Fortress West

So I won't sugar-coat it. The great Trojan Horse has finally made it past the gate, it has lumbered in and been celebrated and garlanded, and it is ready to unload its malicious oily cargo as its own cheerleaders retire for the night sated and inebriated. It's a credit to Canada that it took so many years of effort to roll it up that hill, despite all of the wealth and power propelling it.

But roll in it did.

Unfortunately, this moment was rather difficult to avoid. Stephen Harper and Co. had a near total lock on a huge block of seats the western parts of Canada. With that huge and consistent starting advantage, all they needed to do was keep trying to pick the lock of Canadian democracy; it was inevitable that with enough tries, the tumblers would all fall into place to give them a majority.

And there's the rub, the elephant in the room: the lock that the Cons/Reform has held on the West for what is now quite a long time, thwarted only by vote-splitting and an Ontario voting pattern that no longer exists. That was the problem with the strategic voting approach, leaving aside the issue of the unreliability of the Liberal Party leadership: for every voting strategy to keep them out of 155 ridings, there was always a feasible Reformatory counter-strategy to gain the MUCH smaller number of seats required for a majority government. Put that way, it's a miracle that it has taken so long. Canada as a whole has said DO NOT WANT repeatedly for a long time...until now.

So the real, lasting solution to the problem is obviously to break the lock that Reform has had on a large number of Western seats. But (obviously) that's easier said that done, because of the way that the underlying Great Animus that supports the Reform lock has been constructed. It was built from the remnant of a legitimate historical set of grievances against a certain elite in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal axis. Now in this world of interconnected finances, this elite is now entirely and intimately connected with the resource-extracting class of the West, and with that connection has been able to co-opt the grudge and turn this Great Animus against a strange holographic image of an "elite" that the hapless Liberal party has been all too eager to supply in recent times.

This was wonderful for the oil-and-finance elite that has been lately riding this Animus: every time the Reform/Cons movement was prevented from reaching maximum victory, it was easy to turn it into a rejection by the hologram-"elite" of the West Itself. This has fed back again and again into the Animus and the rest is history.

I just promised optimism, so here it is: with a Conservative majority government, progressives and the left-wing of Canada have an opportunity to deflate and redirect this Great Animus if they have any organization or wit to seize it. "Western Alienation" was manufactured from a substrate of real and justified feeling; it has manifested itself in a different way, but it has the same character and root as sovereigntist feeling in Quebec. And if the NDP can make progressive inroads into Quebec when it became clear that the BQ was no longer serving the regional interest it claimed to serve, so it should be if anything easier to seize the moment when it becomes clear that the Trojan Horse of Stephen Harper really doesn't solve the problems of the ordinary people of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and so on. That control over the energy-extraction wealth is illusory and is not going to make better lives for the public in those provinces.

That the full-throated majority rule of the warmed-over Reform movement is not at all what it was cracked up to be.

In the end, this will require not snooty counter-regionalism and not a polite wish for "reasoned debate", but for an unbridled and blunt populist truth-telling that the NDP can provide far more credibly than the recent Liberal Party can, or perhaps ever could. Now is the time to shove every victim of the Enormous Pit of Toxic Waste and every misappropriated dollar in the face of a public who might think that this is being done for their own good: it isn't. Now is the time to start saying, sarcastically, "Tell me: is this what you really wanted? Do you understand what is happening now?"

Because if the answer is "yes", well, then, at least we'll know the answer.

Memories of Past Prime Ministers.

All this loose talk about security detail and *boy in the bubble* makes me ∧NOT∧ nostalgic for those days when Canadian prime ministers weren't afraid to get up close and personal. First, Liberal PM Jean Chrétien demonstrating his notorious *Shawinigan Handshake*.

And then, Contempt Party leader Stevie Pervie Peevie showing off his very own Grouse Mountain Grope during the 2010 Owe-lympics.

Eeeeeww! Yeah I know. Brain bleach time.

Blame @SusanFelicity who provided me with the above, via her tweet with fellow Twitter folks whilst discussing how to vote strategically - and progressively - in the current elections.

