With every passing day what the mad prince of Saudi Arabia had happen to Jamal Khashoggi becomes more depraved and more gruesome.
Leaving a horrified world to wonder what Khashoggi had done to have his fingers severed, his head sawn off, and his body cut into little pieces.
And in my opinion the answer can be found buried in the last article he ever wrote.
He tried to hold off as long as he could. He didn't want to say anything bad about Maxime Bernier, and have his supporters come after him.
Or cause a big fuss at the Con convention which is now less than two weeks away.
But in the end Andrew Scheer was forced to do something, or say something, anything, about Bernier's deranged assault on diversity.
So he flogged him with a wet noodle
For how else can you describe this flaccid statement?
Where Bernier is NOT condemned for his ongoing racist assault on diversity, immigrants, and the values that have made this country great.
And Scheer thinks he can get away with this:
“Personally, I disagree with politicians on the left and the right when they use identity politics to divide Canadians. I will not engage in this type of politics.”
Which couldn't be more outrageous or more hypocritical.
When Scheer is a religious fanatic and alt-right sympathizer who has been using identity politics and naked racism to try to scare people into voting for him and his Cons...
And for that attack ad alone should have been asked to resign in the name of human decency.
As should Bernier, for as Dale Smith points out, both him and Scheer are basically blowing the same dog whistle.
The fact that Scheer didn’t actually condemn Bernier’s statement, and the fact that he immediately engaged in both-sidesism to condemn identity politics “on the left and the right” seems to fit with the fact that this particular kind of shitposting by members of his party is not only tolerated, but is the modus operandi of their current communications strategy.
The fact that Scheer is using the same language about identity politics that Bernier is using certainly makes it sound like he’s more than just winking to them about the kind of dog-whistling that they’re engaging in.
But then Scheer learned everything at the feet of Stephen Harper, and Bernier is only following in his old master's footsteps...
Regurgitating Harper's infamous old stock campaign.
While seeming to forget that in a country with so many immigrants, that grubby campaign triggered an explosion of bigotry.
Which contributed massively to the defeat of the Harper regime.
And oh yes, I almost forgot. You know that "migrant crisis" that Michelle Rempel has been screaming about for months...
Well it turns out it's NOT a crisis.
Despite the increase in the number of border crossers last month, the Liberal government appears to have brought the situation under control. The Conservatives are wrong: There is no crisis.
The Cons lied about that one too.
Oh boy, you know a few years ago Justin Trudeau delivered a speech at McGill University called Canadian Liberty and the Politics of Fear.
It's a remarkable speech, and you can read it or watch it here.
But here's a short clip.
And I think it's obvious what vision of Canada needs to prevail if this big but still relatively young country is going to survive.
The Cons have shown their true colours.
Their masks have fallen off.
Now it's up to us to defeat them, and make this country clean again...
When it looked like Doug Ford was heading for a crushing majority, him and Andrew Scheer were the best of buddies.
And Scheer even made plans to hit the campaign trail with him.
But what a difference a few weeks can make.
Now when the wounded Ford needs him the most, Scheer has suddenly changed his mind.
