For Andrew Scheer it must have seemed like a religious revelation, of the very wrong kind. The kind born in the hell of his own making. For years he has tried to ignore the subject of climate change, and flagellated the very idea of a carbon tax as only a kooky Con could. But then, like a Biblical deluge, it started raining, and raining, and flooding and flooding. And the hapless Scheer was finally forced to admit that climate change is real.
I don't know why there are so many toxic Trudeau haters out there. So many angry old men who seem to hate our prime minister more than they love life. But the grumpy old Con who went after Justin Trudeau as he was filling sand bags near Ottawa yesterday, not only showed no respect for the office of prime minister. He set off another toxic chain reaction of hatred, of the kind that is poisoning this country.
Ever since he came to power Doug Ford has launched one attack after the other on the Liberal government's carbon tax. As only a political thug and a Con clown could. He calls it the "worst tax ever." He is spending $30 million dollars to challenge it in court. Even though it is the best way to fight climate change, which Ford doesn't really believe in either. And now even as massive floods are threatening communities all over Ontario.
For years I have warned that hate was on the rise in Canada. And I should know since I first started fighting the hate mongers and other bullies when I was about thirteen. But ever since Andrew Scheer became Con leader, and started whipping up hate for crass political purposes, I started to feel that the situation was out of control. And sure enough I was right.
When Andrew Scheer had that secret meeting with some Big Oil bosses at a fancy hotel just outside Calgary the other day, he must have been praying up a storm that nobody would ever find out about it. Never find out what they talked about, never find out who was there. But sadly for him, the Globe exposed the meeting, as nothing less than a sinister conclave, or war council, on how to best destroy Justin Trudeau and his Liberals. So now Scheer has a big problem.
In one of my last posts I looked at how Andrew Scheer and Big Oil were secretly working together to try to defeat Justin Trudeau. In what can only be described as a sinister oily conspiracy. And I predicted that Scheer and his Cons would pay a heavy political price for that perfidious behaviour. And sure enough that's already happening.
Some in our bought media have called them The Resistance, as if what they are doing is brave even heroic. When they are just a grubby gang of Con climate change deniers who never saw a carbon tax they didn't want to kill. And even though a recent Nobel Prize winner says carbon taxes are the best way to fight the disastrous effects of climate change. That grubby Con gang keeps calling them just a tax grab.
I always knew that there were dark forces working to make Andrew Scheer Prime Minister, and take this country to a very bad place. But now we know it's a sinister conspiracy. And it couldn't be more evil or more deeply disturbing.
Ever since he became the leader of the Cons, Andrew Scheer has been very careful to conceal his extreme religious views. He won the leadership with the support of social conservatives, but deleted his platform minutes after he was elected. And although does send out an occasional dog whistle to his rabid religious base, he has been able to conceal his own extremist past. Like the angry way he reacted when Dr Henry Morgentaler was awarded the Order of Canada. Or how he began his political career working in the office of one of the ugliest religious bigots this country has ever known...
A Missouri-born Baptist preacher and Canadian Alliance MP named Larry Spencer, who believed that gay people should be arrested and jailed. In late November 2003, Spencer caused controversy in Canada by Vancouver Sun reporter Peter O'Neil when he said that he would support any initiative to outlaw homosexuality. He stated that in the 1960s, a "well-orchestrated" conspiracy began and led to recent successes in the gay rights movement. This conspiracy, he further said, included seducing and recruiting young boys in playgrounds and locker rooms, and deliberately infiltrating North America's schools, judiciaries, entertainment industries, and religious communities. According to him, this conspiracy started with a speech given by a U.S. gay rights activist in the 1960s whose name he could not remember. Spencer was eventually fired as Canadian Alliance Family Issues critic by Stephen Harper. He left politics and went back to preaching, forgot that apology, and started portraying himself as a victim of religious persecution. In the manner LGBT people know only too well...
But as for Andrew Scheer, he never apologized for having worked so cheerfully for such a ghastly bigot.
On the contrary, as Neil Macdonald points out, not only is his anti-gay record abominable.
He voted against a law normalizing same-sex marriage, arguing in the Commons that "homosexual unions" are antithetical to raising families.
Not only he did he refuse to extend hate crime protection for transgender Canadians, one of the country's most brutalized minorities.
He even defended another religious bigot who called for outlawing, and presumably jailing LGBT Canadians.
He also defended Alberta Bishop Fred Henry, who told parishioners in a 2005 letter that gay sex is "an evil act, whether it is performed in public or private" adding that:
"Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the state must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good." Henry faced complaints to the province's human rights commission. That angered Scheer, who maintained Henry was merely instructing the faithful.
"To think that a Catholic bishop must answer to a civil authority over matters of faith is abominable. It is abhorrent to me, to other Catholics and to every member of every faith community," he said. A person who has met Scheer many times, tells me that his hatred for gays is palpable, and horrifying to behold. And for those who think that there is nothing Scheer can do to hurt gay Canadians, they obviously haven't been watching what has been happening in Trump's America. Social conservatives in the United States have used all sorts of creative schemes to impose their views on populations in states where they hold sway. You often don't need legislation to get your way. A little de-funding here, a little creative regulatory tweaking there, and you can accomplish what you want without big, loud, bothersome House of Commons debates. So here's my question: When Scheer tells his religious base that they should not be afraid, because he will protect them. What I want to know is who will protect women, gay people, Muslims and others from his Christianist fanatics? And when will Canadians finally realize who Scheer really is?
And what he might do to this country and its values, if he ever becomes Prime Minister.
I spent most of the long weekend far from the madding crowd, recovering from a particularly gruelling exam. With only the sound of the rain beating down, and a passing yacht club boat chugging along to remind me that Spring had finally arrived. But what I was also reminded about was that there are now just six months before the next election. An election that will determine in a very real way, whether this country as we know it lives or dies.
