I'm sure it was the last thing Stephen Harper needed to know, in his present mental condition.
Know that Lynton Crosby, his Aussie political guru, who he had counted on to help him win the election, with his ugly politics of division...
Only to fail him so miserably, when Canadians blew his flying monkeys out of the sky.
Isn't lying there like Harper, licking his wounds like a loser.
He's getting knighted for his faithful service to David Cameron.
David Cameron has been accused of undermining the honours system after it emerged that Lynton Crosby, the political strategist who ran the Conservatives’ election campaign, is set to get a knighthood in the New Year honours list.
Which is not only being denounced by many people in Britain, for obvious reasons.
Crosby approved hard-hitting campaign slogans, including one saying “it’s not racist to impose limits on immigration”, which at the time led to the accusation that he was engaged in “dog whistle” politics by making a covert appeal to racist views.
But must also be reminding Harper of the fatal mistake he made soliciting Crosby's advice...
Even if for a while he must have thought it would help win him the election...
Or help scare Canadians into voting for him...
Only to end up disgusting them instead.
And when the Cons went over the deep end with their grotesque so-called barbaric cultural practices campaign, and their monstrous snitch line...
Harper's disgusting campaign turned many Canadians against him, including many ethnic voters who had once supported him.
And actually helped bring him and his Cons crashing to the ground.
So ironically enough, while the voices in Harper's head must be screaming at the idea that his beloved Queen is honouring Crosby not him...
I think we should give Crosby the Order of Conada.
For by pointing Harper in the wrong direction, he revealed Great Ugly Leader's inner monster.
And that did help us defeat him...
But yes, as I look back at this year, the Crosby-Harper horror show had to be one of the most disgusting episodes in modern Canadian history.
The use of bigotry as a political weapon can never be forgotten or forgiven.
And it was definitely one of the reasons I liked this song so much...
For we really did have to vote those bigots out.
The Cons are now more dead than alive.
And this flying monkey maniac is never coming back...
Arise Sir Dogwhistle.
The order of Conada is yours...
Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.
Harper and Crosby certainly had a very enigmatic relationship, the end of which was terribly under-reported as the election drew to a close. I mean, Crosby just DITCHED Harper only weeks after being officially 'hired' (we all know he was probably pilfering public funds long before that as a 'consultant'). Nobody in the media bothered to ask why or what it meant for Harper, but all Canadians clearly understood without any media middle-men required: Stephen Harper was destined to lose the October 2015 election because he had cracked.
ReplyDeleteWhile I chuckle at your joke about giving Crosby the Order of Canada, the whole process of Knighthood will have to come into question if people like Crosby can become 'Sirs' simply because they helped the right douchebags cling to power on baseless and racist themes.
The sad truth is that we dodged a bullet while the rest of the world hurtles towards madness: France with their extreme right-wingers; the US with Trump/Cruz; England with Cameron and so on.
The battle may have been won in Canada, but the war is far from over.
If I had the computer skills, I'd create a webpage, asking Canadians to sign a petition for Crosby to be given the Order of Canada. 8-)
DeleteSimilar to this fake one for Del Mastro:
http://www.conservativelegacyfund.ca/
http://operationmaple.ca/the-stephen-harper-non-answer-generator-part-8
Delete149. "Promising a four-year 'tax lock' law is not a meaningless gimmick I came up with. Mr. [Lynton] Crosby--my campaign consultant--came up with it after watching a 15-year old Saturday Night Live skit."
hi anon...yes what exactly happened with Crosby and the Cons remains a bit of a mystery. Crosby clearly wanted out, and whether it was because he felt that he had been called into the campaign too late, or whether he was alienated by the infighting in the PMO, remains to be determined. But I agree with people in Britain who find his knighthood appalling, and I agree with you we did dodge a bullet. Imagine what might have happened if the Paris massacre had happened before rather than after the election. So yes the war is not over...
DeleteHappy New Year, Simon. I've got a bottle of champagne to welcome in our first Harper-free year. Something tells me it's going to taste really, really good.
ReplyDeleteNow that is a happy thought!
