Thursday, January 16, 2020

The Ugly Cons and the Return of Stephen Harper



In one of my recent posts I mentioned that Stephen Harper had been spotted stumbling around in his zombie crypt.

And was threatening to intervene in the Con leadership race, to make sure the party he created remained the Harper Party.

Well now EVERYONE should take cover.

Because Great Zombie Leader has left the land of the living dead...



And is going after Jean Charest.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper has suddenly resigned from the board of the Conservative Party of Canada’s fundraising arm, as the party descends into organizational chaos and bitter recrimination in the first week of its leadership campaign. 

And since the first version of this article was posted, two top Conservative sources have told Maclean’s that Harper’s main goal in resigning is to free himself up to block Jean Charest’s campaign for the party leadership.

Or least that's what the Cons would have us believe.

Harper and Charest were close, and worked effectively together during Harper’s early days as prime minister. But they had a falling out over Charest’s 2007 use of a $2.3 billion federal transfer to the Quebec government to pay for tax cuts to increase his chances of re-election. More generally, as a Calgarian from the Reform roots of the party, Harper is suspicious of Charest as a Quebecer who ran the Liberal Party of Quebec for 15 years.

But with the Conservative Fund in disarray, and the Cons fighting each other over the amount of money the party gave Andrew Scheer, and who knew or didn't know about those payments.

I wouldn't be surprised if Harper decided to leave in a hurry, before a forensic audit was completed, or the police got involved.

And he started having recurring nightmares... 



But of course, Harper's real nightmare is that a Red Tory like Charest could seize control of the ugly ReformCon party he spawned.

So although John Ivison claims that Harper will remain above the fray, and not support any leadership candidate.  

Not one of the senior Conservatives I have spoken to — people who worked closely with the man for a decade or more — believe that he will publicly back one candidate over another. As one source pointed out, the whole business model of his firm Harper & Associates is built on remaining above the fray. He is said to have good relations with Rona Ambrose, whose intentions remain ambiguous, Pierre Poilievre, Erin O’Toole and even Peter MacKay, who confirmed his candidacy on Wednesday. “He gets along fine with Peter. I’m not aware of any conflict there,” said one source. 

To back one would risk breaking up the party he put back together.

If Harper wants to keep Charest from winning, it seems to me he'll have to support someone who he thinks can beat him. Somebody as right-wing as he is.

So I figure he'll be supporting this ugly Con...



Who he raised to be like him. 

And is now a real monster...



A far right extremist, a climate change denier, a religious bigot as bad or worse than Scheer.

It's horrible situation, but there is some very good news.

Judging from this latest poll...



Even with the help of Harper, Poilievre won't stand a chance against Justin Trudeau. 

And that could be the end of Stephen Harper.

And the end of the Harper Party... 



It's a horror story with a happy ending.

Stephen Harper created the party, but in the end he helped destroy it.

The ugly Cons were very very sad.

But decent Canadians lived happily ever after... 

22 comments:

Jackie Blue said...

Why won't these people just go away. They're a disease. He isn't called Stephen Herpes for nothing. And why the fuck does Drona keep being such a tease and jerking everyone around? Sources say, sources say, "considering her options" -- I'm so sick of this cock-and-ball torture, all put out there for media-created suspense. Shit or get off the pot!

Anonymous said...

People have until the 27th of February to decide, not your schedule, and it won't matter who runs, because the Liberal shills will still say the same old things. Simon himself went from writing "a decent candidate like Ambrose" to saying in a response to a comment that thought of a party led by Ambrose, MacKay or Charest caused him to burst out laughing. If the meltdown on Twitter from the LPC supporters over MacKay running after they were rejoicing over the likes of a fool like Marylin Gladu running, it's not hard to tell that the thought of the CPC being led by someone with progressive leanings terrifies Trudeau's fan club... "Peter MacKay took a helicopter ride that he shouldn't have so he's not fit to be PM"/"I know Justin took a helicopter ride that he shouldn't have but that was a fake scandal, a partisan witch hunt, a nothing burger, and siiiiiiiiiiigh, Justin is so refreshing and dreamy when compared to the other politicians"...Liberal logic at its finest.

Oh by the way, as much as I wouldn't want Pierre Poilievre as my PM, yeah, a Twitter poll is so reliable. Simply send out the word to swarm the poll and vote like crazy to get the results you want to see.

Jackie Blue said...

