Friday, September 25, 2015
The French Debate and the Bigot Game of Stephen Harper
If you missed last night's French-language debate you can relax because you didn't miss much.
The debate had its lively moments, but there were no knock out punches, and I very much doubt that it will move many votes in Quebec or in the rest of Canada.
Tom Mulcair survived the combined assault of his opponents, Justin Trudeau more than held his own, Elizabeth May did surprisingly well considering she doesn't speak French as well as the others. And Gilles Duceppe started strong and quickly faded.
But what the debate did show conclusively is that Stephen Harper is determined to use the niqab issue to try to win the election.
Because both him and his close separatist ally Gilles Duceppe, did make the most of the FIVE minutes the issue received, in a two-hour debate.
By competing to see who could make the most ridiculous statement to try to conceal the fact that they're both trying to turn a trivial matter into a giant and very ugly wedge issue, for crass political purposes.
“We’re talking about fundamental question, it’s the question of equality between men and women in our society,” said Duceppe, who promised the Bloc’s first bill in the Commons would be extend a ban on the veil to other areas, such as public servants.
With Duceppe failing to explain why undressing a woman, against her will, and violating her religious rights, is a triumph of human equality.
And Harper shamelessly using his daughter to try to claim he's a champion of women's rights...
“Mr. Mulcair, I will never tell my young daughter that a woman should cover her face because she is woman. That’s not our Canada, that’s not acceptable for me,” Harper said.
Which of course couldn't be more absurd, or obscene. Considering that no leader in living memory has done more to set back the cause of women's rights, and he is a loathsome misogynist.
Whose missionary church teaches him that women should be submissive, and even his propaganda reflects his male supremacist views.
This is part of a series of five recent Conservative ads, which have largely drawn attention for the recurring line about Harper not being perfect. But within this unsubtle message about the risky opposition is something more subtle: hushed women. Of the 33 different scenes across the ad series, women do the talking in 12 of them, including a senior’s line about how Harper is “not perfect, but we can depend on him.”
Where women are to be seen but not heard. Or preferably muzzled. As he has muzzled so many others.
For no doubt depraved reasons of his own...
And to make matters even worse, and even more obvious, Stephen Harper also managed to squeeze a niqab reference into his 30 second closing statement.
But then he has done his ghastly homework. He used our money to do a poll back in March, held on to it for seven months, and released it yesterday just hours before the debate for maximum political effect.
A public-opinion poll ordered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this year found overwhelming support among Canadians for the requirement that women remove their niqabs or burkas at citizenship ceremonies.
The March telephone survey by Léger Marketing found 82 per cent of Canadians favoured the policy somewhat or strongly, with just 15 per cent opposed. Support was widespread, but especially strong in Quebec, where 93 per cent were in favour of the requirement.
And what I find interesting is that March just happened to be the month when the Australian attack monster Lynton Crosby started working for Harper. So you know who REALLY commissioned that poll.
And how much Harper and Crosby must be hoping they can ride that trivial but inflammatory issue to victory...
By pitting Canadians against Canadians, and poisoning this country as he has poisoned so many others.
And since Gilles Duceppe probably got a copy of that poll from his boyfriend Steve long before we did...
He's probably hoping he too can use that wedge issue to revive his zombie party and the comatose separatist movement.
And the good news? If Harper keeps beating that hollow drum, we can help defuse that issue, or turn it against him, by demanding he answer two simple questions:
One, why is he allowing an Australian, you know a foreigner, to poison OUR society?
And two, why is he in bed with a separatist?
I mean whose side is he on eh?
And the really bad news for Harper? From what I've now heard and read most Quebecers like most Canadians may favour a ban, but it's not a big enough issue to make people vote for him. Or make most Canadians NOT want to get of him.
So if it comes down to a question of banning niqabs or banning Harper, I think they will vote to ban him.
Especially if the opposition parties are also able to portray the issue as a giant distraction as Elizabeth May did so effectively last night.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May called the issue a “fake debate” that has nothing to do with important questions on climate change, unemployment and the economy.
Because then he'll be left looking like a political pervert so deranged he'd do ANYTHING to win the election.
Even if that means setting the country on fire and wearing HIS ghastly niqab...
You know, he is only playing that bigot game because he is desperate.
Which tells me that his polls don't match this one.
So if we're very smart, and very aggressive.
We can turn his own foulness against him.
And use it to help destroy him...
Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.
