Saturday, June 27, 2015
The Real Reason the Con Regime Killed the HarperPAC
Three days ago I wrote about how a group of well known young conservative activists had created a monstrous HarperPAC.
A political action committee that would collect money from Big Business, especially Big Oil, to attack the progressive parties and the unions.
But before the rapidly swelling beast was able to crawl out of its crib, it was brutally squished by Stephen Harper himself.
HarperPAC, a conservative third-party group, has shut down operations less than a week after its launch.
Or more precisely by his faithful flunkies, like Kory Teneycke, who faithfully follow their master's orders.
Conservative Party spokesman Kory Teneycke said the party took issue with "the fact that they were using the prime minister's name to raise money and to run advertising," without input, control or association with the campaign.
"What we were concerned with in this particular case is to a reasonable person, it appeared to be us. It appeared to be the Conservative Party, it appeared to be the prime minister," he said in an interview with CBC News.
But while I'm sure the Harperite cult was outraged to have a conservative group crawling around out there that was not under their TOTAL control.
And was concerned they might damage their master's image even more.
If that's possible...
I think its more than that, and it tells you a lot about where the Cons would lead us.
Because although Kady O'Malley does an excellent job of chronicling the short tragic history of the HarperPAC.
And the pathetic tale of how Stephen Taylor, its co-founder, tried to keep up a cheerful front.
“It’s been a heck of a week!” Taylor chirped on Thursday night as a lead-in to his announcement, via screenshot statement, that HarperPAC would be closing up shop— although not, it seemed, without taking credit for having “brought political financing out of the shadows.”
Even as his baby fell apart. Or disappeared into a black hole.
Those tweets, alas, are now gone — as is the group’s first — and, apparently, last — YouTube video, while the HarperPAC website now redirects to a default WordPress login. It appears the dream is not just over, but rapidly disappearing down an internet memory hole.
Along with the pictures and names of some of the Cons on the HarperPAC's advisory council...
Like they used to disappear in Stalin's Russia.
Taylor himself can't offer, or dare not offer, an reasonable explanation for its sudden demise.
While determinedly upbeat in tone, he was downright vague on the reason behind the shutdown. “If our friends find our efforts to be unhelpful we are more than happy to focus our efforts elsewhere,” he noted.
Which leads me to believe that the main reason Stephen Harper whacked the HarperPAC is because he wants to keep his nose clean, so to speak.
So he can go after Tom Mulcair and the NDP, for very good reason...
To try to portray them as the stooges of Big Unions and try to smear them beyond recognition.
And this in my opinion only confirms it.
Conservative senators took the highly unusual step of overruling their own Speaker Friday in an effort to force a controversial union disclosure bill into law before Parliament shuts down.
Bill C-377 is a private member’s bill from Conservative MP Russ Hiebert that would force unions to publicly disclose a wide range of financial information including salaries and expenses.
For he is clearly seeking a confrontations with the unions, he is clearly trying to create yet another wedge issue. And he is clearly capable of anything.
How badly does Stephen Harper want anti-union legislation — odious, punitive and almost certainly unconstitutional as it is — passed into law?
On an early summer Friday, while you were longing for your weekend, the Prime Minister’s Office choreographed another headlong behavioural plunge down the mineshaft for your Senate.
Capable of turning the Senate into the home of his Con puppets. And using the union issue against the NDP AND the Liberals.
The bottom line is that the Conservative majority has bullied itself into a position to pass a law that allows Harper to campaign against those omnipresent “union bosses” and tell Canadians how a former Liberal Senate caucus went to the wall for those bosses on orders from Justin Trudeau.
Because as you know when it comes to attacking Justin Trudeau...
There are no limits to how low he will go.
And the good news? I don't think it's going to work.
I think most Canadians hate Harper and his filthy Cons more than they hate the unions.
And that progressives will be glad to have the unions on our side. Because no group fights Cons harder than they do.
And that they will welcome the attack ads they are helping to put out, like this latest one from Engage Canada...
Because the more Canadians find out what the Cons are up to, the more they will despise them.
