Harper Doesn't Think Canadians care about Contempt

He is wrong about that. We care deeply

So, Who is the Average Canadian?

For years pundits characterized Stephen Harper as a shrewd, crude and successful  political strategist.

• We all claim we hate his vicious political attack ads but like a train wreck, we all slow down and take a look. As much as we say we don't want that Republican style campaigning here in Canada, they seem to work.
• We gagged on the image of Stephen Harper as the caring cardigan wearing family man sitting in front of the fireplace when it contrasted to much with his cold, calculating agenda but, it got him re-elected.
• We have to admire his ability to turn a motion finding the "Harper Government" in contempt of Parliament into a partisan attempt to destroy his hard work, bringing the country back from an economic meltdown.

All this stuff works. Or does it?

Harper is gambling this election, that Canadians will be as outraged as he claims to be, about the possibility of a coalition government being formed, if he wins another minority. I don't think Canadians are half as dumb as Stephen Harper thinks they are.

When I was a young turk, and on some rant or other, an older but wiser colleague told me "Be careful Gord, you're starting to believe your own propaganda."  I think that is what is happening to Harper right now. It is a deep trap.

• As Stephen Harper goes on and on and on about coalitions as if they were evil personified. He thinks that Canadians forget that  he proposed collaborating with the Bloc to bring down the Liberal Martin Government.
• He forgets that there is television archive footage still available and now on You Tube where he suggests that a coalition of the right is needed to bring down the Liberals.
• He thinks Canadians are too dumb to research enough to discover that almost 70 countries around the world currently have coalition governments, including Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

I have a friend who claims that Canadians are so disengaged from Canadian politics that they can't see the forest for the trees. That they spend their evenings perched in front of their television sets watching Fox news, Housewives of Orange County or Cops and don't give a fiddlers fart about what is happening here in Canada.  He might be right, but I don't think so.

I don't think;

• that Canadians are stupid. 
• Canadians are afraid of coalitions. 
• we are as disengaged as our Prime Minister things we are.

What I do think is that most Canadians;

• believe this election is necessary
• reject the law and order agenda
• are afraid of a Harper majority
• are not comfortable with the Conservative Party's vision for Canada
• are frustrated with Parliament now seems to be working
• want a cooperative and functional House of Commons

Then again I might be falling into another one of those traps. Not unlike Harper, I usually think of myself as the average Canadian. We are both probably wrong on that front.

We'll see in May.

The Dipstick

It is how you check the oil you dork
Leader Post Photo

During Election Campaigns I feel almost compelled to mock public figures. With good reason I think. Election campaigns are not about substance or real policy or what candidates really stand for. It is all about tightly managed messages and photo ops of highly controlled "visits" to local business, universities and peoples houses.

Harper has been spending his days announcing new economic initiatives which are dutifully reported by every newspaper in the country. Everyone seems to miss the fact that if these new "gifts to Canadians" were real he'd have put them into the budget released not two weeks ago. I think Conservative policy wonks think them on the campaign jet as they wing their way back and forth across the country

So, I thought this morning offering in the Regina Leader Post had to be shared. Harper visited a boat sales shop and in an effort to look like he cares, seems quite curious about the marine engine dip stick. I know Harper doesn't drive his own car, the RCMP get him from place to place, and it must have been years since this "ordinary Canadian" checked the oil but in this photo it looks like Laureen Harper is explaining to Stephen what a dipstick is.

Conservative Budgets out this Week

We are right in the middle of budget season. Both the Feds and the Saskatchewan government tabled their budgets this week.

I am quite taken by the fact that the media, particularly the CBC, is spending so much time and energy slicing and dicing the Harper Government's new offering, talking about what kind of impact it will have considering the fact that it hasn't a hope of going forward. The government will fall this week. No question.

If Harper wins another minority or, perish the thought a majority it will present a much different budget, you can depend on it.

What analysis I have heard sees the Federal offering as a kind of stay the course budget anyway. Pretty dull stuff. Not much to run on which will capture the hearts of Canadians except for a $75.00 rebate if you send your kids to music lessons. Pretty thin, I'd say.

I am always amazed at how the pundits continue to ignore the growing infrastructure crisis in Canada while praising corporate tax cuts.  It is a simple math economists don't seem to get. Pay less and promise more, Conservative economic policies don't work.

Here in Saskatchewan it is pretty much the same. The Saskatchewan party got elected at precisely the right time and the province is said to be booming so, these guys had a pretty good four years. Frankly I think it would have taken an idiot to fail in this economic climate. Brad has a few of those and still managed to come out smelling like a rose.

There really isn't too much worth commenting on but, I did like the following quote in the Leader Post obviously taken word for word from the press release "The provincial Budget released on Wednesday stated it will give beer off-sales retailers an extra $5.1 million to help remain strong contributors to the community"


I can't figure out how that works but it will certainly keep their small business supporters happy.

The Minister of Weasel Words

We could hardly call Bev Oda forthcoming. With steps that would Ginger Rogers envious we have watched Oda danced around the issue for weeks now. In fact. it took the Minister of International Cooperation, 14 weeks to finally tell a Commons committee who altered the infamous memo denying $7-million of funding to human rights group Kairos. The New Democrts call her The Minister of Weasel words" and subjected her to some very tough grilling about the whole matter.

It looked like her actions might bring the government down but "tough on crime" beat her to it. The Parliamentary Committee looking into the the lack of transparency around that issue has found the Government in contempt of Parliament earlier today. 

Unless the big talkers chicken out again, we just may be on our way to the polls by the end of the week.
If you are following the Oda story though, the Hill Times takes a good look at the "not" scandal in this week's edition.