It's not easy to get back to the sweltering heat of the city after spending two days sailing through the coolest part of Lake Ontario, far from the madding crowds, and our increasingly grubby political scene.
But if I have to get back into the political arena, and I do because my holiday is over and the election is now just twelve weeks away, this story will do just fine.
For it's a nasty little story, but it says so much about the Cons, and how low they have fallen.
So low that Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier are now engaged in a grubby contest.
A contest to see who can be more of a bigot.
Or more of a Trumpling.
Maxime Bernier says that if he becomes prime minister, his government would slash immigration and refugee numbers, build a fence to block asylum seekers from walking across the border, and end a program that lets immigrants sponsor their families to join them.
And although Bernier has never looked more desperate or more pathetic, you can be sure that Andrew Scheer and his ugly Cons must be absolutely terrified.
Because it is their worst nightmare...
A contest where Scheer has to prove he is more of a bigot than Bernier.
For all Mad Max has to do is attract just over five percent of Weak Andy's supporters, and Con hopes of winning the next election will be gone with the wind.
So the Cons are already firing back at Bernier, by blaming Justin Trudeau...
Since Trudeau’s #WelcomeToCanada tweet in 2017, more than 40,000 people have crossed our border illegally. By this year, illegal border crossers will cost taxpayers $1.1 billion while forcing law-abiding immigrants and refugees to wait longer for Canada’s help.— Conservative Party (@CPC_HQ) July 27, 2019
#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/o6E5eDAzkl
Trying to make it sound like there's a crisis at the border, even though there is no crisis.
And all Scheer is trying to do is whip up racism and xenophobia for crass political purposes.
Again...
Which is of course about as low as you can go.
And the good news?
It's not just a dirty game Scheer is playing, it's a dangerous one.
For if his racism becomes too obvious it could cost him the support of more moderate Cons.
And any chance of winning ANYTHING.
So let's hear it for Mad Max.
Our useful idiot.
But let's make absolutely sure we defeat ALL those ghastly Cons before they set our country on fire...
P.S. Thanks to Callum for tending to the comments in my absence, and to all my readers for their patience...
17 comments:
I hope that by "getting back into the political arena" you've signed up to knock doors for the Liberals/ABC, Simon, and/or that you've got friends doing the same. Blogging and social media is necessary since the garbage M$M keeps soft-pedaling Scheer's racism by deflecting to Mad Max or calling it a desperate move from "crooked failing Trudeau." But the bulk of hearts and minds are still won face-to-face. All I can do from my side of the border is put in my 2c and hope and pray for the best. And apologize again for the Trump disease seeping across the border.
Also, OT but speaking of the man in the arena I have to bring it up: Jody isn't the only one writing a slam book about JT, John Ivison has one coming out in August and I'm not sure what tone Aaron Wherry's is going to take. Seriously, what kind of obsession drives these people or is it just attention and profit-seeking? I hope Justin wins just because I hope he wins, for his own and for Canada's sake, but also because I hope to read his tell-all well into the future in hopes he demolishes his own enemies -- albeit in the "politest" of ways as only he could. Nobody gives the guy a fair shake because everybody wants to get in on the act.
Simon, first of all, welcome back! Hope you had a good holiday. Now for my scary comments! I've never followed an election as closely as I'm following this one. Randy-Andy and Mad-Max aren't just racists, they're scary Homophobic bigots. Sadly, I am seeing more and more that they have a dangerous following. And remember, I live in Hamilton, which, right now, is the Homophobic hate capital of Canada. This week, I got a major kick-in-the-you-know-whats from none other than a former friend. Notice I said "former", as I do not speak to this guy. He's not only Homophobic, but he's very much anti-Semitic. He's a strong supporter of Randy-Andy, and he hit me with a good one! He hit me with a twisted interpretation of our constitution. His interpretation of section 15 says that, while a person is protected from discrimination based on race, religion, sex, etc., the wording does not protect LGBTQs. It leaves them wide open for discrimination, which he loves to do. And he pointed out how the constitution supersedes section 319 of the criminal code, and he hopes Randy-Andy will use this little tidbit of information to return Homosexuality to the criminal code. Also, I have noticed that the Liberals want conversion therapy put into the criminal code and outlawed. Scheer has said nothing about this.
