It's been eight months since Andrew Scheer was elected Con leader.
And the Con media started singing his praises, and cheering him on as he attacked Justin Trudeau.
Day after day after day.
But now suddenly the Con media chorus is more muted, for obvious reasons.
And some are actually turning on him.
First the Globe and Mail editorial board questioned his weird views on tolerance.
Mr. Scheer has apparently made it a priority to rebrand his party as a Canada's brightest beacon of tolerance. Based on what we've seen, he may not be the person for the job.
Then John Ibbitson followed up with a column calling him Mr Enigma, and practically begging Scheer to stand for something, ANYTHING.
What does Andrew Scheer believe? We can't say. He has spent most of his adult life as a backbench MP or Speaker of the House. The day he won the leadership, he deleted his campaign platform from his website, which is never a good sign. The latest Nanos poll shows him to be the least popular national party leader, behind Mr. Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
Six hundred and fifty-three days until the election, Mr. Scheer. Six hundred and fifty-three days.
Which must have surprised old Schmeagol...
And now Andrew Freeman has delivered the biggest blow of all.
By daring to suggest that the Cons picked the wrong leader.
With each passing day, it’s becoming clearer that Canada’s Official Opposition is led by a man who might have what it takes to rock a high school model Parliament, but little else. In federal politics, Scheer is a catastrophe — a gift to Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada and the most hapless and inept major party leader since Stéphane Dion vanished from the scene.
And not just a loser, a Con who resembles Dion...
*Gasp.*
One who is living in the wrong country.
His socially conservative beliefs might work for him if he were running for governor of Indiana, or to replace Ted Cruz as the Tea Party flag-bearer, but he’s never going to be elected prime minister of Canada in the second decade of the 21st century.
And it's not just Scheer who is out of sync with the times writes Freeman, so is his party.
The problem with Scheer, in some ways, is that he reflects all too well the true nature of the Conservative Party of Canada’s base: a rump of anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, older, socially conservative Canadians who hate the modern, urban, diverse place the country has become.
Which of course should be music to our ears, especially the sounds of the knives sharpening.
And soon the heavenly sounds of the Cons wailing like banshees.
Although to be fair their leadership race was such a slow motion car crash, there were no winners, only losers...
So they never had a chance to elect a decent leader.
And the only reason Scheer won was because the religious fanatics joined together to ordain him their Supreme Messiah.
But of course the supreme irony is that the Scheer just hired one of The Rebel's co-founders Hamish Marshall, to attack Justin Trudeau like only someone who worked so closely with Ezra Levant can.
At a time when his own advisers are now telling him he needs to be more of a nice guy.
The nice guy Trudeau is even more popular than the day he won the last election.
While the two nasties Scheer and Marshall prepare to be flushed down the memory hole together...
You know, maybe justice is DIVINE.
Bye Bye Cons.
Bye Bye Schmeagol...
I hope the donors start sitting on their wallets.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve...Don't count on it. The Big Oil boys and their ilk who donate to the Cons don't care whether Scheer and company are wearing hoods over their heads, or Nazi uniforms, as long as they promise to suckle the rich and screw the poor...
DeleteI hope they keep him until the election.
ReplyDeleteWith the history of throwing undesirables under the bus, I would not be surprised to see Schmear thrown under the bus, and taking all the blame for the intolerance of the ConFormers, when they are roundly defeated at the next election. To me the party, his manager and the media all seemed poised in this direction. They have changed the outward labels of their product to the "New and Improved Party" in the past, while the same old trite policies survived under a different brand name, but the same intolerant influences of their desired base.
Deletehi anon 11:16 am...I can understand why you say that, and you're probably right. I may have been too hasty. Schmear probably should stick around until after the next election, because with enemies like that who needs friends? Let me send a note to Maxime Bernier, and tell him to not get carried away... ;)
Deletehi Filcher...yes I can see Scheer taking the fall after the next election, but only if he is allowed to nail himself to a cross on Parliament Hill. And only if the SoCons who make up a sizeable part of the Cons can be placated. For it was clear to me at the Con convention that they are still a force to be reckoned with. And just like Trump has breathed new life into the evangelicals in the U.S., Scheer is their man here...
