The Con Clowns and the Voice In Their Heads

It was such a boring show I had to remember to keep breathing. And needless to say I couldn't watch it for more than a few minutes. No sane person could.

Although it seems it did have its farcical moments. 

For there were thirteen of the fourteen Con clown leadership candidates yesterday, trying to compress The Thoughts of Chairman Harper into sixty second sound bites. 

And basically agreeing to agree. *Yawn.*

While Kevin O'Leary, the candidate who wasn't there, ran away with the headlines for all the wrong reasons.



First O'Leary was forced to defend his use of private planes on the campaign trail. 

Kevin O’Leary’s candid assertion that he is using private aircraft to campaign for the Conservative Party leadership while expensing only the price of a commercial ticket appears to be a violation of Elections Canada rules, opposition critics in Ottawa say.

Then, only a few days after this embarrassing story surfaced. 



Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary once touched a woman’s posterior during an episode of Dragons’ Den on CBC, but said on Friday that she wasn’t offended by his move at the time.

Now he's going to have to defend this grubby video, recorded in his washroom.



Which makes him sound like a pervert, and also strongly suggests that O'Leary has the same problems with women as does his good buddy Donald Trump. 

Which couldn't be more disgusting.

But does remind me that Kellie Leitch, Canada's other would be Trump, was promoting her bizarro video. 



You’ve all watched a nightly newscast, right? You’ve seen the savvy veteran TV correspondent glance away from the camera in the middle of her standup. It’s a move meant to convey reflection – or create the notion that the reporter is pondering what to say next. When Leitch does it, however, it looks as though she’s greeting an invisible friend. BONJOUR MRS. CANTALOUPE!

Which is indeed so bizarre, the Huffington Post has made a surrealistic collage of its dramatic silences. 

But strangely enough, I thought that 22 Minutes came closest to the truth.

When it asked whether Leitch was being held hostage?



Because of course the answer is yes. 

Leitch, like most of the other Cons, is still being held hostage by the legacy of Stephen Harper. 

Who is still the voice in her corner, or her head...



Many in our Con media are claiming these days that Harper created an inclusive party, and that people like Leitch are betraying his Big Tent principles,

But as Andrew Mitrovica wrote recently, those who do are falsifying history.  

The crop of Conservative leadership candidates isn’t rejecting Harper’s sinister governing ethos. They’re embracing it; hence, their near unanimous rejection of Motion 103. They’re a tangible extension of what Harper is: a small, insular man, who always chose hate over love, suspicion over trust, retribution over grace. 

The extremist “fringe” hasn’t just taken over the Conservative Party. Stephen Harper spent his career ensuring that it was the signature essence of his ugly party.

Which is of course, as you know, what I have always maintained,

He made them in his own image, and he is taking them all down with him...