Stephen Harper and the Big Freeze

His icy contempt for Parliament couldn't be more obvious.

Despite hailing new anti-terror legislation as fundamental to the fight against “the most dangerous enemies our world has ever faced,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not attend either of two days of debate on the bill in the House of Commons this week.

Or maybe he's just confident he's done enough for now to scare Canadians into supporting his fascist bill. 

Because he knows Tom Mulcair can't stop him...



Patrick Corrigan/Toronto Star

No matter how bravely he tries.

But what must be driving Stephen Harper crazy or crazier, is that his monstrous march to a another bloody majority, appears to be stalled, or in a deep freeze.

The only thing hot about Canada right now is the dead heat capturing the political landscape. There are some movements, but they are more of the twitch variety than structural movements. At the fringes, the electorate seems to be lurching around like a drunken monkey, but the new normal of a deadlocked Conservative/Liberal race seems to be a stable undercurrent. 

The Conservatives and Liberals are in a statistical tie at thirty two points each, with the NDP trailing at 18.

Many Canadians may support the war and his foul anti-terrorist bill, but that doesn't mean they support him.

He's not getting any bangs for his bucks. Or votes for his bills and his bombs.

And unless Harper is unable to provoke a terrorist attack on Canada before the next election...



Which is a risky strategy as Paul Wells pointed out the other day:

Security is a risky basis for an election campaign. If you say, "It's a dangerous world, and we need a competent government," it's very easy for you to seem to be saying, "I would sure like the world to do something dangerous right now, because I need to win an election here." That was a problem with the soldiers-in-cities ad the Martin Liberals failed to quash in 2006. The economy is safer: We're boring and managerial, the other guys are drunken sailors, vote for us. I expected Harper to play it safe.

The focus will sooner or later return to the economy. Where the Cons are extremely vulnerable... 



And Harper and his hapless stooge Joe Oliver are just babbling as the economy slowly collapses. 

Annual economic growth has fallen in every single year since 2010. Forecasters, including the Bank of Canada, are lowering their growth forecasts for 2015 to below 2 per cent, a far cry from the almost 2.5 per cent they were forecasting only a few months ago. The Canadian economy is in a deep freeze, and the only thing Oliver and Prime Minister Harper can think to do is more of what they’ve done: cut spending.

The unemployment rate is stuck between 6.5 and 7 per cent. The labour force participation rate is at its lowest level since 2002. In January, the increase in employment was due primarily to part-time and self-employment. Full-time employment actually fell. And we can expect things to get worse in the coming months, as we begin to see the direct impact of falling oil prices on employment.

In fact Oily Joe is so out of it, he's not only lost the surplus, he's forgetting to pay his hotel bills.



Or getting involved in a frightful scandal with no less than Guy Giorno.

Even as Dean Del Mastro pleads screams for help...



And the Mike Duffy trial is now just over a month away.

Which explains why Harper would rather talk about other things, and why his propaganda team is trying to make it look like he's still heading for victory.

Instead of being frozen solid, like most people in this country.

By speeding up Great Leader himself in this latest video...



And all I can say is I prefer my version eh?



Yup. He's running hard and getting nowhere. The war will not save him.

His record of corruption and incompetence will catch up with him.

It may appear like a horror story right now.

But it will have a happy ending...

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