Tuesday, August 30, 2016

The Cons and the Fatal Legacy of Stephen Harper



Yesterday I warned that the Cons, with the help of the Con media, were trying to whitewash Stephen Harper's monstrous legacy.

As Michelle Rempel has been trying to do...



Against all odds.

And sure enough here comes another Con fluffer...




And it would have to be Peter MacKay.

Who although he jumped off the sinking Con ship before it went down....



Claiming that some things were more important than politics.

He is now back with a bang, and praising Harper extravagantly. 

I witnessed a style steeped in pragmatism and a deep sense of commitment to building a better, more united Canada. 


Complex like Canada itself, Harper was never one to seek the limelight, yet was comfortable and confident in what he believed to be the right course. It takes talent and grit to be PM, tough decisions must be made against a tide of criticism.

And I mean extravagantly.

He has a soft spot for animals, something he shared with his wife and daughter. Charlie the Chinchilla, among the cats, was a favourite.



Even though Harper's alleged love of animals was more than matched by his contempt for Canadians.

Nobody divided this country more than he did, or spent more of our money trying to make himself popular. Or ruled more like a dictator.

Even though Harper stole the PC party from him, but MacKay still serviced him so faithfully...



His own legacy will live in infamy.

And even though his previous attempts to defend Harper's record have ended disastrously...



And made him look even more like a stooge, or an idiot.

But then what is clear is that Dumbo is almost certainly preparing to enter the Con leadership race.

For a retired politician not running for anything, and who only cares about spending time with his family and whatnot, Peter MacKay sure has a lot to say about politics.

Now that I think of it, MacKay never actually said he’d stay out of politics forever. “I haven’t ruled it out,” was how he recently described his stance on a potential leadership bid. I’m thinking MacKay is in.


And for the Cons it's just the latest example of the fatal legacy of Stephen Harper...



Who was so paranoid he left his party with no natural successor, and riddled with so many mediocre candidates it will be lucky to return to power before the year 2050.

So one can reasonably claim, as James Mennie does, that in the end Harper's most enduring legacy will be to have brought another Trudeau to power.

Having covered every day of that Homeric and game changing campaign, I’ve always maintained that Justin Trudeau’s Liberals didn’t win the election so much as Stephen Harper lost it. 

Perhaps after 10 years in power and no perceived threat at the start of the contest, there was a dangerous sense of complacency on the part of Harper and his entourage, an in-the-bag certainty/arrogance that led them to believe that the only way the Trudeau Liberals could go was down.


But by signing off on a campaign of record length, Harper didn’t just open the door to new sets of possibilities (and dangerous political variables), he gave Trudeau what he needed most – time. Time to hammer his own message across the country, time to relentlessly bleed support from the NDP and time to tap in to the fatigue and desire for change that any government that’s been in power for 10 years engenders in the electorate.


Which considering how much Harper hated Justin's father, must be driving Great Fallen Leader crazy...



Or crazier.


Especially since Pierre's son, the leader who was not ready, just keeps getting more and more popular.



At the beginning of 2015, all three major parties had accessible voter pools of a similar size. Today, the Liberals have a 20-point advantage over the NDP and a 22-point advantage over the Conservatives. 

If there were an election tomorrow, the Liberals would win 46% support, 6-points better than their result last fall. The Conservatives are steady at 28% while the NDP is at 16%. Both the NDP and Conservative are four points below their election result last year. 

Despite some challenges and mistakes, the Liberals have governed like Canadians expected they would. They promised a progressive, positive, and ambitious government. Most progressive Canadians, and even some of those on the right, are happy with what they have seen so far. 

Which couldn't be a happier ending to the nightmare of the Con regime, and gives us at least one good reason to thank Stephen Harper.

He was such a rotten Prime Minister, and the opposite of a political genius.

He shot himself in the foot.

And may have buried himself, and his Cons, and his legacy forever...



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6 comments:

Steve said...

Airshow will be forever remembered for saying the one engine of the F35 will never fail as he sat in a cardboard mockup that cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands for a sales photo op. I thought cons were all biz, but nope they paid to be sold. Second for taking a rescuse chopper out of rotation so he could fly in style from his Bildenberg Fishing lodge, and lying about it.

You want to see what it means to have a true Canadian legacy, look to PET.

That was a brilliant Remple twit Simon.

jrkrideau said...

Harper was never one to seek the limelight

True he was very shy, not even wanting to go to meetings with the premiers. And he never told the civil service to change from using the term “Canadian Government” to “Harper Government”.

There never was 24/7 video feed of Harper doing important things like riding a skidoo.

Notable was his stewardship through the recession that allowed Canada to emerge better placed than any other G7 country.

This actually means he inherited a surplus from the Liberals and had not had time to deregulate the banks like the Americans had before the crash came.

and boosted our Armed Forces budget to record levels.

Which means he inherited the Afghan fiasco from Chretien and had to stump up some cash. Besides we know he never saw a war he didn't like. Thank heavens he was not PM when the gong-show idiots George W and Tony invaded Iraq.

I remember that just after our troops withdrew from Afghanistan there were reports that the military were so cash-strapped that they could not afford fuel to carry out exercises.

I also recognized his deep affection and appreciation for our Canadian Forces, veterans and their families.

And the military and veterans are still enduring the “Harper” government's failure to provide sufficient mental health resources.

Anonymous said...

"He has a soft spot for animals, something he shared with his wife and daughter."

And Hitler was fond of dogs.

Simon said...

hi Steve...yes can you believe it Dumbo is back? And you'd think that his ghastly record would disqualify him from ever running for office again. But as I pointed out in my post, it's only mediocrity that still makes him a contender. As for Pierre Trudeau, he did blaze a brave trail. But let's not forget that my hero Dr Norman Bethune, was the one who opened up China to Canada, and is still more popular with the Chinese than any other Canadian...

Simon said...

hi jrk...thanks for your brilliant comment that dissects Dumbo's absurd column like a skilled surgeon, and exposes him as clown and a fraud. But at least we know that by writing that op-ed piece he is clearly trying to raise his profile so he can declare himself a candidate for the Con leadership. so at least we have been warned, and prepare to give him the reception he deserves...

Simon said...

hi anon...you're right, der fuhrer was a dog lover, and tried out his cyanide capsule on his dog Blondi. I used to have a horrible dream of Harper doing the same to Charlie, or having him turned into a pair of ear muffs for himself or Laureen. And all I can hope is that in the chaos of the Con Gotterdammerung, Charlie was able to make a break for it, and escape to a better place... ;)