Deletehi Mound...Happy New Year to you, and I bet that champagne will taste good. After so much misery a good celebration is in order. I had joked about how I had been keeping a bottle of champagne in the fridge to celebrate the downfall of the Con regime. But I don't drink, others drank it to celebrate a birthday, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to bring in the New Year with a bottle of ginger ale... ;)
DeleteDude, how many times do I have to tell you it's spelled CONada?
ReplyDeleteBuy you books...send you to school...try to teach you...
BUT you never learn! Sigh!
hi anon...I know, I know I'm hopeless. I should have spelled it CONada, in case people thought I had made a spelling mistake. *sigh* I'll do better next time... ;)
DeleteHa, another story from Oz: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/knighting-lynton-crosby-likened-to-tony-abbotts-gong-for-prince-philip-20151227-glvl3o.html
ReplyDelete2015/aug/06/tony-abbott-can-brush-off-crises-like-cameron-did-says-lynton-crosby
We're off to see the lizard, the wonderful lizard of Oz!
hi lagatta...yes I saw that story and I was going to include it, but the post was already too long. However I love the Aussie word "pommy." And I amused to see some of the commenters use this scandal to call for independence from Britain. Vive la Australie Libre !!!
DeleteAnother great video! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThat's disturbing that he's getting Knighted. But since the f$&@€% was voted out, it is more than worth it. I will think of Lynton's Knighthood as an honour for getting that f$&@!? out of Sussex Drive.
TS
hi TS...you're welcome, I'm glad you liked the video. And yes, I do really think Lynton Crosby helped us to defeat Harper. I think the problem is that he analyzed polls for them, suggested several wedge issues that could be exploited, but the Cons took his suggestions and went way overboard, and ended up shooting themselves in the foot.
DeleteThe damage to the ethnic vote alone, should have been enough to make half the PMO commit harakiri. Oh well, we can't have everything... ;)
I really do think though it was the going after the Canadian citizenship of not just a dual citizen convicted terrorist that was the real crippler with the immigrant and new Canadian element, but when they tried to expand that to the born Canadian offspring so convicted based on the parents only just being eligible under current circumstances with Pakistan, not even actually having it. That threatened not only every first generation born Canadian of immigrants with dual citizenship, it threatened essentially all of those first generation born children of immigrants period.
ReplyDeleteWorse, if they were were willing to pull the notion of just being qualified and not actually having it on their immigrant parents to make the born Canadians lose their citizenship they have shown they would go to any extent to strip away citizenship by fiat. I cannot imagine anything more terrifying for immigrants and their first and second generations born here than that! Add that to the Niqab and barbaric practices hotline and it would be no wonder at all as to why the CPC lost all that ground it had made up with in the immigrant community, and I've wondered since the election if the bulk of the 200000 voters the CPC lost were mainly from this part of society.
As bad as the more obvious and overt xenophobic pandering was, and there is no question that it was every bit as ugly and disgusting as you have oh so correctly shown it to be here at your blog time and again, I think for the immigrants and new Canadians it was the lesser impact on changing their vote to the citizenship stripping issue. Now with the rest of us, those of us who come from long rooted families in this nation who aren't xenophobic crybabies living in fear of anyone different from ourselves, now there I believe those had quite the profound backlash effect against Harper and his CPC.
In so much as Crosby was a part of getting Harper to go this route (not that I personally think he was or much of such, given Harper's long standing issues and willingness to play to the xenophobes of Canada going back to his Reform days) for that perhaps he should be knighted, just remember to rotate the blade 90 degrees when dubbing him in...well no, strike that last as improper call to violence, even if it is fitting in this case given what this man has shown he is willing to whip up for his political bosses/employers in the past. It may be what he morally deserves but to actually call for it would be to place one no better than such as he, and we all should strive for better despite how much such filth sickens us all.
I think you may be correct. Harper thought he was just enacting a law which would appeal to his base, but he forgot how many people in Canada came into the country since the 1950s and many of them still travel on two passports, have dual citizenship, all which they "inherited" from their parents, even though they were born in Canada.
