#Elxn41, as the current Canadian federal election has been hashtagged by Twitter folks, is shaping up to be a most unusual campaign.
The election was triggered by a non-confidence vote against the Harper minority government, as a result of the Con leader and his caucus members' documented actions found in contempt of Parliament.
The parties that formed the Opposition as well as others are campaigning hard to ensure that their candidates are elected. As for the Contempt Party, held currently tightly in rein by one Stephen "Richard Nixon" Harper, its proclaimed goal is to provide said leader with the majority he demands.
In principle and practice, the Contempt Party has been running a re-election campaign since 2008. Using government and parliamentary resources, Harper's acolytes and sycophants have been disseminating carefully crafted propaganda in the guise of information about programs.
The non-confidence vote in the House of Commons took the Contempt Party by surprise: millions and millions of dollars more of government (our) money was scheduled to be spent in March and April, promoting the Harper Regime's largesse.
So now the Contemptuous have shifted gears; 'fear and loathing' tactics are MASSIVELY deployed for purpose of terrorizing the electorate and fundraising for the Cons - whence the necessity to keep riff-raff out of events that feature Contempt leader Harper and to provide access only to party members prepared to hand over their money and/or drink the Kool-aid.
"In the first week of 2011's Retard Cage Match of the Doomed, we haven't seen Blue Sweater Steve. Not once. Instead, we've seen a ton of ads showing him in alone in his office, sort of like Richard Nixon. And that's fine. People at the time rather liked Nixon as president.
The problem is that Harper is acting like Nixon on the stump. He's pissed off all the time and making damned sure that we know that he'd rather be anywhere else. [...] Don't get me wrong, Blue Sweater Steve annoys me endlessly, but I understand why it works. Running as a resentful prick, on the other hand, is an interesting tactic and one that just might not work out for him. It's just a feeling I have."
Modified CEA!P illustration from Alison at Creekside.
6 comments:
You have a lot more faith in the few voters left in Canada than I have.
After a few years of a Harper majority, when the Canada Health Act has been quietly re-written to take the feds off the hook for health transfer payments leaving the provinces on their own, when women can still terminate an unwanted pregnancy but only after receiving the permission of the sperm donor, when corporations and the wealthy pay so little tax that the funding of the country is entirely on the backs of the middle class, when the debt and deficit are treble what they are now and the chance of national program funding is precisely nil, when huge tracts of the north and rural areas of the country have no media coverage at all because the CBC is no more and private broadcasters have convinced the government that covering those areas is neither in their mandate nor profitable, then and only then will an even crazier political alternative emerge and be swept into office on a tidal wave of change.
The Beaver Party will borrow their entire raison d'etre and constitution from the US Tea Party.
I think we all have to begin facing a deeply depressing thought.
Canada, as we have come to know it, is well on the way to being an historical artifact.
The emergent Canada is a conservative, passive-aggressive nation with very little political involvement and a completely captured news media.
Sorry just Harper running for his political life here. the CPC are way up in the polls and unless something drastic happens the Harper is heading for a majority.
Dana and Zorpheous: I refuse to believe a Harpo majority is inevitable. I'm doing every damn thing I can to prevent it. As are thousands and thousands of people.
I hope your pessimism won't stop you from joining the fight, or from at least voting against the Contempt Party.
har har har. harper derangement syndrome.
at this moment the tories are at 42% in the polls and trending up. that's well into majority territory.
in other words, the grits are gong to get slaughtered on may 2.
what on earth are u going to on may 3?
PS... and the contempt finding has as much validity now as Joseph Stalin's show trials did in the 1950s. it's hardly contempt when the verdict has been decided in advance.
Backseat Blogger: So, we should just stop the process now and crown King Stevie?
I remember watching a game of some sort and the underdogs were getting blown out. The telly commentators got bored and started talking about other stuff.
But then there was another goal (or run, or TD, or whatever). Then another, another, you get the picture.
In the end, the underdogs won.
One commenter said wrily to the other: 'You know, Biff, I guess that's why they have to play the game.'
Enjoy yourself now, BB. It may not last.
Backseat Blogger said...
har har har. harper derangement syndrome.[...]
PS... and the contempt finding has as much validity now as Joseph Stalin's show trials did in the 1950s. it's hardly contempt when the verdict has been decided in advance.
Backseat, Why do you keep using that term to justify your willful worship of Harper?
As for the contempt finding, you guys do the crime, you should do the time (out of Parliament). It appears Con jobs believe the party line: "We didn't do NOThing wrong!"
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