Nice to know Jeff and Warren et al are dispatching Con trolls to attack Liberal supporting blogs on behalf of Steve's fan club. Don't you have better things to do Sergei, from behind your cubicle at IDU HQ? Or is this the Disaffected Liberace having a meltdown of his own?

Anonymous said...

"as the party descends into organizational chaos and bitter recrimination in the first week of its leadership campaign."

How poetically pathetic it is that the party that lives by the sword is now dying because of it. The utter ineptitude of Andrew Scheer has left the party hopelessly divided much the same way as what the politics of Harper and Scheer has done to this country. Their only real achievement was dividing the country and turning their base into a frothing mass of hate fuelled ignoramuses who's steady diet of Con bullshit has left them without a clue of what truth is or a trace of common decency.
As for Harper not having a prefered candidate? Sure Steve. Yet he has an unprefered candidate? I'm leaning with you, Simon. FrankenPierre(nice graphic) checks off all the boxes on Stevie's checklist of horrors and he would graciously leave the strings that controlled him in place so Stevie could give them a tug from time to time. However, if Rona decides she wants to go from working with a winning NAFTA team and a possible ambassador position to this disgusting Con party rife with every version of ugly one can imagine, that's her choice. I dont think Harper's dumb enough to pick skippy over her so if she runs, she will have Harper's blessings but will live to regret going back to that venomous snake pit. The Cons need someone with the intestinal fortitude to rid themselves of Harper and his isms once and for all or they are destined to repeat history over and over and over again.
JD

Anonymous said...

"I know Justin took a helicopter ride that he shouldn't have"

Yeah, you're right. Only difference is that we had to pay for Dumbo's ride. Justin's was paid for by a long time family friend.
JD

Jackie Blue said...

By the way, for our drive-by Con above. If this comment gets published, "let me be clear" about why none of the candidates should have the Con trolls dancing in the streets.

One, Ambrose's French is bad and the policy convention is in Quebec. How's your precious mama bear, the Sarah Palin of Canadian politics supposed to navigate a convention where she stands minimal chance of understanding what the delegates are saying? She herself said a CPC leader must be fluently bilingual, thus disqualifying herself and/or revealing to be a massive hypocrite. She may not even make it through the leadership process if she can't "joust" with Skippy, who gave an interview in La Presse, the same paper that ran a trial balloon article suggesting that her language difficulty means that whether or not she ends up running or not she probably shouldn't.

Fully a quarter of the points come from Quebec and as much as it infuriates the drillbillies, the Cons need Quebec to win and they're not going to do that with a monolingual petro-shill from dinosaur country. If she can't hold her own against Skippy she'll fall flat on her face at TVA against Trudeau. The only other bilingual candidates are him, O'Fool and Charest. MacKay's is similarly stilted; Skippy and O'Fool are no threat to Trudeau; and if Charest busts his way in, the party will split, Saskberta will revolt and Harper will have a coronary. So don't count out the importance of la belle province in deciding this race and the next election.

Two, Ambrose's abysmal record as the antithesis of every ministry she ever held. Motion 312, in which she actually did what Scheer waffled on through the campaign: opened the Pandora's box to PMBs on abortion. This while Minister for the Status of Women. Some feminist eh? Then there's her role as Health Minister. All Trudeau has to do is send Patty Hajdu to the Insite facility again and watch Ambrose's chances evaporate in B.C.

Three, no climate plan. The last candidate to support a carbon tax was Michael Chong and he got booed at the last convention. Can't win a leadership without pandering to the rig pigs and can't win an election doubling down on climate denialism. 66% of Canadians don't give a shit what the yellow pests think about science. If Ambrose, the prom queen of Fort Mac, whores herself out to Ezra's "ethical oil" gambit, all the Pride parades in the world won't save her in a general election. Gay people don't want to die in climate disasters no matter how much Kenney might blame them for raining hellfire upon God's anointed tar sands.

Four, endorsements, dear boy, endorsements. Right out of the gate it became obvious that Kenney and Ambrose "share the same goals." That was the kiss of death when it came to Ford and Scheer, and would be for anyone in league with the incel king of Calgary. Harper handed Trudeau a golden goose by coming out of retirement because he made it that much easier to point out that except for Charest, every single one of these jokers has his "quiet blessing" and a vote for any of them is a vote for Harper. Harper with a wig (Ambrose), Harper with a chopper (MacKay), Harper with greasy hair (Skippy), or Harper with no hair (O'Fool). But go ahead and keep running retreads who the Liberals can keep reminding people are just Harper's minions through and through. Canadians gave his ass the boot in 2015 and will continue doing it again and again and again. For all the talk of pedigrees, the MacKay family legacy is Harper. That sound progressive to you?

