Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Pierre Poilievre and the Curse of Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper has been lurking in the shadows of the ghastly Con leadership race from the moment it began.

He let his flunkeys know that they should do everything they could to support Pierre Poilievre, to prevent Jean Charest from becoming Con leader.

But he never dared show his face.

Until things showed signs of going  terribly wrong.

Poilievre's popularity started to tank, Charest's popularity surged.

And a panicky Harper came crawling out of the shadows to make his choice official.

It's a spooky video that reminds me of a ghostly white Dracula risen from the dead.

Or the Kiss of the SpiderCon...

But far from giving Poilievre a boost, I believe that endorsement will have the opposite effect. 

For while it will probably ensure that Poilievre wins the Con leadership race, I believe it will seal his fate in the general election.

In their desperate search for a saviour, the Cons seem to have forgotten how much many Canadians still hate Harper.

They forget how much damage he did when he was Prime Minister, and how far he has fallen since Justin Trudeau booted him out of office.

So much so that in his role as chairman of the far right IDU, he now cheers for people like the Nazi Victor Orban


Hungary’s far-right prime minister, has lashed out against the “mixing” of European and non-European races,in a speech that immediately drew outrage from opposition parties and European politicians.

“We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”.

And when you add that kind of baggage, to the fascist baggage Poilievre is now carrying...

And you add Harper to the list of Poilievre's other equally ugly supporters...

It gives new meaning to the old saying: With friends like that who needs enemies?

And so much for those gatekeepers...

You know, Poilievre was almost certainly going to lose the next general election.

But with Stephen Harper on his side he doesn't stand a chance.

And the wonderful irony is that the man who created the monster Cons.

Will be the one who finally destroys them....

23 comments:

Pierre D. said...

I'm really starting to think the Conservatives are just addicted to being the Opposition; it gives them free rein to be noisy contrarians and meme shitposters without any need to formulate policy or ideas. Who knows what will happen in the next election, but if Poilievre is leader, I'm thinking another LPC minoritty, but I'd prefer a majority.

A Liberal majority would surely put the dagger not only into Poilievre, but Harper's dreams of resurgence and, finally, the CPC as a whole.
And I, for one, hope to be around to see it happen.

Anonymous said...

Politics always was a combination of emotion and tradition with a smattering of logic based on stated political objectives and past performance. Somewhere around the turn of the century the populist Cons decided platform policy was irrelevant and changed the political model to a sports team environment complete with groupies and “troll brigades” where all that mattered were emotion and tradition bound up in the desire and emotional rush of WINNING. The more they can convince everyone to forget about issues such as climate change, health care, human rights, etc and join a team (any team) the closer they are to victory as they have laid claim to the rather large Canadian franchise composed of males who identify as Anglo Saxon supported by a pseudo Christian farm team to enlist as many women and minority groups as they can. The Anglo-church supported structure dates back well over 100 years and was very successful before women and minority groups had the right to vote.
Thankfully team Anglo Saxon is not a cohesive as it was 100 -200 years ago. Regular churches are no longer overtly supportive, not all Caucasians relate to the Anglo part of the description as descendants of the less privileged remember the atrocities their ancestors were subjected to. Add to that the support of a diverse group of Canadians concerned about real issues instead of Rah! Rah! Go! Team CPC Go! Branding politics to the point where all issues are filtered to suit team think is a hard sell but that is all PP and big daddy Harper have got. They cannot acknowledge climate change is anything other than a hoax or that inflation is anything more than a Liberal quirk easily fixed by firing the elite gatekeepers or buying bitcoin. Because as soon as they did people might start thinking about issues rather than the thrill and status of being on team CPC yearning to smash team Trudeau and turn the clock back 100 years. Based on troll comments it is evident their supporters are so into team CPC they cannot believe that a majority of people still at least attempt to decide issues first and then support the party (or parties ) with a platform and credible plan that best addresses them.

RT

Jackie Blue said...

Orbán is a seriously scary POS, and I was surprised and disappointed to find Dale Smith of all people dismissing what and who the IDU are, or Harper's central role in the organization. I really like Dale, but I think he's incredibly naive. Orbán is the headlining keynote speaker at one of the most prominent U.S. right-wing conventions, the "Conservative Political Action Conference" (it shares the initials of your public affairs channel that is comparable to our C-Span). Shades of the Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9yst4W-6c

If, and it's a big IF, Trump is not the GOP nominee going into 2024 (Garland seems to be finally making some moves; whether it's too late remains to be seen), it will likely be "Florida Man" Ron DeSantis, who considers Orbán to be a political inspiration for his "family values" fiefdom that he hopes to extend nationally and fulfill his delusions of grandeur. And he will likely become our next POTUS if the Democrats don't get their shit together.