Here is something else. The thinking in Ontario is that Scheer and Ford are birds of a feather. Here's something I read Friday, proving that Ford (and therefore Scheer) stand for the joining of church and state 9the church must control the state). Ford has granted a twelve-thousand-dollar "gift" to the religious bigot Charles McVety's Jesus-in-the-City parade in September, as a part of the government's celebrate Ontario program. McVety has voiced very strong Homophobic opinions about same-sex marriage and the new sex-education curriculum that taught, among other things, tolerance and acceptance, AND about respect. It also taught that when a woman says, "No!", it means you don't force yourself onto her, something conservatives can't fathom. I wonder too what influence this McVety has on Scheer. And don't get me started about one Mr. David Cooke and his CitizenGo group who wave their bibles in the air, calling themselves good Christians while spewing their Homophobic bigotry.
Yes, there is only twelve weeks until the election. And I've already pledged to help our local Liberal candidate. I feel it's going to be an uphill war, and I can only hope we can stop the conservative bigots from forming the government.
Those whose racism and bigotry have driven their political choices have always been a small minority in this country and none of the old political parties would give them the time of day.
Then to their everlasting discredit the old Reform Party decided that it would be politically expedient to give these people a voice. Anything to beat the hated Liberals. The Canadian Alliance continued giving them a voice and the Conservative Party of Canada decided to keep them on when it formed.
Unfortunately for the Conservatives these people have a persecution complex as high and as wide as the Rocky Mountains so they need constant attention from the Party and its leader or they begin to scream that they are being ignored by the "Liberal elites".
This need to constantly massage these people has been a detriment to the Conservative Party. It was a contributing factor to them losing the 2004 election, being held to minority governments in 2006 and 2008 and losing the 2015 election. In 2011 it was only a terrible campaign by the Liberals and Jack Layton that allowed Stephen Harper to attain his one majority government in five attempts.
If Stephen Harper would have been the political genius everybody said he was he would have begun weaning his party off of these people as soon as he became leader but he did the exact opposite.
Now this small group of racists and bigots are the tail wagging the Conservative dog and Mr. Scheer has no choice but to pander to them to have even a desperately slim chance of hanging on to the seats he already has let alone winning the election. And with Mr. Bernier now explicity targeting these voters he has put Mr. Scheer into one heck of a bind.
It is too late for Mr. Scheer to attempt to shed these people and tack to the centre, even if he were so inclined, so now he will have to spend more time pandering to these people, to keep Mr. Bernier at bay, turning centrist swing voters off in the process.
These racists and bigots are certainly deplorable but they are also a millstone around the neck of the Conservative Party and until the Party finds a way to shed them they will continue to weigh down the Party's chances of winning future elections. And if Mr. Bernier can actually steal a sizable number of them for his party it will sink the Conservatives even faster and deeper.
Mr. Scheer considers Justin Trudeau to be his greatest obstacle to power and he is correct but his erswhile Conservative colleagues, Mr. Ford and Mr. Bernier, are the ones that could sink his Party to depths not seen by a federal conservative political party since the near wipe out of the PCPC in 1993.
