The Con leadership race was always going to be a sleazy affair. With two old Harperite hacks, and two social conservatives vying to be leader what else could it be?
Especially since the two Harperites have been shamefully pandering to the two religious fanatics who will almost certainly determine the winner.
But even by the low standards of the Ugly American party, this couldn't be more disturbing.
For now Erin O'Toole is accusing Peter MacKay's campaign of criminality.
Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole has accused his rival Peter MacKay’s campaign of stealing confidential data from the O’Toole campaign, and is calling for a police investigation into the allegations.
Only to have the plot become even more farcical.
The 19-year-old former intern at the centre of a political tempest that is now the subject of police investigations says he never "hacked" into Conservative leadership candidate Erin O'Toole's video conferencing account. The young man, who worked in a Calgary MP's office, says a member of O'Toole's team simply gave him the password.
And now it's such a mess that some Con strategists are worried that the party brand could be damaged.
"A sleepy leadership [race] has gotten bizarre and gone possibly to a precarious place for the Conservative Party," said Conservative strategist and pundit Tim Powers.
"There are no long-term winners when the apparent second-place candidate in the race calls the cops on the first-place candidate's team. The only one with a smile is Justin Trudeau."
And of course Powers is right, except for two things:
One, Andrew Scheer and his religious fanatics have already damaged the Con brand beyond recognition.
And two, Justin Trudeau is already smiling...Another foreign affairs failure for Justin Trudeau. Keeps the streak alive!— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) June 17, 2020
He sold out Canada's principles for a personal vanity project and still lost.
What a waste.
For these new Abacus numbers really are something.
The Cons are still going nowhere, the hapless Jagmeet Singh is driving the NDP in the wrong direction.
And to make matters even better for the Liberals, they now enjoy the support of Canadians of all ages:
Which I can't ever remember happening before, and as Éric Grenier points out, has Trudeau sitting pretty in majority territory.
The Liberals are enjoying support they have not seen since their post-2015 election honeymoon and would very likely secure another majority government if an election were held today, according to the latest projections from the CBC's newly re-launched Poll Tracker.
Even if he can't call an election right away.
The problem for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is that the global pandemic that has helped boost his party's support is also one of the things preventing him from sending the country back to the polls in order to regain the majority he lost in the 2019 federal election.
Which again doesn't really matter.
Not when the Cons are self destructing, and neither of these two losers will be any match for Justin Trudeau...
And all I can say is, it has taken a long time.
But it turns out that decency does count for something.
And the man the dirty old Cons tried so hard to destroy, will be the one who finally destroys them...
Also worth a read is this National Observer piece on Harper's malign influence destroying his Frankenstein monster from within.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/06/25/analysis/how-stephen-harper-destroying-conservative-party
Potato Pete is supposedly the "moderate" in this race of Elmer Fudd vs. Spud the Dud. Give me a break. I checked his timeline and it's indistinguishable from weak Andy's for the past three years. Nothing but old fake nontroversies and ad hominem bile directed at Trudeau. Same negative ad copy and juvenile clip art memes with VERY BIG FONT. I guess the Cons' environmental plan amounts to recycling the same script they've relied on since 2015? Besides denouncing the carbon tax as communism, but of course that goes without saying.
I think Trudeau should call an election for February 2 of next year, because the Cons really are the Groundhog Day party, and I say that with apologies to Bill Murray. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.
Just a note to say, Simon, peace and love to you. You've been invaluable to me. And Jackie, your interest in, and knowledge of, Canadian politics is astounding and much appreciated. It reminds me of a Hamilton Tiger Cats game I attended last year where I met a guy in the seat beside me from Cleveland, no Canuck history or attachments, who was travelling across Canada to all CFL stadiums and knew more about CFL history than the curators of the CFL Hall of Fame. If I'd sat down beside a traveller from Pluto I'd have been less surprised:)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, both of you!!
Hi Jackie....Thanks for the link to that National Observer story. Even though I was familiar with a lot of the stuff in it, it was a good review of what happened after The Fall. And this quote was priceless:
ReplyDelete“The problem is that Conservatives are living Blackberry lives in an iPhone world,” says Clinton Desveaux, a prominent Tory activist in Nova Scotia who worked with Harper on political campaigns. “Stephen Harper is responsible for the Blackberry culture in an iPhone world. And that is the dilemma the Conservative Party is facing today.”
As for an election date, Dale Smith has suggested that some of Trudeau's recent outings are starting to resemble campaign events, so I'm hoping for a REALLY early election. :)
Hi Brian....Thank you for your sweet comment. And I agree, Jackie is a real treasure. I long ago realized that her knowledge of Canadian history and politics far exceeds mine. And although I am humbled, I am incredibly grateful for her contributions to this blog. And I'm sure all my readers are too...
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