Michael Harris On the Death Wish of the Harper Party

When Rona Ambrose was named interim leader of the Cons, I predicted that the hissing ghosts of the Harper Party would come back to haunt her.

And turn her job into a nightmare.

And sure enough now they have.

With Kellie Leitch dredging up the corpse of her infamous cultural barbarism campaign.



And Ambrose forced to criticize her publicly. 

Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose says that she “doesn’t support the idea” behind a proposal from leadership candidate Kellie Leitch to screen immigrants for “anti-Canadian values.” 

Ambrose told CTV’s Question Period that she “personally” doesn’t support such screening. “I don’t even know what that would look like,” she said. Ambrose added that “as far as our party is concerned, we value immigration.”

In a desperate attempt to stop Leitch before she reinforces the reputation of the Cons as the anti-immigration party.

And reminds Canadians why they were once so desperate to defeat them and their monstrous leader...



But sadly for Ambrose, her nightmare is almost certainly going to get worse.

For although Leitch is remaining as mute as a carp, as Great Fish Leader would want.

Her sinister campaign manager Big Nick Kouvalis is not amused...



And he's challenging other candidates to declare whether they support Ambrose or Leitch.


And who knows what some of those candidates might say or do?



Or how much Ambrose's leadership might be undermined.

Even though the barbarous Leitch is playing dog-whistle politics.

Dr. Leitch is a politician with a history of doing her dog-whistling in sound bites. Now, she’s been test-marketing vague terms such as anti-Canadian values. And there’s a chilling note of political calculation in the way she reaches for the hot button.

And both she and Kouvalis should be ashamed of themselves.


But then as Michael Harris points out, this is just the latest episode in the Con's desperate struggle to find their party's soul.

And so far they're failing so miserably, they seem to have a death wish. 

It looks like Anthony Weiner will stop texting his junk before the Conservative Party of Canada gives up its death wish. 

Crushed in the last election, the CPC still can’t come to terms with the reality of the Harper legacy — mass rejection. 

Until it does, it will be where it is, standing on a creaky plank above a deep gorge in a high wind with dubious would-be leaders like Kellie Leitch jumping up and down on the rotten boards.

They just can't seem to understand why they were defeated.

Even if Leitch did the right thing, too many other marquee players on the Conservative side continue to make a variation of the same mistake. They continue to play the violin for Stephen Harper. 

They continue to act as though the loss in 2015 was the result of great ideas poorly articulated, rather than a decade of tyranical one-man rule that very nearly ruined the country with Harper’s warmed up version of Northern Republicanism.

They're still playing the same incendiary tune their lost leader played for them...



While people like Kellie Leitch try to channel Donald Trump.

Happily, the CPC will get to see how it all ends south of the border long before they have to choose a new leader. If Trump hits the wall and goes up in a fireball in November, the path ahead will be clear — even for the Harper lubbers. Conservatism either finds itself or it simply disappears in a cloud of expletives and disappointed expectations.

But still have the gall to accuse others of harbouring anti-Canadian values.

Great eh?

And yes, I think you know how I believe this shabby Con story will end.

With an enormous cloud of bitter disappointment.

And one massive fireball...



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