Justin Trudeau has had to fight all kinds of battles since he came to power. He's has to fight the Cons and their grubby stooge media. He has had to fight the racists, the misogynists, the gay haters, and other bigots and far-right extremists who are slowly poisoning this country. And of course for twelve long weeks he had to fight a fake scandal that has wounded him in the polls. But the battle that began on Good Friday may be the toughest battle of all.
Ever since he became the Premier-elect of Alberta, Jason Kenney has wasted no time giving his enemies the finger, and preparing to declare war on them. From "foreign funded" environmental groups, the government and people of British Columbia and First Nations, to union groups, student activists, the liberal media etc etc. And of course Justin Trudeau and his demonic carbon tax, who Kenney says must build him a pipeline, NOW!!! or ELSE !!#@
It was Jason Kenny unchained, and a horrible sight if ever there was one. He looked more like a feverish Alabama preacher than a premier-elect. All he was missing was a handkerchief to wipe the dribble off his chin. But he had worked hard for three long years to build up his bigot party, and make it the voice of ugly Alberta. So he just couldn't help himself.
I was sitting on a bench overlooking the beach at Ward's Island this weekend, when I suddenly thought of Jack Layton. And how I used to see him all the time cycling around the island on a bicycle made for two. Back in the giddy days when an orange wave had made many of its supporters, including me, believing that the NDP was only an election away from forming a government. But as we all know, that never happened.
For nine long weeks Justin Trudeau has been forced to defend himself from the Cons and their media stooges, who tried to use the fake scandal to destroy him. But that scandal finally passed away the other day, not with a bang but a whimper. And now Trudeau is putting on the gloves again.
In Alberta the advance polls are open, and Albertans have started voting in a provincial election Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party are favoured to win. But the UCP has been hit by one bigot eruption after the other. The RCMP is looking into allegations of voter fraud during Kenney's leadership campaign. His once massive lead over Rachel Notley's NDP has narrowed considerably. So Kenney must be worried, and yesterday he brought in some help all the way from Ottawa.
It was one of the most grotesque interviews I have ever seen. Two right-wing Christian fanatics on the bigot Rebel, discussing why they could never support a harmless motion condemning islamophobia, not long after a gunman killed six Muslims in Quebec City. And then cheerfully making plans to go duck hunting together. Andrew Scheer and Faith Goldy's torrid on-air romance ended abruptly when Goldy was exposed as a neo-Nazi cheerleader at a deadly rally in Charlottesville. But I'm sure the memories of their time together must have come flooding back the other day.
I realize that Jane Philpott is a medical doctor, and that like other doctors she has no doubt brought back to life some patients who appear at first glance to be dead. But her political career flatlined a long time ago, and what's left of it is turning green. So this is ridiculous.
As the Great Polar Bear God of the Great White North knows, I did everything I could this weekend to try to escape the fake scandal. I went over to the island and finished painting my friend's sailboat. I read a lot of stuff but nothing about Canadian politics. I hung out with some friends and watched soccer games on TV. I took long naps and dreamed of the day Spring finally looks and feels like Spring. But it was no good. Because when I finally did take a quick glance at the news there he was.
In my last post I wrote that I would try to stay away from the fake scandal as it sinks slowly into the swamp of history. But one thing about that shabby feeding frenzy still bothers me. And that's the way the Cons and the other toxic Trudeau haters tried to portray him as a "fake feminist." In a crass attempt to smear him, and damage the cause of women's rights that he has championed since he came to office. So I'm glad to see someone demolish that fake news argument.
There is a bridge near the Scottish town of Dumbarton that has a terrifying reputation. For it is said that hundreds of dogs have leaped over its sides for no apparent reason, only to end up dead in the rocky gorge below. Since it is Scotland one can't be sure who or what is to blame, furry creatures like mink moving around in the gorge, or a ghost that is said to haunt a nearby mansion. But I was interested to see that somebody has compared the phenomenon to the hysteria sparked by the fake scandal.
As I'm sure you know I have no time at all for Jody Wilson-Raybould. I never believed she was a saint, or a martyr to truth and justice. Just a shabby Con tool in Liberal clothing. And an aggressive self promoter, who with the help of the Con media, orchestrated a fake scandal to try to make Justin Trudeau pay for shuffling her out of her dream job. But if this story is true, she really has hit rock bottom.
For weeks they waged war on their own government and their own leader Justin Trudeau. They plotted and coordinated their activities to try to cause maximum damage. They were the darlings of the Con media, who cheered them on wildly, and used them to smear Trudeau. And of course they were the useful idiots of Andrew Scheer and his far-right extremists, who were hoping their fake scandal would make him and his monstrous Cons the new masters of Canada. But despite that the two Connies got away with it for what seemed like forever. Until at last their luck ran out yesterday.
There are so many good reasons to expel Jody Wilson-Raybould from the Liberal Party caucus. Her incompetence, her vindictiveness, her creepy secret taping of the decent Michael Wernick, her crass attempt to destroy the leader of her own party. And her total failure to recognize that enough is enough. But I really like this newest reason. Climate change.
Ever since the SNC-Lavalin affair erupted, I have been complaining about the way the Con media have hyped the story, and kept it alive far beyond its best before date. With a never-ending torrent of biased stories clearly aimed at trying to use Jody Wilson-Raybould to destroy Justin Trudeau. Which in my opinion is a far bigger story than the so-called fake scandal, for it threatens the very foundations of our democracy. And could help elect Andrew Scheer and his far-right Cons, who are a mortal threat to this country and its values. But I had to admit that I didn't really understand the monstrous size of the problem, until I read this.
