Stephen Harper and the Northern Gateway Monster

Gosh. Have you noticed how these days the Cons are always running away from something? 

Just a few weeks ago Jason Kenney was running away from the foreign workers scandal, as fast as his chubby little legs could carry him. While Julian Fantino ran away from a group of angry veterans.

And now Stephen Harper and the rest of his Con mob are desperately trying to get away from the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Harper hasn't even tweeted a word about his tarry baby.

And some of the other gang members are literally running for cover. 

Conservative MPs and staff are distancing themselves from the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, despite being enthusiastic about finding a way to ship natural resources to Asia. Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford declined interview requests and wasn't available Tuesday to take questions from reporters about the decision.

Several Conservative MPs from British Columbia rushed away from reporters trying to ask them questions.

And as Nathan Cullen points out for very good reason:

"There's a reason for that: This is an incredibly unpopular decision.... These guys have gutted environmental laws, destroyed whole acts that exist on the books of Canada, all to enable this project. They are wedded to it. They can't be half-pregnant on this."

And of course nobody is more desperate than Stephen Harper, who after spending millions and millions of dollars promoting the pipeline, is now too afraid to even talk about it....



And as Tim Harper points out, has only bought himself a heap of trouble.

So, what did Harper buy Tuesday? 

A project with more than 200 conditions placed on Enbridge; five more placed on it by B.C. Premier Christy Clark who controls 60 permits needed for construction; at least five court challenges underway or in the planning stage; a threat of a grassroots provincial referendum to kill the pipeline; widespread provincial opposition; threats of social unrest, and the opposition of Tom Mulcair and his New Democrats, Justin Trudeau and his Liberals and Elizabeth May of the Greens.

And placed his own head on the chopping block.

Despite controlling every aspect of this file, Harper was still unable to close the deal and was left with no option but to spend a bagful of his dwindling political capital on something that may never be built. If the prime minister’s head is in a political guillotine, he placed it there himself.

Which only goes to show once again, as Chantale Hébert points out, that Great Pipeline Leader seems to have acquired the reverse Midas Touch. 



With about a year to go in Stephen Harper’s third mandate, policy wins are becoming few and far between for the ruling Conservatives. Time and time again over the past parliamentary year the government has turned what could have been policy gold into lead.

This was supposed to be the year when Harper broke through the dark clouds of a Senate scandal by moving forward shiny new policy. Things did not work out according to plan.

Which can only make him even more desperate, along with this other piece of bad news.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and his party have widened their public-opinion lead over the ruling Conservatives in the past few weeks, according to a new poll by Forum Research.

Liberals were the preferred party for 39 per cent of poll respondents, compared to 31 per cent for the Conservatives and 19 per cent for the New Democratic Party.

Which shows that nothing he has done in the last six months, all those foreign trips, all those photo-ops, all that propaganda, have done him any good.

Oh boy. You know I took this screen cap of Great Desperate Leader in Question Period today...



And I think it speaks volumes about his fragile state of mind, and the way many in his own party are starting to look at him. 

He isn't the man he once was. Everything he touches turns to shite. He can't escape the scandals, or his tarry baby. His polls are going nowhere. He's threatening to take them all down with him.

He is slowly going crazy. 

And sooner or later, if he doesn't resign first. 

We are going to destroy him....

Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.