, or a failure to communicate which is a bit rich considering they spend almost a billion dollars trying to brainwash us. But as for the Con leadership race, what strikes me is the mediocrity of the candidates, and unless they can get someone from the outside I can't seen how they are going to repair and renew their party...

Simon said...

hi Anonymous A...exactly, it is the big question they and all the other Con collaborators should be asked. Never in my life have I seen so many act like complete stooges. And you can be sure I intend to remind them about that until the end of my life. For it was absolutely shameless...

Simon said...

hi rumleyfips....yes you're right, it is too bad that Calandra wasn't around to throw his jester's hat into the ring.If he had I might have had to reconsider switching my support from Kenney to him... ;)

Simon said...

hi Steve...it;s last call at the Con trough. I can only imagine how they're feeling, it must be a terrible shock. There are several thousand Cons out of work in Ottawa alone, and with progressive governments all over the country I can't see many of them getting a cushy job again. If you see them begging, please throw them a nickel....

Simon said...

hi anon...you're right, Jason Kenney has been a professional politician all his life. Even Pierre Poilievre ran some kind of robocall company once. I'm still not sure he truly believes he would make a good leader, but if he does he's delusional...

Simon said...

hi e.a.f..we don't want anyone smart to run for the leadership of that party, unless they belong to the PC wing which as far as I can tell is practically extinct. Because so many Cons come from Alberta, the odds are stacked against them...

Simon said...

hi David...yes Chong is a cit above the others, which is why he wouldn't stand a chance of winning. It will take a lot of work and time to change the nature of the Harper Party...

Simon said...

hi David...hmmm I wish I'd seen that clip on election night, it would made that wonderful night even more enjoyable. On can only hope that Harper watched it, because it would have made his night even more miserable, if that's possible...

David said...

http://rickmercer.com/Rick-s-Rant/Blog/October-2010/Seal-Caucus.aspx

jrkrideau said...

Hi Simon,
Thanks for the kind words.

About Harper and his record, I have found Bob Altemeyer's book, The Authoritarians and his discussion of Authoritarian Leaders in Chapter 5. which starts on pg 160. to be very interesting. In particular his description of “Double Highs, starts roughly at pg 177 is eerily reminiscent of Harper. It would almost predict many of Harper's decisions and policies (well in very general terms).

It also may provide a good framework for people to watch for more neo-Harpers coming along.

It is interesting that Altemeyer reports (somewhere that I don't see at the moment) that there seems to be a hard-core body of roughly 30% of the population that are high Right Wing Authoritarians (RWAs) which strangely enough seems correspond to the Con core.

A very quick and dirt summary of the main descriptive points for a Right Wing Authoritarian is available athttp://hubpages.com/politics/An-Analysis-of-the-Right-Wing-Authoritarian-Follower-RWA

The Authoritarians is available at
http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf

It seems to have been a self-publishing effort done in Word in the early days of self-publishing so it can be a bit annoying to read, especially as Altemeyer uses a lot of footnotes that are required reading :(. I finally figured out that if I opened the document in two different pdf readers, one for the main text and one for the footnotes it was not too bad.