Andrew Scheer and the Ghost of Stephen Harper

For weeks Andrew Scheer has been claiming that when Parliament resumed he would destroy Justin Trudeau with a new and devastating assault on his ethics.

But when it did resume yesterday, all he could come up with was more of the same. 

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer spent his first question period of 2018 reminding Justin Trudeau that he is the first Canadian prime minister found in violation of federal ethics laws.

So when Scheer and his Cons asked basically the same question over and over again, Trudeau only answered five of them, and left it up to House Leader Bardish Chagger to repeat basically the same answer.



Which left Scheer flailing around, and looking like an idiot.

Or worse.



Left him looking like Stephen Harper.

For as the Con fluffer John Ivison points out, that is who the Liberals will be campaigning against.

It’s a line of attack we can expect to see repeated as we get closer to an election. An Angus Reid poll over the weekend suggests it will prove a successful strategy. 

If Trudeau defines himself against Harper, rather than Andrew Scheer or NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, he can secure those NDP voters who still have a visceral aversion to the former prime minister.

The poll suggested Trudeau’s government is considered better overall than Harper’s, including being deemed more honest and trustworthy.

And there's not much Scheer can do about it...



As my press gallery colleague Susan Delacourt joked, the majority of Canadians are like the young couple in the ad designed to introduce Scheer to the voting public – they walk past him without a hint of recognition. Of those who do know him, almost twice as many prefer Trudeau as prime minister, according to Nanos Research. 

That’s perhaps why most of the attacks on Trudeau are like mosquito bites for the prime minister.

Especially when so many of Scheer's talking points are shown to be baloney. 



"Justin Trudeau broke the law. A first in Canadian history for any sitting Prime Minister." -- Tweet from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, Jan. 5, 2018.

This one earns a rating of "a little baloney."

Which makes Scheer look like Schmear, and only reminds Canadians that Harper was worse...



In March 2011, the Speaker of the House of Commons chastised Stephen Harper's Conservative government for withholding the full costs of anti-crime measures, corporate tax cuts and a planned fighter jet purchase. It led to the government's defeat on a non-confidence motion declaring the government in contempt of Parliament.

And that Tom "Strangelove" Flanagan is right:

Harper’s former campaign manager, Tom Flanagan, has posited that political attacks are less effective when the target is more esteemed than the source of the attack, which is certainly the case here.

And so for once is the Con fluffer John Ivison:

Scheer appears convinced that a simple re-branding of the Harper Conservatives will suffice. Yet for many of the voters Scheer needs to win, the tuna is tainted and changing the label won’t cut it.

Which leaves Scheer heading for a really bad place...



With the ghost of Stephen Harper taking him and his Cons down.

While helping to give the man he said wasn't ready, another glorious majority.



Golly, isn't life ironic?

And for all the old toxic Trudeau haters out there, isn't life bitter?

Wowser. Wowser. Wowser.

What a Prime Minister...