Election 2019 and the Malignant Influence of Parson Manning

It's been almost thirty years since Preston Manning and his Reform Party cowboys galloped into Ottawa and started trampling on our country and its values.

They had "The West Wants In" tattooed on their...er...saddles, as they stampeded into our parliament.

Parson Manning thundered that they had come to elevate our politics, take big money out them, and make them more God-like. Hallelujah!!!

And, yes, so much for that one...



For this is how low Parson Manning has fallen. 

The Manning Centre put out a fundraising call for election advertising and then passed that money along to a series of third-party political groups that have been running attack ads against the federal Liberals, the organization said. 

But the source of the Manning Centre’s donations to those groups, worth more than $300,000, will remain hidden from public view since the Calgary-based conservative think tank, which has not registered as a third party with Elections Canada, does not intend to disclose them.

He won't tell us the names of the big money bagmen who paid for disgusting ads like this one.



An anti-Liberal election ad paid for by the Manning Centre has been taken down by Facebook for excessively violent content. 

The ad, one of a number of intense ads the Manning Centre is funding through third-party groups it supports, shows actor Keanu Reeves buried up to his neck in the dirt, looking at a mobile phone showing Justin Trudeau, saying, in French: “Thank you for the second mandate.”

But he has dismounted from his high horse, and is now crawling on all fours through the gutter.

Elections Canada records show the Manning Centre has put $312,450 into five third-party advocacy groups running ads in the election: Quebec Fier, Canada Strong and Proud, NL Strong, NS Proud, and Proudly New Brunswick. 

Many of the ads are intense, accusing Justin Trudeau of being a groper, a racist and a hypocrite.

And Justin Trudeau is right to accuse the Cons of running one of the dirtiest campaigns in Canadian history. 

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau today acknowledged the Conservatives could win Monday's election — and accused the party of winning support by running one of the "dirtiest, nastiest" election campaigns in Canadian history.

"We know that the Conservative Party is running one of the dirtiest, nastiest campaigns based on disinformation that we've ever seen in this country," he said. "And it's no surprise that they don't want to share whose deep pockets are funding their attacks on Canadians, on other parties and on the most important fight of our generation, the fight against climate change."

Parson Manning must be so proud of himself. No wonder he puts "PROUD" on all those oily third party advocacy groups. 

Even if his growing right-wing extremism, makes his hallowed Manning Centre look more American than Canadian.

Just like the ugly American Andrew Scheer looks like here.

I've served my country in uniform, in Parliament and in Space. I'm shaking my head watching this. Watch @andrewscheer sit through O Canada 🇨🇦 while MPs from all parties sing it in celebration. pic.twitter.com/qAaInmQpLA

— Marc Garneau (@MarcGarneau) October 16, 2019

As I said on Twitter, when I first saw Andrew Scheer refusing to rise for O Canada I thought he was just striking another cheap blow against women's equality, to please his bigot women-hating base.

But now that I know he's an ugly American, I can better understand why he refused to rise, and showed so little respect for our anthem and our country.

And no wonder the country's biggest newspaper says Justin Trudeau's Liberals are the best choice for Canada. 



Four years ago, almost to the day, we enthusiastically urged voters to back Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. It was high time, we said, to choose a “strong, hopeful alternative” after almost 10 years of regressive Conservative rule. It was an easy choice. 

Today, we make the same recommendation for Monday’s election. Trudeau and the Liberals have accomplished important things since 2015. And they offer the best program for continuing in that positive direction over the next four years.

He may be flawed, like all of us, but he is never cruel like Scheer and his Cons, or as hypocritical as Parson Manning.

He's leading us in the right direction.

And decency should count for something...