Friday, January 27, 2017

Stephen Harper and the Sad State of the Con Leadership Race



It's still his party. He created it in his own image. Those who survived the Great Humiliation are still trying to keep his monstrous legacy alive. 

But Stephen Harper these days is a shrunken version of the monstrous leader he once was, and has said nothing about the Con leadership race, even as it descends into farce.

Until yesterday that is, when his faithful fluffer John Ibbitson decided to ask his readers what Harper would think of the race, and its ghastly candidates.



And concluded that he would NOT be impressed, and that the Cons should follow the stern criteria of their late lamented Great Leader. 

The Conservative Party is still Mr. Harper’s party. He initiated the union of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties back in 2003. He has been its only permanent leader. The 100,000 or so members of the party mostly joined on his watch. In the main, their values are his values. If Stephen Harper would never vote for a candidate, that candidate shouldn’t be running.

Even if that means eliminating or culling their best known candidates like Kellie Leitch, Kevin O'Leary, Lisa Raitt, and Chris Alexander.

For these are the candidates Ibbitson thinks Great Leader would favour:

A personal guess (and that’s all it is) is that Mr. Harper’s ballot would look something like: 1. Erin O’Toole, 2. Andrew Scheer, 3. Maxime Bernier. This, however, could change in the months ahead.

Which elicited this brief comment from Harper...


And this absurd conclusion from Ibbitson:

Mr. Harper would sigh as he filled that ballot out; none of these candidates appears conspicuously able to challenge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

But then he would remember, with a grim smile, how contemptuously the critics dismissed his prospects. He knows how much election campaigns matter.

Who can't seem to accept that Harper was not the political genius he though he was. Or that he ran the worst and dirtiest campaign in modern Canadian history.

Or even accept that the leadership race is now a Con clown show, where a candidate Ibbitson/Harper would cull is the new star of the circus.

And according to this latest poll, the choice of the people.  



If the federal Conservatives want a shot at regaining power in 2019, their best bet would be with Kevin O’Leary as leader, a recent Ipsos poll results suggest. “Head-to-head, it’s competitive between [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau and O’Leary,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos, which conducted the poll on behalf of Global News.

A man so popular apparently even some NDP supporters would vote for him.

Though the vast majority of decided voters indicated they’d vote their party regardless of who’s leading the Conservatives, more than two in 10 NDP voters appeared ready to jump ship to the Conservatives if O’Leary was leader.

But thanks to his late entry in the race, has been reduced to begging for money...



And if he doesn't get it, he's out. Again.



But still Lisa Raitt is firing a cannon or a pea shooter in his general direction...



While her own campaign goes nowhere.

And although the poll is only of decided voters, not Con supporters, it suggests that Kellie Leitch's ugly campaign also isn't doing as well as she had fervently hoped.

And is now at the stage where Canadians have started laughing at her.

As 22 Minutes does here by mocking her appalling performance at the French debate....



And here's the punchline.

Rona Ambrose says the "fun is over."   



Some fun, some leadership race.

Stephen Harper was no political genius.

And he left them the party they deserve....

14 comments:

  1. No, the Fun is just starting! haha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi Kathleen...I know, how could Rona be so selfish, and deprive us of the fun of watching her Harper Party go up in flames? I say to hell with that, and throw another Con shrimp on the barbie.... ;)

      Delete
  2. Anonymous9:46 AM

    I'd take that poll with a grain of salt. O'Douchebag is going merely on name recognition, he will have plenty of time to embarrass himself. Plus the way Trudeau shut down that rebel hillbilly the other night bodes extremely well. Hillary Clinton he ain't.
    Though it's interesting to see dippers making the switch. Idiots on the left love their populist pablum too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi anon...yes, we have good reason to doubt any poll these days. And if O'Leary is ahead it is almost certainly because he is the only Con candidate with any name recognition. And yes, it is shocking that any NDP member could support a Con like O'Leary. But it won't do him any good. Even if he wins the not so coveted position of Harper Party leader, Justin Trudeau will have him for breakfast and dinner....

      Delete
  3. Anonymous10:55 AM

    Harper's legacy is this clown show of the leadership race. He only has himself to blame as he never empowered others around him as true leaders do. But, if the message is lies, secrecy, and distrust then its just a race to the bottom.

    Thank you for comic relief, once again. Cheers Simon.

    TS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi TS...it is Harper's most fatal legacy. He failed to kill this country and its values, but he sure did a number on his own party. And thank you TS, trying to provide some comic relief at a time like this one, is definitely challenging... ;)

      Delete
  4. Anonymous2:37 PM

    Hey Simon, I saw Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos, giving a presentation in Alberta awhile ago. As his presentation happened he started to just trash both the NDP and particularly the Liberals and Mr. Trudeau. I lost count of how many times he called him names, and the one he used the most was "shiny pony". At one point, myself and others in the audience started to leave because his presentation was only about praising the conservatives and how great Stephen Harper is/was. I am saying this to you because after I saw Mr. Bricker doing that I became very skeptical of his interpretations of statistical data. It is clear he tries hard to trash the centre-left and loves the right. He even co-wrote a a book with John Ibbitson called "The Big Shift" where he predicted years and years of conservative dominance in Canada (this before the Conservatives were wiped out in the last election). Thus, be very skeptical of what Mr. Bricker says. Have a nice weekend

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi anon...I feel the same way about Darrell Bricker as you do. I have never felt I could trust him, and after hearing that he called Justin Trudeau "shiny pony" I see I was right. And thanks for reminding me that Bricker co-authored "The Big Shift, which couldn't have been more wrong. But does explain why Ibbitson is always trying to polish the Harper turd. The Cons and the Con media are trying to do everything to undermine Trudeau, but sadly for them he's still incredibly popular...

      Delete
  5. If we elect O leary as PM I will stand on a corner with one of those end is near signs. The O leary trust fund brats have created the huge mess we can not avoid.
    Its going to take some out of the box thinking and sharing of the wealth to keep our heads above water. I can not think of a single conservative who thought about anything except getting families and friends richer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi Steve...well certainly O'Leary has never thought of anything except making himself richer. And I really find it hard to believe that anybody could even think of him as a Canadian prime minister. But then as you know I have been wrong before. And all I can say is if that Con clown should ever become pm, I will disown this country and leave it as soon as I can...

      Delete
  6. https://www.thebeaverton.com/2017/01/will-two-please-shut-open-letter-kevin-oleary-kathleen-wynne-beaverton/

    https://www.thebeaverton.com/2017/01/dr-prof-hon-couns-kellie-leitch-md-mba-pp-qc-rsc-bbq-gst-vows-protect-canada-elites/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi David...please don't mention Kathleen Wynne if you can possibly help it. She seems to be doing all she can to elect the Cons in the next election. And in the interests of us all should resign as soon as possible...

      Delete
  7. Anonymous5:26 PM

    It was so nice not hearing a thing from our retired "Dear Leader" then all of a sudden Ba-Bam!! First I thought it was a blip when I read this earth shattering revelation, "Stephen Harper sees 'global uncertainty' under Trump presidency." Wow, thanks for the heads up Steve. A true visionary.
    As Anon 9:46 said, it's early and O'Leary's baggage will be in plain view once this clinically dead leadership race starts providing us with some good old fashioned Con eat Con battles. Let the games begin.
    JD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi JD...yes, I feel the same way. Why did he bother to say anything? And wasn't that deep? Do they actually pay him to come up with such insightful revelations as that? Because if that's the case I'm definitely in the wrong business. I should take my crystal ball and head off to Abu Dhabi where Harper was last week, and see if I can get the royal family to pad my bank account... :)

      Delete