Stephen Harper and the Ill wind from Alberta

Well nobody at this beach on the Toronto Island today was complaining about an ill wind from the West.

Because it was warm and wild, and summer like life is so short and precious.

However, had they been in Calgary this weekend, they would have encountered another kind of wind.

Hot, foul, and fetid, whistling out of Stephen Harper's main orifice, and aimed squarely at Justin Trudeau.



"And if, God forbid, Canadians are attacked, or robbed, if they lose someone they love to a murderer, or if they see their children driven to suicide by bullying and harassment… the first thing they want their government to do is not make excuses for criminals, but to stick up for victims," Harper said.

"In fact, Justin Trudeau has said he will repeal our reforms. Repeal, for example our mandatory prison sentences for serious, violent crime," he said. "In other words, I like to describe it this way: he will restore that key liberal principle of criminal justice...that the offender must be considered innocent even after being proved guilty."

And it tells us all we need to know about the kind of election campaign he is planning, the filthiest in Canadian history. One aimed at Trudeau, "liberal judges," the Supreme Court, and the very foundations of our justice system.

But then I can understand why Harper was feeling so aroused. After bumping into his hated rival at the redneck stampede...



And not being able to strangle him, or bite him. Just scare his kid.

Great Cowboy Leader wouldn't be saying such crazy things if he didn't feel threatened by Justin's growing popularity.

And since Canadians have heard it all before, he really does need a new stump speech. 

Saturday evening, in a speech to a friendly Calgary Stampede audience, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a fine opportunity to show that he understands the way the game is changing, or at least carve out a bit of new rhetorical territory. Instead, he stuck to the long-established path – some will call it a rut – laid down in many previous prime ministerial speeches.

Because this one really is insane, in a fascist sort of way...



Why are we all safer with Tories in charge?

Liberals hug thugs and care only for ensuring criminals have a full range of cable TV and gluten-free dessert options in their sumptuously appointed cells. The Conservatives, thank goodness, will punish the evildoers with various mandatory minimum sentences, and never mind the lawyerly weenies and eggheads who say these don’t deter crime, and in some cases are unconstitutional.

And it doesn't work:

If it were effective demonization, one could at least try to justify it using the excuse of expediency. But it has proven for two years now not to work – including in the most recent round of byelections. The personal attacks merely reinforce Harper’s own negatives, while bouncing harmlessly off his nemesis.

Except maybe in a place like Alberta, where that kind of crazy talk goes down like a chuck wagon.

Or a pancake...



But then these days the cowboy province isn't that popular in the rest of Canada either eh?

Not after the Cons have destroyed good jobs all over the country, to favour that province and its oil sands. Even though the economic impact of those tarry ponds is greatly over-rated. 

A majority of Canadians overestimate the contribution the oilsands make to the world's 11th largest economy, according to a recent poll. Non-conventional oil production - which comes mostly from mining and steaming bitumen from beneath the soil of northern Alberta - accounts for about two per cent of national output, Statistics Canada data show.

And when we remind Canadians of that inconvenient truth, over and over again, I don't think you can over-rate the impact on the corrupt, tired Con regime and its depraved leader. Stuck in a rut and out of ideas.

Which takes me back to the place, or the beach, where I began eh?

And has me summing up things this way:

There is an ill wind blowing from the general direction of Alberta. 

And it is as foul as any this country has ever experienced. 

But we will harness it to our advantage.

And it will help raise us to VICTORY...



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