And the easier it will be to defeat them and their monstrous leader...
He is crazy, he is desperate, he is leading us into the dirtiest campaign in Canadian history.
But his monstrous evil will come back to sting him or bite him.
And we will use it to defeat him..
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Certainly targeting big unions is part of his strategy but he shut HarperPac down because the HarperPac staff were also former "Cons" with close ties to the party and over the long haul it would be impossible to demonstrate an arms length relationship. This left them wide open to charges of electoral fraud. Judge Lisa Cameron rocked these above the law Con artists to the core when she sent Mastro to the big house. Although its probably for only one day as they will likely rally enough of their buddies to ensure he does not go back the message is clear. You are no above the law when it comes to election fraud and sometimes even Stevie cannot rewrite laws and pull strings fast enough to save you. The image of Mastro walking out of the court room in chains was priceless and rocked their cowardly confidence to the core!!
ReplyDeleteRt
Stevie didn't even try to save Del Mastro. Line from the PMO was that he hasn't been part of caucus for two years and is getting what he deserves.
DeleteAnd the wheels on the bus go ka-thumpa-thumpa-thump...
One news article reported that Deano looked "stunned" after the judge passed sentence. Is this Con so deluded that he still didn't think he had done anything wrong???
Deletehi anon...yes it was no doubt a combination of factors that led to the swift demise of the HarperPAC.
DeleteBut it does signal to me at least that he is about to make union bashing a central part of his campaign. And it must be said there are far too many people in this country who are prepared to go along with that, and join in the race to the bottom. Still, now we know what he plans to do we can get ready. And I sure am glad we have the unions on our side....
hi Punned It....yes I noticed the curt note from the PMO saying "Mr Del Mastro has not been a member of our caucus so don't look at us." Which you're right is tantamount to throwing the guy under the bus.
DeleteBut fortunately we have lots of video of the Deaner in action, and that video of him in shackles, so it should all make for a really good attack ad...
I prefer to think of the cancellation as a piece of the script from "Spinal Tap" that wound up on the cutting room floor..the ConPac flamed out because they couldn't get enough cashish from their quickly disappearing 'supporters' to make it worth actually holding a concert (er, bolstering a PC...)
ReplyDeletehi mizdarlin...It certainly does have a "Spinal Tap" feel to it. But money wasn't the problem. According to what I read they claim to have raised half a million dollars in the short time the HarperPAC was alive.
DeleteBig Oil has deep pockets or deep cowboy hats...
Sorry, should have been PAC
ReplyDeletewith Steve and his cons attacks on unions they would have simply turned around and gone after steve and his pac. that would have been fun. It would have been ever so embarrassing for some to have had their names revealed. of course mizdarlin could be correct, they couldn't come up with enough money to keep it going. although with a pac, they might have been able to draw funds from other countries.
ReplyDeletehi e.a.f...yes I'm still convinced that was the thing Harper feared the most, not being able to accuse the unions of trying to buy the election. Even though he has used a billion dollars of OUR money to try to brainwash us, and the Cons have more dirty money than all the other parties combined....
DeleteThe real reason for the death of ConPAC was in the interview Kory Teneycke gave - "people might donate to them thinking it was us" he said. Yup. Nothing upsets a con more than the prospect of losing donations!.
ReplyDeleteThe snuff video is their most desperate ploy yet. Imagine if someone did an ad showing footage of Nathan Cirillo's death and used it to attack Harper's lack of action on Addiction and Mental Health issues!
We haven't seen this level of desperation since the Kim Campbell campaign with its ads mocking Chretien's disability. I hope we see the same reaction at the polls in October - party like it's 1993!!
hi Punned It....yes the lack of total control over what the money was going to be used for I'm sure was a problem, especially if the Con base isn't coughing up enough money. And yes, that Con video is the worst attack ad I have ever seen in Canada, apart from the one mocking Chretien. Just the chilling ISIS anthem right off the top makes my skin crawl. They couldn't be more desperate or more disgusting...
DeleteSimon...I may be wrong, but were not Taylor and Kady an item a few years ago
ReplyDelete