DeleteLet's not forget that it was highly likely that they cheated(a typical Con trait) to instill Scheer as leader. The Albertistan base of the party surely couldn't stomach a leader from Kweebek so they connived and colluded to clip Maxed out Bernier's wings in favour of Schmeagol, "The Rebel Without a Cause(or clue)."
ReplyDeleteEven though Schmear was warned about the bigot Beyak last September, he chose instead to wait until now to address it, even lying that he only found out this week. Why? I'm guessing because it suddenly fits in with his feeble attempt to portray himself as "Andrew The Tolerant", champion of the oppressed, sheesh!
Scheer has only himself to blame for following Harper's poisonous policies. Until the party washes its hands of the Harperite lowlifes and actually offers Canadians sound policy without the wedge issues and outright bigotry maybe then they will be taken seriously as opposed to their current alt-right method of divide(but in this case, never conquer).
JD
I doubt the Albertastan base would have been comfortable with a Chinese (Michael Chong) or Indian (Deepak Obhrai) guy either. In many ways, the Con race was almost identical to the GOP clown car of 2016. They can float as many throwaway token candidates like Fiorina, Rubio, or Carson as they like, just to have a deflection against accusations of misogyny or racism (actions and policies speak louder, but whatever), but at the end of the day, everyone -- well, almost everyone -- knew it was going to be another hate-mongering white guy (or orange, in this case). Interestingly enough, Cruz was thought by some to be the presumptive nominee (if not the other Bush), until enough naive commentators realized that the base would never vote for a Hispanic, let alone a scary ferriner with a Kenyan (or Cuban) birth certificate from Canadia. There are people in that reality-devoid Fox/Breitbart cult who followed "Pizzagate" and "spirit cooking" to the nth degree, who legitimately believe that not only is Fidel Castro the biological father of Justin Trudeau, but that Ted Cruz is his brother from another mother. This is the kind of insanity we're talking about when we talk about the "conservative base."
DeleteNow, as for your side of the 49th, I don't know much about Obhrai, but from what I saw following the leadership contest from down here, Chong sounded like the only sensible candidate in the whole club. Which is another reason he never got anywhere. Must be a Red Tory or worse, a Liberal plant. The Reform/Rebel Crappers and the Gulags' Own Party have moved the Overton window so far to the right that they've jumped out of it from the top floor of Trump Tower. Not that it matters to me, as long as they don't get anywhere near the halls of power (which they don't look to have much of a chance of doing in your neck of the woods, because Canadians are tired of hate-mongering wingnuts who aren't, well, "polite"). Now if only the Americans can get their heads together in November too, then I say good riddance to bad rubbish.
hi JD...yes, I wish the Con media would remind Canadians that Scheer was chosen leader after a race so marred by allegations of voter fraud, it was little more than a farce. I also think the only reason Schmeagol finally acted against Beyak was because of that Globe and Mail editorial that all but accused him of being a bigot. As I have pointed out before, Scheer is not only a religious fanatic himself, he had to sell his soul to people like Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux in order to get elected leader.
DeleteSo until the Cons can expand beyond their base, they'll never be a truly Canadian party...
hi Jackie...yes, Michael Chong was the most moderate of the Con candidates, one who didn't play racist games, and the only one who supported a carbon tax. So needless to say he didn't stand a chance. As for the Cons themselves, I like to think that they also don't stand a chance of winning the next election. But in these dangerous times, with Trump as President, and racism spreading, I wouldn't rule anything out...
DeleteThe Con media must be getting worried. They've worked so hard to smear Justin Trudeau and boost Scheer and it hasn't done a thing. If they want to pressure Scheer into resigning before the next election they are going to have to act quickly. I personally hope Scheer doesn't go anywhere because just about any Con would be better than him.