Everything about Skippy just screams a perpetually prepubescent version of our very own Florida Man. We're doing everything we can to keep Florida Man out of the White House, so Canada, please keep your own little prick out of the PMO because it would be a nightmarish '80s flashback on par with Stranger Things. Instead of Muldoon and Raygun getting drunk on St Paddy's Day to croon "Irish Eyes Are Smiling," it'd be DeSantis and Poilievre teaming up to warble a medley of the "Horst Wessel Lied" and "Tomorrow Belongs to Me."

Tucker Carlson traveled to Budapest for an exclusive sit-down interview with the vile despot. Harper and several other CPC MPs have made appearances on Fox News, where PMJT is a frequent target of derision and the kind of conspiracy theories that "fueled" the Covidiot Convoy. And yet no one in Canada's fourth estate seems concerned that this vulgar totalitarian and raging anti-Semite is such a prominent personality in an organization chaired by Canada's very own Gingrich-clone ex-PM? I'm sorry but something is seriously wrong here. You know the old saying about judging a man by the company he keeps. Wake up and smell the Reagan/Thatcher manifest destiny on steroids. The dementia-laden Gipper was a mere figurehead of his own administration. This real-life version of SPECTRE is really the brainchild of Pappy Bush, onetime chief spook at the CIA.

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/27/us/by-any-other-name-conservative.html

Flash forward to the present day, and we find that the Orbánization of North American conservatism continues apace, or what should more properly be called fascism. PP, the little shitstain of a Plymouth Brethren antichrist scion, makes all kinds of thinly-disguised anti-Semitic conspiracy noise about banning MPs from the World Economic Forum, yet says not a word about daddy Harper's IDU. One can say what they will about Justin Trudeau, his socks, his hairdo, etc. but the fact remains he is the only bulwark against Harperite/Orbánite fascism in Canada. Under the IDU umbrella, everybody's got a Hungary heart.

Pierre D. said...

@Jackie Blue

WIth that razor wit are you sure you don't have Trudeau blood?
This stuff is know. National Observer has been talking about it and under Bush Jr. they founded the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) a war-footing org that wanted to invade the Middle East over and over. It was created by Kristol/Fukuyama et al. with a goal to take Iraq then Iran then other regions to get a global monopoly of oil reserves.

Thnakfully our erstwhile scribe Michael Harris (who know writes for the Hill TImes) caught wind of this and started talking about it. He got fired from local station CFRA for doing so though, and for defending Palestinians. You can't really challenge the status quo in MSM and not pay for it with your career.

The next three years should be interesting. The inflation rate will recede, the GDP will contract and then what? The NDP will want something for its support, the question is...will be $1,000 in loonies in every pot or something much larger?

Simon said...

Hi Pierre....I don't know what makes the Conservatives the ugly monsters they are. My guess is that they are now more of a cult than a political party. Their Great Leader discouraged any independent thought, and they eventually learned to move together like a school of fish. It's truly pathetic the was they keep on returning to the small fake scandals of the past, and are never able to look ahead or offer any new policies Canadians might like. But that's OK, because with that kind of approach in a three-year campaign, I can easily see Trudeau winning another majority, or heading a minority government with the Cons as the third party. Either result would destroy the hapless Poilievre and what's left of bis party...

Simon said...
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Simon said...

Hi RT... I don't disagree with your analysis, I would just put more of the blame on the Republicans who set out to corrupt their political system only to end up corrupting ours as well. I vividly remember the day the Harperites ran their first ugly American-style attack ad, which made it only too clear to me that politics in this country would never be the same again. And boy was I right, for the situation has only got worse over the last twenty years. As you point out, all they have now is simplistic solutions, and slogans repeated over and over again ad nauseam. And this at a time when we live in a complex world, where new and imaginative solutions are desperately needed. One bright spot though, the American religious right may be trying to overthrow our government, and our Canadians values. But unlike the situation in the U.S., most of our religious institutions are refusing to go along with that hateful nonsense, and doing their part to keep this country alive. For which I am eternally grateful....