The Scheer Cons spent the last 3 years fostering Trudeau hatred and locking in their bigoted simplistic minded base. As election day approaches the plan is to turn the base over to their Conservative social media allies to continue pumping out the emotional candy while the official Conservative party launches a sanitized version in order to appeal to more moderate voters. No longer are jihadist Muslim border crossers going to murder you or your loved ones in their sleep but instead the Scheer Cons need to stop them in order to be compassionately fair to those that apply legally for refugee status. Forget carbon taxes the Scheer bullshitters will demonstrate global leadership by displacing coal consumption with LNG (and presumably massive quantities of ethical tar). All designed to mollify and confuse the moderate voter while the Con inspired social media arm continues to feed the hard right crowd with raw meat. In this scenario Mad Max is a problem because they just might still be conscious enough to notice that the Scheer Cons are whistling a softer tune compared to their social media allies whereas Mad Max is the real deal. While Max talks walls Scheer sounds like an elitist talking about legally fixing loopholes in safe third country agreements. Who are the flat earthers going to believe if Max actually starts targeting Scheer's make believe platform.
RT
Scheer also considers himself a good Christian who would rather let drug addicts die (to satisfy judgmental NIMBYists and court their votes) than support evidence-based policy on harm reduction sites. Ford's bullshit turn on the autism program doesn't change the fact that picking on the disabled is yet another Nazi tactic these holy rollers are wont to do. But I digress.
Trudeau visited a gay bar in Vancouver yesterday, the first sitting PM to do so. Good on him. Predictably, the deplorables on anti-social media were calling him names, making crass comments and juvenile Photoshop memes connecting him to the transgender person at the center of the waxing-salon discrimination lawsuit, and sending out veiled threats, like "hoping" he encounters the neo-Nazi killers who are on the run in B.C. Won't be long now before one of these angry white dudes makes public threats to attack the Fountain Head bar. The "pro-life" crowd, everybody!
Now, as an aside: Charles Adler shared this news story on his Twitter account. I'm not sure who put LSD in his corn flakes, but his "conversion" has been... a curious phenomenon to watch. He's going to have to do a lot more work as penance though, because it doesn't change the fact that like all RW radio hosts in the vein of (drug-addicted hypocrite!) Rush Limbaugh et. al., he bears responsibility for cultivating this audience over the course of his career.
But as for the incel rage twits replying to him and twit-shitting on Trudeau, the more I see of these bigots hiding behind avatars and flaunting their "free speech" as an excuse to promote hate, the more I'm convinced the Internet was a mistake.
Every so often the Toronto Stun publishes a token Liberal. This article from Jim Warren echoes your analysis:
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/warren-the-three-politicians-blocking-andrew-scheers-path/
Trudeau is a much better campaigner than Iggy, and Jim Warren says that Jughead is nowhere near the formidable force that Layton was. That leaves meme warfare and disinfo both online and off, and disgruntled voters sitting on their hands over single-issue bullshit like election reform and fake scandals (as the M$M issues radio silence over #ScheerBigotry), as the greatest threats to the Liberals.
But there's a part of me that hopes Trudeau cynically offers a head-fake mea culpa and revives the election reform bone that the obsessives love to gnaw on as their sole reason for not voting for him. (Some logic, "I voted Liberal in the hopes I'd never have to vote Liberal again"?) Then when Bernier's biker Nazis end up with 5% of the vote and 5% of the seats in 2021 or '23 -- 17 of 338 and official party status -- Trudeau can then say "I told you so" about PR's supposed superiority over ranked ballots, and blame the NDP for being the fringe that attracts more fringe and opening the door. A smart move that'd likely herald the death of both parties and knock out two birds with one millstone. Can you put an albatross around an albatross' neck?
As for this time around, doubtful the Cons will sink to 1993 levels, but for Canada's sake I hope you and he are both correct about the outcome.
Hi Jackie....In the last election I did work hard to get out the vote and herded a large number of my friends to the polls, even if most of us voted for the NDP. This year I will volunteer for the Liberals in my riding. I live in a high rise jungle so door knocking is difficult, and I'm not cut out for that. I'm too shy to knock on stranger's doors, but I'm sure there are many other things I can do...
Hi Jackie...Ivison and Wherry are both journalists so it's only natural they should seek to try to make some money out of the Trudeau story. But I doubt that they will affect the election result one way or the other. And I would be very surprised if they sell many books. I certainly won't be buying one. As for JWR's book, I doubt that she has anything more to say that Canadians need to know. I think she is just paving the way for a return to native politics. So I don't think I'll be buying that one either...