DeleteFor many it was an insult. They were born elsewhere but had been good and productive Canadians for as long as they lived here. Many since childhood, but Stephen harper said they weren't "true Canadians". that rankled a lot of people. It may have caused many to vote NO to Steve. the other thing which may have had an impact, which wasn't given much consideration, was their attitudes towards GLBT people. It not only impacted the GBLT community but all their friends and family.
Now as to Lyndon, getting a "whatever attaboy". Guess the British like a good racist more than Canadians. You'd think Betty Windsor would say, not on her watch.
I may be incorrect, but when the new policy was announced and the individual whose parents had emigrated from Pakistan was targeted, I had the understanding that any Canadian eligible to acquire the citizenship of a foreign country had become subject to stripping of citizenship at ministerial discretion.
DeleteIn consideration of the measures that some countries have undertaken to enhance their national influence and prestige through maintenance of contacts with diaspora communities, this policy should have made many Canadians uncomfortable. A Canadian-born citizen, for example, is potentially qualified for Italian citizenship-by-descent if any one of his or her grandparents was born in Italy or, additionally, should there be direct paternal lineage through any grandparent to an Italian male ancestor. Other foreign countries have made similar efforts.
Outrageous or just stupid: Was Harper attempting to make the citizenship of a massive number of Canadians subject to his personal discretion, or was he simply rooting around in another of his typically uninformed exercises in imperiosity? What would his next move have been?
John B:
DeleteYou are not wrong, that is a part of what I was talking about in my first paragraph. How that could be taken and exploited by ministerial fiat had to have been terrifying to not just our immigrants but their first and second generation born Canadian offspring. After all, if you can do it by legislative fiat for one criminal offence you can arguably do it for any, and then even simply because you have offended the minister in some way. The abuse potentials in this were horrendous, and I cannot but see this having sent massive ripples of fear throughout the immigrant communities, even those that socially were more comfortable with CPC social policies than either Lib or NDP.
As to what Harper was thinking, or his next move? Only he could say, but I will say this much...I never believed Harper did anything without a reason in his head. This was a man driven by his sense of intellectual superiority over everyone else, it was an early well known trait of the man. So clearly he was going somewhere with this notion, where, only he knows, but I have a hard time seeing anything that does not have really ugly and nasty implications coming from such a decision.
Harper was arrogant and out of touch with the average Canadian, he was not, however, stupid. Limited, yes, stupid, no. I never made the mistake of underestimating his intellect nor his ability, I only wish that had been true of more before he had the chance to do the damage he did while as PM.
hi guys .. I think you're right, it was the citizenship question that cost them the so-called ethnic vote, but the scene was set by all the stuff that came before. And the citizenship question was the one that broke the camel's back...
DeleteThe Queen has no say on who can run or get elected in the UK, but she sure has a say on who gets a Knighthood.
ReplyDeletehi anon...yes but she wouldn't want to cause a scandal now that Crosby's name has been made public. Although she really should complain, because knighting a man like Crosby does her no favours. But remember, Cameron was so grateful for Crosby's help the morning after the election, that he told the people around him he wanted to give the Lizard of Oz a big kiss. But unfortunately Crosby had left the country, so consider the knighthood a chance for Cameron to REALLY show his appreciation...
DeleteScum like Lynton can be summed up by a paraphrase of Winnie The Poo/Churchill:
ReplyDelete"Never in the field of politics was so much owed by so many to so few."
Sadly knighthoods have been given to people who have done inept/terrible things so I am not shocked.
hi Dan...As I mentioned in the comment above, Cameron did feel he owed Crosby everything. He wasn't expected to win, and nobody expected a majority. But it's still unclear to me whether Crosby was that effective, or whether the Labour Party helped kill itself, with a rotten campaign, and by losing almost all its Scottish seats. There is also the question of whether Crosby exacted some price from Cameron to benefit some of his lobbyist clients in the health industry who were circling Britain's National Health service like a pack of hungry sharks. But as we know if you're rich enough and well connected you don't have to worry about justice...
Delete