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....I like Dale Smith a lot, I think he's the best reporter in the Press Gallery. But I think that he is sometimes too focused on what happens in Parliament and doesn't see the forest for the trees. For the IDU is a creepy far right organization, and Orban is a brutish Nazi, and a threat to Europe and the rest of us. But as you point out, and I have often lamented, some in this country seem to have a blind spot for the growing threat of right-wing extremism, and in particular the threat of the religious right. They just can't believe it could happen here. But they will go about Justin Trudeau, even though he is the rabid right's number one target, and our only hope of keeping fascists like Poilievre at bay. In Britain the two challengers to take over from the drunken sod Boris Johnson are both Thatcher worshippers, despite the damage she did to working class people in the north of England and Scotland. So the next five years will determine the fate of the world...

Pierre D. said...

Ironically enough, it is a pollster and not a media type that has been hammering about right-wing extremism for the past forever.
Frank Graves of EKOS has been warning about Poilievre, Orban, Trump and saying it's here and we need to be aware of it. His polling constantly shows there's a good 20-25% of the Canadian population that would welcome "Ordered authoritarianism" and that Poilievre is the flag-carrier for that movement.
Which, again, just tells us that we need to get out en masse in 2025 or whenever to keep him out of power.

Steve said...

Harper made me ashamed to be Canadian

Anonymous said...

And for many Justin did the same. It’s become a sport to bad mouth him overseas.

Anonymous said...

It's no surprise that Canada's shame, Stephen Harper would be fully supporting his fecal spawn, PP. It's enough to make someone who's just puked, want to puke again. The last image says it all in how the PP became what he is today except in actuality, the target is a little more to the right.
JD

Simon said...

Hi Pierre...Frank Graves has done an excellent job of warning us about the authoritarian tendencies of many Canadians. I still find it hard to believe that such a great country could be corrupted by ugly fascists, but there can no longer be any doubt, the shadow of fascism is falling over us. I'm still confident however, that we will able to use that shadow to clean up our politics and banish the Cons from power for at least a generation. They've just made the worst mistake they could make, and we are going to make them pay for it...

Simon said...

Hi Steve....Stephen harper did make me ashamed to be a Canadians. My friends in Europe never let me forget what a fascist nerd we had as a Prime Minister. So I can only imagine how they would treat me if Poilievre ever became our little Fuhrer, and it makes me even more determined to help defeat him. As for Justin Trudeau, wherever I go in England or Scotland, all I ever hear is good things about him. And for what he has done to restore the reputation of this country overseas, I will always be grateful...

Simon said...

Hi JD….Nice to hear from you again, I hope you are having a great summer. And yes, I knew how you would react to the return of Stephen Harper, for I feel exactly the same way. 😉 It was a horrible spectacle, and I’m still trying to figure out who he damaged the most, him or Poilievre. The least Harper can do is stay in his crypt and never bother us again….

Steve said...

Today on 640 AM I heard the former very suspect personage of Peter Kent, eviserate Perie Penis. I dont know what it means, I have zero respect of for Peter Kent.

Simon said...

Hi Steve...I lost any respect I ever had for Peter Kent when he helped stick a knife into the Kyoto Accord years ago. But he is now supporting Jean Charest's campaign, and any enemy of Poilievre is a friend of mine, at least until he is defeated...

Anonymous said...

Hi Simon, thanks for asking and hope yours is going well too. My summer is at its busiest right now but thanks to a great staff, they've made life so much easier for me. I am truly blessed in that regard and it makes the occasional encounter with an asshole seem so trivial now. Just like PP and his sugar daddy Harper, they aren't worth the time of day.
JD

Simon said...

Hi JD….I’m glad you are enjoying your summer. There’s nothing better that having good people working for you, and doing all the hard work. 😉 I enjoy lying in my hammock and ordering Seb around. Hurry up, I’m overheating, bring me another lemonade!!! Seriously though, we both need to be perfectly relaxed so that in September, when Poilievre becomes Con leader, we can bury that loser long before the next election….

Anonymous said...

"But he is now supporting Jean Charest's campaign, and any enemy of Poilievre is a friend of mine, at least until he is defeated..."

Meaning that if PP is defeated then the Liberal troll brigade will be discrediting the winner 30 seconds later.

Anonymous said...
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Simon said...

Hi anon@4:28PM….Two points (1) should Poilievre be defeated I will be attacking Charest FIVE seconds not thirty seconds later. And (2) You Cons are the trolls not us….

Tony Lang said...

"The stars are veiled. Something stirs in the East. A sleepless malice. The eye of the enemy is moving. He is HERE."

I think the evil Lord Sauron in the Lord of the Rings is an apt metaphor for Harper: an evil force attempting return to physical form to reassert his tyranny over all Middle Earth and destroy all that is good.