If I can see this as a casual observer, you don't think the Liberal war room will be all over this? Go have a wank to your Rona in a bikini poster sponsored by Exxon and play with your G.I. Pete choppers (FYI: Aga Khan BS was Ambrose's concocted scandal as she ratted out Trudeau from a billionaire's yacht). Or continue plugging your ears inured to facts. Conservative logic at its finest!

Jackie Blue said...

Don Martin says Stevo is going to bless Skippy Poutine and Spuds MacKay. No word on Drona other than a previous article where Don's spidey senses told him a run was unlikely. But only her hairdresser knows for sure.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/don-martin-the-lingering-clout-of-stephen-harper-gets-a-leadership-test-1.4770146

Don Martin also says Harper is a more respected global statesman (IDU) than Trudeau. Don Martin says Harper is more welcome than Trudeau in (IDU) "allies" like Israel, India and the United States. Harper may be BFFs with thugs like Modi, Bibi and Trump but if Don Martin thinks Harper is loved in the U.S., let alone more so than Trudeau, then Don Martin must have gone into retirement due to a brain aneurysm. If not, then Don Martin is quite simply an idiot.

Nobody knows or cares about Harper here. Trudeau, we love him. He is our, shall we say, emotional support unicorn because we hate the orange jackass. Were he more of a household name, we would hate Adolf Harper too.

Let the record show that a recent poll by EKOS gave Harper favorite Trump a whopping 14% approval rating in Canada. Minus Conservative voters -- who gave the loathsome Russian asshat a "blessing" of around 40% -- that number drops to a healthy 2%.

Gerald Butts spoke the truth on Twitter: Harper has a series of bad judgment calls. But listening to reason is simply not the Conservative way.

Jackie Blue said...

Oh and another thing, troll. I mentioned the importance of Quebec in my posting below. I'm clearly not the only one who realizes that the pathological revulsion to Quebec that runs through this party's poisoned veins is destined to be a liability no matter who they run. Mr. Yakabuski glosses over Ambrose's language difficulty and blatant hypocrisy on that front, but otherwise the message stands. As Quebec goes, so goes the nation.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-does-jean-charest-need-to-pass-a-conservative-purity-test/

If certain Conservatives are bent on writing off Quebec, they are free to do so. They would, however, condemn their party to near-permanent opposition status and contribute to the very national unity crisis they accuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of creating by pitting the West against the East on the issues of climate change and Alberta’s oil sands.

All the pride parades and fake-progressive lipstick on a pig won't help you if you keep pandering to dinosaur country. But by all means, go ahead and consign yourselves to the status of archaic fossils buried in the dirt. Let the western bastards decay in the dark.

Anonymous said...

Hi Simon, I see you have a troll problem, not just here but on you other platform. I hope that you don't let them bother you, because they aren't worth it. XXX Love Janet

Steve said...

Harper created a reality distortion field of Humpty Dumpty and JT shattered that into a million pieces. You can not put that kind of evil back in one shell easily.

Anonymous said...

This time around Harper sees enough of a threat to his party that he has to quit his day job in order to devote full time to manipulating the outcome. The last time all he had to do was stuff a few ballot boxes and sign up a bus load of pissed off dairy farmers to get one of his disciples elected. The exact details we will never know as the ranked ballots were destroyed immediately afterwards. This time its more of a challenge as the power and expectations of the religious right and tar babies have grown and at the same time the tainted Red Tories in the east want to see more than a Christian model of Iran. Then there is the Quebec vote, let 3 or 4 candidates that are acceptable to the Quebec voters into the mix and the eastern votes might start to accumulate and breach the 50% level in the second or third voting rounds. Best to give them only one choice so that they either don't vote or care who they select as second , third , and fourth choices. Its a mess but all that seems evident so far is that he has to keep Charest out of the mix as most easterners would pick him as 1,2 or 3 on the ballot which would likely get him to the 50% level first also he has to constantly remind Quebec that they cannot vote for anyone that does not speak French which shuts them out of third and fourth round choices leaving the consolidation of numbers to reach the 50% level in the hands of the Harper puppets such as the Tool and Poilievre.

