If there was any doubt that Stephen Harper is going for an early election, maybe even sooner than most people imagine, now there can be none.
For not only is he rushing his flawed prostitution bill through Parliament.
One of Parliament’s most high-profile bills appears set to become law without major changes – as one senator says the committee considering Bill C-36, aimed at reining in the sex trade, is “highly unlikely” to call for changes.
Even though it would make the lives of sex workers even more dangerous, and is almost certainly unconstitutional.
He's also stepping up his plans to declare war on the unions.
Conservative senators are making a bid to cut short debate on private members' business just as the Senate is about to revive debate on a controversial bill that would force unions to publicly disclose details of their spending.
The timing of the two moves has sparked suspicions that the Harper government wants to whisk bill C-377 through the Senate, avoiding the scrutiny that prompted senators, including 16 Conservatives, to gut the bill the first time it came before the upper house.
And even though bill C-377 is also hideously flawed:
Critics maintain the original bill would infringe on provinces' constitutional power over labour issues, violate charter guarantees of freedom of speech and association and amount to an invasion of privacy.
He's muzzling debate so he can ram that bill and any others through Parliament by the end of the year.
At the same time, a Conservative-dominated committee has issued a report recommending that private members' business be subject to time allocation to limit debate – a departure from the long-standing practice of applying time limits only to government business.
So he can be in position to call an election ANYTIME in 2015.
And when you see how he is planning to turn his U.N. appearance this week into a propaganda show as I mentioned in my last post.
So he can turn the event into yet another opportunity to pose as a Great Strong Leader....
And woo the Ukrainian-Canadians vote even more than he already has. If that's possible.
And when you see the way he is jetting across the country hitting every other ethnic event he can...
And will be visiting China in November so he can woo the Chinese-Canadian vote.
While desperately trying to suppress any evidence of his massive sellout to the Chinese government.
Conservative staff members deleted comments critical of the Canada-China investment deal that were posted on the party's Facebook page. Angry notes about the controversial Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) were among more than 100 Facebook comments purged from the party's page in less than a week, an analysis by Postmedia News found.
And you see how the Con regime is now just one giant Election Machine.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Cabinet committees are reviewing everything that will be announced before the next election and are in the midst of an “intense” workload time, say Conservative insiders, but once the budget’s released and as the next election nears, essentially all political strategy and decision-making will come from the PMO and party headquarters.
You really have to wonder how soon that election will come. Could it be as early as next Spring or will it be even EARLIER?
And what it tells me is that Harper is doing all this because he is now desperate to try an avoid the Duffy Trial...
Because even if him and his Senate Cons can't be compelled to testify, the trial would still destroy him.
While they might be legally bullet proof, refusal to testify by Harper or his Senate team carries a political price. If they refuse, people will be justifiably suspicious of the Conservatives in the coming election year. That is the real problem for Harper and the Conservatives, who claim to be the party of rectitude. Voters might conclude that the Duffy case makes them look more like the party of sleaze.
And since Duffy and his lawyer are pushing for a quick trial.
All I can say is that we better be ready.
Because he is crazy desperate.
He will find any excuse to strike without warning.
And the final Battle for Canada.
Could begin sooner than most imagine...
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The Canadian stimulus model has resulted in $184 billion of debt being racked up by the Stephen Harper Government from 2008 to 2014 for future generations to pay off.
ReplyDeleteI thought things were supposed to be different when the Reform Party => Canadian Alliance => Conservative Party of Canada movement arrived in Ottawa and took hold of the levers of power.
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/canada-deficit/
hi anon....well I'm not surprised. Cons make lousy economists because they are so rabidly ideologically they put dogma before the facts. And they lie. Remember the Harper Cons not only promised to spend our money wisely, they also said they'd be "transparent and accountable." And we all know how that worked out...
DeleteI'm starting to think you may be right Simon. I know that Harper will do anything to hold on to power. If he thinks calling an early election will help him do that .then he will call an early election. Also he is not doing well in his campaigning. He is floundering and this is early days. He may think that waiting for an Oct. 2015 election is too long a wait. Too much bad can happen. I'd like him call an early election, because he'll be gone sooner then later.
ReplyDeletehi Pamela...you're right, if Harper thinks the time is right he will break his own election law, like he has broken his word so many times before. He is the leader of an unpopular government that has been trailing in the polls for now almost a year and a half. He knows that people are tired of him and want change. So he will try to set up or profit from a crisis, so he can use it as a massive wedge issue and further divide Canadians. Whether he does that remains to be seen, but as I said in my post ,we better be ready...
DeleteThanks for the post Simon. While I agree that Harper is a monumental asshole, these bills don't point to an early election in my opinion. He has rammed countless flawed bills through, continually limiting debate on bills that are unconstitutional. These bills are no exception and will both be struck down by the Supreme Court eventually. But I don't see why we have any reason to believe that any of this is pointing to an early election.