As shown in this article, there is one key issue that Canada's politicians are avoiding during this election:
ReplyDeletehttp://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2015/09/the-issue-that-canadas-politicians-are.html
While the economy is important, this issue will become increasingly important as Canada's population ages.
Hi political junkie....palliative care/dying with dignity is an issue I am very familiar with, and I agree that it is an issue that will become more and more important as the population ages. But it is too controversial to be raised in an election campaign, so I'm afraid it will have to wait until after the election. Which is probably just as well, for a campaign is not the place where a calm non-partisan discussion can take place. I shudder to think what might happen....
DeleteTo sum up Stephen Harper in the debate: "Either you're with us, or you are with the islamists and the niqab!"
ReplyDeleteNow, to sum up Gilles Ducceppe: "Either you're with us, or you are with the islamists, the niquab, and the big bad Ottawa anti-sovereignists party!
Hi Myworld....yes, subtlety isn't the hallmark of debates these days, if it ever was. What was amusing to see last night was thanks to the speed the debate moved along the candidates could hardly get their talking points out before it was time to discuss another subject. Which is no doubt why Harper felt the need to squeeze his niqab wedge into his closing comment....
DeleteSteve, for Harper a WASP, rightwing Australian is not a foreigner.
ReplyDeleteI'm more aghast at Duceppe in bed with Harper after his dates in the saddle with PKP. And you know that my shock has nothing to do with any covert homophobia!
That is known as "la politique du pire", thinking making conditions for people living in Québec absolutely untenable under Harperism might make the emergence of a thirst for liberation grow by leaps and bounds. Silly Gilles - living in untenable conditions certainly didn't help such a movement emerge among Indigenous nations. Only thinking they could improve their lot and regain their pride has done so at all.
There were demonstrations against Harperism by alll sorts of social groups before the debate here. (I couldn't go - slave to precarious freelance work)...
Funny when the Pope, at the head of a hidebound, patriarchal, hypocritically homophobic, and profoundly corrupt establsihment, is the one who comes out speaking out against the real problems in the world such as poverty, the selfish rich, environmental destruction and its denial, the rights of migrants (reminding people that his family were migrants tthemselves).
Hi lagatta....as I think I have said before I have always been fond of Gilles Duceppe. I think he is a decent person with a social conscience. I wish he had not come back, because as you know the Bloc now has some very reactionary elements in it, from the Le Pen strain of xenophobic bigots. And sadly he now finds himself helping Harper even though that is not what he would want to do. I try to keep up my optimism but I'm finding it quite a challenge....
DeleteYears ago Frankmag got heat for their Caroline Contest. Lian Brian even threatened to shoot them. Their point , as a satirical/political rag, was that Muldoon was pimping his own daughter for votes.
ReplyDeleteHi rumleyfips....I try to stay away from saying anything about Harper's family. They are not to blame for their father's policies. However I can't resist poking fun at Harper's absurd claim that he would not allow his daughter to be forced to wear a niqab. Because that's what young Canadian young people are worried about. Right....
DeleteHarper is behaving as though he is a plastic figurine floating in his own excretions in a zip-loc bag bedazzled by his own scent unable to realize he is not god!
ReplyDeleteHi anon....he may be shameless, but I am afraid his tactics are rooted in his knowledge of the prejudices and ignorance of Canadians and could help him win the election. It's very hard to fight emotional issues like the niqab one. And while I don't think it will determine the result of the election, it definitely could have an effect. I sometimes wish I had no principles, it would be so much easier, and I wouldn't feel so alone...
DeleteThis niqab thing is nothing more than a smoke screen that Goebbels would have been proud to call his own. What a CON job. And the typical Canadian dolt sheeple are just falling into lockstep again with the m.s.m., government dictated party line bullshit. We will see another CON majority if real Canadians don't pull their heads out of their asses and damn quickly and stop buying into this redneck idiotic rhetoric that obfuscates the real issues facing us today in this country!
ReplyDeleteHat tip to Thwap -- a really abrasive guy sometimes but that sure as hell doesn't mean he's wrong!
Hi anon....what makes the niqab issue so difficult is that many Canadians don't like them for all the right reasons. I don't like them, I find some of them scary, I don't believe women should have to hide their faces, as if men would jump at them if they didn't. And of course I am an atheist, so defending religious fundamentalists isn't something that comes natural. But what else can I do if I believe in the rule of law and hate bullying, and demagogues? I am very disillusioned and I don't know what my future holds...