RT

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....It doesn't really matter which of the Con retreads ends up running. They are all mediocre, none of them can handle themselves in a French debate, and the legacy of Harper will hang around their necks like an....um....stinking albatross....

Simon said...

Hi anon @6:27 AM....I said Anbrose was a more decent candidate than the others only to make clear what a rotten selection the Cons have to choose from. For Ambrose is nothing to write home about. She's as dumb as a spoon, can't speak French, helped sink Kyoto, and her record as a Health Minister was so bad she should have been charged with attempted murder.I look forward to helping destroy her if she dares stick her cowboy boot into the rodeo ring, and will be very disappointed if she doesn't...

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....Yes, it's the season of the Con trolls, the dark days of January, and they are going crazy. I had to delete at least a dozen this week. I fear that by February they will be hanging themselves. I guess Trudeau's victory is sinking in, and they just can't stand it....😀

Simon said...

Hi JD....Yes, the poor Con troll seems obsessed with helicopters. He must be an Erin O'Toole supporter, or live near a military base. But yes, as I told Jackie, the trolls are in full meltdown mode, and I for one am enjoying the spectacle...

Steve said...

The Tories seem to have perfected manipulating a ranked ballot election. I axe this as part of any electorl reform. The way to go is a runoff.

Simon said...

Hi JD....I love it when the Cons start fighting themselves, and I'm hoping for a real cannibal feast. But as you point out it really is pathetic to see the party that lives from division now preparing to divide itself. As for Harper not having a preferred candidate, I don't believe that for a moment. I can't see him supporting MacKay after the way he stole the PC party from him, so it has to be the GOP rat Poilievre. Which leaves us with Rona who holds the Guinness record for screwing up more ministries than any other Canadian in living memory..The Con media likes to make Ambrose sound like she can walk on water, or oil, but like all the others she'll go down like the Titanic when the time comes...



Simon said...

Hi Jackie...Thanks for this brilliant comment. I am always amazed that an American knows more about politics in this country than do most Canadians. I agree with e dry thing you wrote, and your description of Ambrose as "Harper with a wig" had me roaring with laughter, as well as giving me some wicked ideas. I am so lucky to have such great commenters like you and the others, who cover for me all the time when I am not at my best, which is quite often these days. Please keep up your brilliant work, it's such a pleasure to read it, and judging from the comments I have to delete, it drive the Cons KRAAAZY.....

Simon said...

Hi Janet....Yes, as I mentioned above, Con trolls are buzzing like flies on road kill. But don't worry they don't bother me at all. I've had to deal with them from the very beginning of my blogging career. And although they sometimes make me shake my head, I actually enjoy reading them them because all that Con pain tells me I'm doing my job. And deleting them is a bonus....XXX

Simon said...

Hi Steve....I was happy to be able to use one of my old Humpty Duff creations, and I hope to make a few new ones starring the Con leadership candidates plummeting to the ground one after the other....

Simon said...

Hi RT....I agree with you. I still think that Harper wants to get away from the Con fund before that mess erupts into an even bigger scandal. But I also think he's worried that the Red Tories might take control of the party he still considers his own. I don't think we will have to worry about Charest because he is being kneecapped by scandals from his past. So as you say, It could very well come down to a choice between Poilievre and O'Toole and that would be the final two nails in the Con coffin....

Jackie Blue said...

So I found yet another article telling the cons to start thinking about Quebec and pick a fluently bilingual leader who moves away from the "Alberta Advantage" and everything wrong with it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-conservative-party-strategy-1.5418732

Pick a spokesperson with impeccable communications skills who is fluent in Canada's two official languages. ... Adopt a distinct Quebec strategy. What will be equally important leading up to the next election is a plan to win votes in the Québécois nation — incidentally, a term used by Stephen Harper in a motion approved by the House of Commons in 2006. It may rattle some in Western Canada, but it's the only clear path the Conservative party has to form the next government.

And so what are they doing but pinning all their hopes on a monolingual petro-shill from Alberta just to attack Trudeau in bad faith on "feminism." This is what happens when your party base is concentrated among functional illiterates who barely speak one language and chase Freeland out of her own hometown for being a "traitor" by speaking French. A province that invented their own "creative" phonetic spelling of coup d'etat.

Perhaps their next election slogan could be "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."