ReplyDeleteThe Duffy trial is the only thing in which the timing really matters and I think it could pose a real danger for him. Obviously if he tries to use executive privilege to avoid testifying it would look bad and potentially lead to a constitutional crisis. However, if he tries to get the whole thing over with quickly or if something should "happen" to Duffy before the trial it might not matter. In fact, he could, theoretically, go well into 2016 before he has to call an election. Thus we could have this scenario - Harper testifies at an early trial and manages to get a publication ban on his testimony, Duffy is convicted of fraud, Harper rides it out to the summer of 2016 and calls a late election in the summer. I wonder.
Harpo likes costume drama, and he is not going down early
Deletehi Kirby...It's not just the bills that he is ramming through that make me think the Cons are preparing to go early. The whole Con Death Machine is revved up from it's fundraising or milk the suckers division to its secret internet army, which is buzzing like a hornet's desk. I don't think they can keep that up all the way to October 2015 without collapsing or starting to suffer from numerous episodes of spontaneous combustion. I'm personally hoping for the latter. ;)
DeleteHowever, I probably should have nuanced my position a bit, by saying that the Cons are going for the CAPABILITY to call an easily election. For as I told Pamela ,I think they know they can't win unless they can create an extraordinarily favourable situation. And once they have the capability they could jump the gun, and catch the other parties unprepared. So that's why we better be ready. I also don't think Harper can be as coolly analytical as you are about the Duffy trial. He knows it would do him terrible damage. So if he can avoid it he will. I suppose it's possible that he could soldier on hoping that Justin Trudeau will be battered by the passage of time, and lose his butterfly wings. But if Trudeau doesn't, he could humiliate Harper in the next election, and he would go down in history as the man who brought the Liberals and a Trudeau back to office. Which is the last thing he wants as a legacy. So as I said in my post I don't think he knows what to do. But he will prepare for an early election, he will strike if the iron is hot, so as I said, we need to be ready...
hi steve....well we know he likes to dress up, but if going early means he can stay on longer he will...
Deletethere is no wedge left that Harper will no lever. As if there is a level playing field. The least he could do is to ask the Fraser to do a CRA>
ReplyDeleteI said some time back, Harper is buying up ethnic votes. However, no-one listened. There are the Chinese, East Indians, Jews, Ukrainians and Poland was given BC's ship building contract. There are more Chinese in Canada, than there are Canadians. If Harper feels he has bought up enough ethnic votes then, of course he will call an election. We all know, it isn't beneath Harper's dignity to cheat to win, as he did last election.
ReplyDeleteDo not expect anything out of Duffy. Harper will have taken care of that, as he did for Nigel Wright. We are not dealing with a sane person. We are having to cope with a monster and Harper is the scum of the earth. If you read the profiles of, Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini? You will see, Harper's characteristics are the same, as those other evil monsters.
hi anon...he is buying up the ethnic vote, but there are not more Chinese in Canada than there are Canadians. And we must make sure that we don't confuse ordinary Chinese people with the Chinese government. Because our problem is with the latter not the former. The problem with FIPA and the foreign workers is the result of the Harper Cons, scheming with the Communist Capitalist regime in Beijing to screw the ordinary people in Canada and China. Hopefully the Chinese people will overthrow their tyrants one day just as we will do here...
DeleteWaste of money all round. There is not threat to Canada that the police can not handle. I am now so worried about ISIS cutting my head of while I sleep I have forgotten about Harper doing it in the daytime."
ReplyDeletehi Steve...Exactly. Harper will use ISIS to make us believe than only he can protect us from those crazies, when he is our most dangerous enemy.More on that in my next post...
DeleteHi Simon, I think you are right that Harper doesn't quite know what to do. And I have to wonder the degree to which he really knows what is actually going on and to what degree he is shielded from day to day events by his short-pants brigade. We should remember that he once admitted that he doesn't watch Canadian news. You may also be right about Harper's lack of analytical ability concerning the Duffy trial. That is why I actually put forward the possibility that I did. When faced with uncertainty and fear, many people tend to freeze and procrastinate (me among them), and amid fear it is often hard to be decisive. Thus my theory that instead of acting decisively (ie - by calling an early election) he might wait it out, attempt to avoid testifying at the Duffy trial, though if he must he would attempt to make his testimony subject to a publication ban, and then actually ride into 2016 to actually call the election. If he really doesn't know what to do, as you surmise, then a simple lack of action might become his fall-back position. (Keeping in mind that he will continue to attack Trudeau and try to portray himself as a statesman).
ReplyDeleteThough, importantly, you are also correct when you say that we should be ready at a moment's notice, because nothing is as dangerous a frightened animal.
One side note - with the supposed Russian bombers "scare" and troops in Iraq, etc., I think we should also be ready for the possibility that Harper will use a constant "war footing" as the only wedge issue that he perceives that he may have, and we definitely need to be on guard for that as well, because Trudeau and the Liberals don't have the backbone to counter that move.