Maxime Bernier: The Nordiques must stand on their own two skatesThough I'm not an admirer of Bernier, this phrasing - which doesn't appear at his own blogpost btw and thus was provided by a NP flunky - smacks of that 1950s vintage joke told about the strapping young Quebecois hockey player who was drafted by Toronto. He spoke no English so one of his new team-mates offered to teach him basic expressions, such as: "Me, I be strong like bull, smart like street-car" that would be useful when reporters spoke to him.
When the Cons got blow-back as a result of their bizarre decision to slash, trash and burn the census long-form questionaire, Bernier was sent out to defend it. It wasn't a stretch for him, since he had expressed a similar view when he was minister for Industry.
But now that Bernier has come out against the funding of arenas for professional (for-profit) organizations and he is advancing substantial arguments, it's likely Stevie's Politburo is deploying damage control to discredit his view and make him appear like a Beauce Goober.
Because it's what Stevie and his bullies do, even to their own ReformaTory team members.
8 comments:
Is it possible their strategy is to give the appearance of a 'wildcard/rebel' image, in an effort to dupe Quebec voters? -
Maybe. Bernier usually parrots the party line but his contrarian stance about the arena is not high-profile, unlike the attention he got when he aggressively defended Harper's decision on the census.
hi deBeauxOs...actually the truth is even stranger.Bernier was a Vice-President of the Montreal Economic Institute, a right-wing/libertarian/small government think tank, so he comes by those views naturally.
As does Tasha Kheiriddin:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/10/tasha-kheiriddin-stephen-harper%E2%80%99s-logic-an-arena-in-every-pot/
Who also worked at the MEI. The fun part is that Bernier is very interested in succeeding Stephen Harper. yes, yes, I know, but trust me it's true.
To that end, if you check out what he has been saying over the last year, you can see that he is bending over backwards to become popular in Western Canada. And this issue is made to measure.
As for the census, Bernier wasn't sent out to defend it,he did as others have reported, because he was the one who put the idea in Harper's head. So he thinks it's BRILLIANT. ;)
Finally, there is nothing Stephen Harper can do to Bernier because he's already demoted him, and the boob is very popular in his riding.
Is it a sign that some in the Con caucus are feeling that Stephen Harper is approaching his due date, and daring to dream about succeeding him?
Probably...
Our conclusions about Bernier are similar; you caught my reference in the post I linked to about his self-projected dauphin assumptions, which some Con and ReformaTory operatives are no doubt encouraging?
"What's with Bob Rae championing for profit hockey arenas? I'm not sure anymore who is more of an asshole? ....."
Annon - recheck that factoid about Rae supporting 'for profit hockey arenas' He just warned Harper that doing it for Quebec City means doing it in the rest of the country.
Not that I am a fan of Rae - but if you are going to dump on him do it for the actual things he says and does (and there are plenty of those).
*Bernier* succeeding Harper??? Oh my gawd!!
The Rae message leaves it open for the Libs to go along with supporting money for the effing domed stadium in Saskatchewan, which Goodale has already given support to. Liberals!
As for Bernier, well, he'd be the mafia candidate for PM, wouldn't he? ;)
National Citizens Coalition/economist Steve wouldn't recognize the ad scam wannabe imploding minority "too skert to call an election" Steve.
The idea that public money funding private stadiums will create economic "growth" has been discredited by every study released over the last decade plus. All you get is the substitution effect. Lots of losers while Steve's corporate overlords win.
This is nothing more than pandering.
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