ReplyDeletehi anon...yes, as I told another reader earlier, I should probably rein in my enthusiasm, and not demand that Scheer be run out of town on a burro backwards, until after the next election. But you can be sure that the Con media will be encouraging other Con candidates to come forward as soon as possible, because even after all the help they have given them the Cons are still stuck in neutral...
DeleteI enjoyed Freeman's article a lot, but I note that even he didn't mention the growing influence of the alt-right movement or Ezra Levant's pal Hamish Marshall. The media seem to think that Canada is an island, and isn't affected by anything happening south of the border. Maybe it's a generational thing, but it seems strange to me.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Pierre, the American influence is the elephant in the room, or the bed as he said. I feel bad for Canada because it's like being stuck in a codependent relationship with an abusive partner. You don't want to rock the boat too much otherwise there'll be hell to pay. But at the same time it's extremely difficult if not impossible to really carve out your own sense of self or identity. I admire Trudeau because, like his father, he's done the most for Canada to ever have that 180-degree mirror opposite (or at least 170-, 160-something, very close) to what the crazy, arrogant, and indeed imperialist American culture seems proud to be, and unapologetically exports elsewhere in the world whether anyone wants it or not. We haven't been the best of downstairs neighbors -- Robin Williams (PBUH) once said it's like living in a nice attic apartment above a meth lab -- and our craziness all too often seeps into your way of life.
DeleteIt's no accident that Sun TV was called Fox News North and now Rebel Media is sometimes called Breitbart or Infowars North. Levant, however, doesn't get compared enough to Bannon, and that's unfortunate because that's exactly the model he was trying to replicate. A right-wing Internet crank turned string-puller for a candidate trying to appeal to the most deplorable base of rubbish imaginable. But the good thing about Canada -- and what Levant either refuses to get or simply doesn't understand at all -- is that the majority of your electorate rejects people like Trump and Citizen Scheer.
hi anon 3:51 PM...yes that frustrates me too. I don't know if it's generational, but it certainly is blindness. They don't seem to understand that Trump's influence is strong in Con circles, and that when even people like Candice Bergen start spouting off about "elites" and accusing Justin Trudeau of mocking religion, it's a growing cancer on our body politic...
Deletehi Jackie...yes Levant has always been a wannabe Breitbart, and he's now trying to expand his influence in Britain. But unfortunately our Con media seems to think that taking a good look at his organization is beneath them. So what they end up doing is covering up for his hate mongering, camouflaging the influence of the alt-right on the Scheer Cons. And of course, making it seem perfectly normal that a Canadian political party should hire a man as tainted as Hamish Marshall...
DeleteHave you seen what @Ben_S_Harper tweeted concerning minimum wage
ReplyDelete"Why not just make the minimum wage $1,000,000. Then everyone could be rich. All problems solved"
Please do a blog post about this entitled elite jerk, like only you can. Thanks
Yes, the apple does not fall from the economics degree. Makes a person wonder if his dad went to Trump U?
Deletehi Yvonne...all through the Harper years I tried to avoid saying anything bad about his family. And I'm still reluctant to attack them even though Ben's comment about the minimum wage couldn't have been more asinine. He is after all just a not very bright university student, a dumb frat boy if ever there was one. However, the issue of the minimum wage is a good one, so let me review my files, and I'll see what i can do... ;)
Deletehi Filcher...yes, I guess Ben has really had to struggle to make his way through university, and has a really good idea what it's like to live on a minimum wage, not to mention zero hours etc etc. But at least we won't have to put up with another fraud claiming he's a Great Economist Leader...
DeleteSimon, I get your reluctance to attack them however, when one comes out with a snotty remark like that, they've rendered their off limits status as null and void.
DeleteJD
hi JD... OK I surrender. It was a snotty remark and he deserves to get called out. I'll see if I can do something about that... ;)
Deleteafter the next election Rona Ambrose will come back, take over the leadership and revive the Cons as a more mainstream party. Until then they are doomed. Now it maybe Jason Kenny thinks he will have success in Alberta, but if he doesn't expect him to come back if he thinks he can get back on the federal gravy train. Being in Ottawa, is just so much more fun than Edmonton.
ReplyDelete