Delete"Big Daddy" has sexual meaning, so you might want to change that picture so Harper doesn't come off as an incestous pedophile. He bad enough as is, but he's not a pedophile. Just change it to Daddy should be fine.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this issue, a tiny amount of women wear the Niqba, so making it into a major federal issue is clearly an attempt to stir up fear. Mulcair said it best when he called it a weapon of mass diversion. Hopefully wheather they agree with Tom on the Niqba or not, they agree that this is just a cheap diversion from Harper having to stand on his record and a cheap way for Ducceppe to pretend he is in anyway relavent to this election campaign. The sooner Harper, Duceppe, and Trudeau are dumped into the waste bin of history the better.
Hi Gyor.....I had no idea Big Daddy was a sexual term, because it doesn't have one for me. I would not insult his family in any manner. In my cartoons it's only a play on Big Brother....
DeleteGyor,
DeleteOnly in your semi-illiterate, childish mind does that term have any "sexual" meaning. "Big Daddy" is the top dog, grand poobah, head honcho, etc. in this hemisphere. Anything you want to get off your chest as far as skeletons in your own family's closet?
Think remedial English before you start your ignorant blathering at someone of Simon's caliber.
Big Daddy is a term that Southerners in the States use for the head of a family, don't worry about it Simon unless you have a big following among paedophiles, which I kind of doubt..they are usually rightwing or libertarians, at least in the States..
DeleteAs for Elizabeth may, she always kicks butt, I'm almost convinced to vote Green just to keep her around to hold everyone else's feet to the righteous fire..well, maybe next time...
Hi anon and mizdarlin...thanks for coming to my defence. It never crossed my mind that there could be a nasty meaning to Big Daddy. And I would never smear his family, or suggest that he was a a pedophile. I do try to satirize his obvious desire to throw as many Canadians in prison as possible, and I do call him a political pervert since it seems to be that he lacks a moral compass. But that's it, which is after all bad enough. Some of my friends call me Saint Simon or in French Saint Cinnabon, because I am a bit prudish. So I very much doubt that any real sexual perverts would be interested in me ;) But thanks for reminding me that Big Daddy is a a term southerners use to describe the head of a family. I remember that's what the Burl Ives character in the movie Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is called. And yes I thought Elizabeth May's contribution to the niqab debate best expressed how I feel. It is just a distraction and there are so many other more pressing issues. I don't think it's a good idea to support the Greens except in ridings where they have a chance of winning because it could only split the vote further. But if we get proportional representation their day will come....
Deleteisn't Cinnabon where you go at the Markville Mall to go and get those 1 kg. buns that are soooo good?
DeleteI've heard "Big Daddy" in contexts that had absolutely nothing to do with incest. Sometimes for a sexual or romantic partner, but not at all to do with incest or paedophilia. Don't worry about it.
ReplyDeleteHi lagatta....that's good to know too. I must admit when I read Gyor's comment I was shocked, and no doubt turned several shades of pale, because I do try to keep nasty things off this blog. But now I feel better...
DeleteSimon,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the LEAST a prospective Canadian might wear to the Citizenship Ceremony is what I would like to know.
We need to set this on it's arse!
We need a daring, well put together , immigrant to test this at that prospective New Canadian's Citizenship Court.
Hi hindrance....I don't know, but I almost wish I was a new immigrant so I could test this out. And turn up at the ceremony wearing a tuque and a bikini. But of course I'm too shy to do that unless Jason Kenney agrees to come with me, wearing something frilly and even more shocking... ;)
ReplyDeleteOr a tuque over private parts? Sorry, getting silly late in the evening.
ReplyDeleteJason Kenney must take part in the chorus of the Lumberjack Song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7n5mEmXJo Stevie too.
hi lagatta...they don't make tuques big enough to cover my private parts. So I'm going in a bikini, and Kenney come come in a tutu for he's no lumber jack... ;)
DeleteHarper has found his horse and will be riding it right back to. Sussex. Dr. Now thAt Steve has hired the lizard of oz and found his horse expect there to be much chatter about Canadian values,the niqab , terrorist refugees, etc
ReplyDeleteWhen you read other blogs you will note. Steve has found traction. Forgotten are the dead. Vet, the fraud charges, the criminals in the Con party,etc. I am not looking forward to it but there is a very good chance that. Herr. Harper will be. Re elected
hi e.a.f. ....yes he may have found his hideous horse, but we shall see how fast it can carry him. I still think his ghastly record will weigh him down, and at least one of our horses will make it across the finishing line first...
Delete