Another Day, Another Desperate Spin

So, the Liberals have found some spare vertebrae and have a draft bill to reinstate the mandatory long-form census. John McCallum, point-man on this, said: 'A voluntary survey will skew the picture of what Canada really looks like as lower income minority Canadians will be less likely to fill it out,' which is pretty much what everybody who knows anything about this stuff has been saying.

When I read what Dimitri Soudas said, I actually laughed out loud.

Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, was taken aback by Mr. McCallum’s statement about minority groups and low-income Canadians.

“It is blatantly outrageous that this (Michael) Ignatieff spokesman asserts that minorities and the poor should be threatened with financial fines and jail time in order to fill out the long form census,” said Mr. Soudas.

The Liberals “constantly look down on working class people and think they aren't as civic minded as liberal elites,” he said. “We believe that freedom is an essential Canadian value, and we don't think that it is right to try to frighten or intimidate people into surrendering huge amounts of private information to the government.”

After yesterday's (was it only yesterday?) 'The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!' laff-riot triumph of Cold War rhetoric, methinks the wheels on the ReformaTory bus are wobbling a bit.

Finally.

I fervently hope.

3 points about this putative Lib/NDP merger.

1. It's an awfully messy and convoluted way for the Libs to dump Iggy, doncha think? I thought their backroom boys kept a stash of well-sharpened knives for any and all occasions.

2. Math deficiency meets magical thinking. What strategist in his or her right mind would assume that the outcome of a Lib/NDP mashup would equal the sum of their polling numbers? NDP's 17.4 + Lib's 26.2 = 43.6 .... who's been smoking crystal meth?

3. "Secret" talks are usually kept in the backrooms. There's a whole lot of yapping going on; loose lips sink ships. The usual suspects may be deliberately trying to scuttle Iggy's leadership but the potential for this bad science project to blow up whatever is left of the LPC should be an urgent concern for any rational thinker who hasn't deserted. As for the NDP - does anyone there with two brain cells to rub together think this will enhance their credibility with voters? Are they simply so thrilled they're being courted by The Big Boys that they've taken MASSIVE leave of any good sense they may have once had?

The Grudge.

In today's blogpost from C. C. - Canadian Cynic: Thanks, but I've found someone new - there's a confirmation that Stevie Spiteful will dump Michaëlle Jean.

From here:

She kept Harper dangling for a couple of hours in December 2008 before acceding to his request to prorogue a Parliament that had lost confidence in him rather than granting his rivals a shot at governing through a coalition. It was a turning point for Harper, who, sources say, thought his request should have been "a routine matter."

Key words in that article speak to Stevie Spiteful's MASSIVE ability to hold a grudge. Plus she appears to be more popular than he is.

Many progressives are very angry with her because she allowed putative King Stevie's second 'request' for prorogation. But I think that, in the absence of viable arguments from the Opposition in Parliament making a case for a refusal, she had to accede to his demand.

So, wouldn't it be deliciously ironic if the Liberal Party of Canada dumped Iggy and recruited Michaëlle for their next leader?

Just saying.

More 'Pro-Life' Delusion

I don't like Iggy. I don't like most Liberals in fact, but Iggy really gives me the pip.

That said, according to LifeShite, Iggy gave the finger to fetus fetishists.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has issued a blunt response to Canadians who emailed him in the lead-up to the 40th anniversary of legalized abortion in Canada, concerning Canada's abortion laws.

In a response sent to several individuals who contacted him for comment on his party's stand on abortion, Ignatieff stated: "It is the longstanding view of the Liberal Party of Canada that women must have the right to choose, and this party will take no step that limits, or opens the door to limiting, access to safe medical services for women across Canada."

Good.

But the so-called pro-life delusion continues. Fr. Alponse de Valk, editor of Catholic Insight said:

"I will not now comment on the 'right to choose' and 'safe medical services,' after three-and-a-half million babies have been slaughtered and tens of thousands of women suffered from the after-effects," Fr. de Valk said, referring to the terminology used by the party leader in his response. "It seems to me that Ignatieff has just written the death notice of the Liberal party."

Do these zygote zealots have their heads up their butts or what? As my co-blogger and sister feminazi, deBeauxOs, said the other day: 'When even David Frum recoils from the insanity, you have to wonder.'