HI Cynical Guy....Although sexual orientation was not included as a prohibited basis of discrimination under Section 15, several court cases have ruled that it is an equivalent or analogous ground on which claims of discrimination can be based. So your former friend is out of luck. And as for the Ford/McVety axis of evil, that can only make Ford less popular, and drag down Scheer with him even further. I realize that anti-gay bigotry is a real problem in the place where you live, but if you look at the big picture the foulness of the bigots only makes the LGBT cause stronger...
Hi Ottlib....Yes, the racists and bigots are a millstone around the neck of Scheer and his Cons, and one that can only get heavier with the passage of time. Most young people do not share those bigoted views, so the future will belong to us. And as you point out in the short term Ford and Bernier and let's not forget Kenney will also do the Scheer Cons damage....
Hi Jackie....I have absolutely no time for those still wailing about electoral reform for two main reasons. (1) Nathan Culken and the NDP were the ones who torpedoed the process by siding with the Cons and insisting a referendum. (2) Canadians have made it abundantly clear that they aren't interested by rejecting it even in the heartland of electoral reform British Columbia. What the snowflakes don't seem to understand is that if a referendum had been held their precious cause would almost certainly have been defeated and killed for a generation. Thanks to Trudeau the beast still lives and can be brought back at any time if more Canadians say they want it...
Hi RT...Yes, the Cons are definitely toning down some of their rabid propaganda in an attempt to reach out beyond their base, but as I pointed out in my post, they now risk being caught between a rock and a hard place. I don't know if Bernier can manage to grow his support in the time that's left, but most pollsters believe that the magic number is eight percent, which is about six points more than he has right now. And if he does manage to get there the Cons will be in big big trouble...
I say that Trump has inoculated the holi poli. We dont believe a word of any bullshit.
Ivinson and the Globe and Mail Harper fart sniffers, they will not be replaced/
FYI: New Forum poll is out to throw on the bonfire. Says that the Cons and Liberals are virtually neck-and-neck, but there's a lot of caveats to go along with it. It is Forum after all. I don't know who the hell they've been surveying, but they were projecting the Cons at majority levels way back in March 2018, and now claim they have a massive lead with millennials, which we know is bullshit. Even 338's axis chart puts them way in the outfield with Anus and Oopsos. But if even they have the Liberals trending upward, then the more reputable firms probably show an even better track. All I can say is keep working hard until election day.
They didn't really come up with good electoral reform options. As I understand it, the Israeli PR system has members of Knesset picked by parties in proportion to their popular vote. Here we are accustomed to an MP for a specific area they are supposed to take care of, not a party appointee who is not tied to a specific riding.
The ranked ballots is an improvement, but I think the best way to have a proportional outcome is by outlawing nearly all campaign financing and allocating money to parties based on popular vote in the last election. The per vote "subsidy" provided a direct and anonymous way to direct money to one's preferred party. Since a lot of an electoral outcome depends on the money spent in campaigns this proportional financing would provide a rough approximation of proportional representation.
Chinagate failed so they're back to immigrant bashing and border scares again. But tell us again pundit class, how there's no racism or xenophobia in this party.
https://twitter.com/BillBlair/status/1156943826663170048
Majority of Canadians want the liberal open border closed off to illegal aliens and ISIS terrorists. You waited for cross border smuggling and crime to EXPLODE before doing anything!!! Because of Liberal policy on immigration, hundreds of dangerous Mexican cartel criminals are in Canada TODAY!!!
Fact: The biggest terror threat in Canada is white supremacists marching in lockstep with the Cons. I just listened to the Economist podcast about the October election. Wow, are those pundits ever out of touch about the Cons being no threat to liberalism and Canada's values of openness and the Just Society. I mean it's right there in the name, FFS???
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