It seems to me that every day since Stephane Dion became the Liberal leader, the media has asked the question, 'Are we going to have an election?' or 'When are we going to have an election?'.It shows an incredible lack of intellect, imo, not to be addressing the real issues that are affecting this government, parliament and the country. Harper has been on a campaign since Dion won and due to ridiculous manuevering, proroguing etc., hasn't even passed much of what they campaigned on during the last election. It's ridiculous really. This country has been on hold frankly since Harper came to office and the media seem just fine with that. They seem more interested in the soap opera aspects of what goes on in Ottawa than what is of importance.
My honest guess is that Canadians have not followed all the nonsense that we who watch see, but at the same time, nor have not been served by the paucity of real information that media provides. There are examples of course of media who do speak to real issues.
Susan Delacourt not that long ago on Politics had the courage to say that Harper's government doesn't tell the truth. That was a true and powerful statement that few have had the honesty or temerity to say. When you look at Harper's record, his platform, in spite of the Con's telling us a fairy story, he and his team have been lying about accomplishments and lying about the opposition.
So, here we are. CTV, that terrible left leaning, (cough), media, is telling us once again that Harper is manufacturing his governments fall. Anyone with 2 brain cells knows that has been going for some time and indeed perhaps because of reports that Dion is putting pressure on the Party to pull the plug, it may happen.
I'm still of the mind that keeping Harper on the hot seat reveals his weaknesses but if it's not being reported properly, perhaps the time has come to have Liberals appear in prime time, uninterrupted, to get some truth out. Elections tend to do that. Con's, Harper and all the press obviously on the right express distortions of the man and perhaps it is time to present the real deal. It is becoming tiring to be honest.
That said, the more vindictive part of me would love to see the Con's spend ton's of money to gear up for an election, only to have Dion not capitulate.
What say you?
7 comments:
Let Harper stew. He'll explode and make more mistakes.
Plus we have Adscam, the Mulroney scandal and a few other things brewing that would further hurt Harper's image.
Winning 3 or 4 of the by-elections would also deprive Layton and Harper of their coordinated "Dion's not a leader" BS.
Besides, it would be clever if Dion were pretend that he was going to oppose the budget, only to reverse course and support it. He could say that while the budget is not a Liberal budget, he respects Canadians desire not to go to the polls. Furthermore, Dion could say he wants to ensure that passage of the "tackling Violent Crime" bill is not cancelled by early elections.
Think of the propaganda coup, even the bastards over at CanWest would be impressed (even though everyone knows it's an excuse to allow time for the economy to tank and Dion to win the by-elections). This would also deprive Harper of one of his few strengths during the campaign (the law and order schtick).
anonymous You are bang on..give Harper enough rope......
I think that's ingenious, anonymous. Rather like the idea of the crime bill becoming law. I'd love Dion or the liberals to go as far as to say they didn't want Harper to kill it again by forcing an election.
"Dion could say he wants to ensure that passage of the "tackling Violent Crime" bill is not cancelled by early elections.'
I like that. I hate the crime bill, but I like your thoughts on how the libs can use it to their advantage.
As for whether the libs go now or later, I am not concerned either way. I just want the libs to be willing to vote against the government if necessary. If there is nothing in the budget that is worth an election then they should allow it to pass.
Of course, Harper may try to force one over the Senate not passing the crime bill by March 1, but the legality of that is up for debate. If he cannot say he lost the confidence of the House then he is going to have to violate his own legislation in order to force this election. Not good optics.
I agree Anonymous, let Harper stew & defeat himself.
Off topic, I sincerely hope that Dion's party is more united than the media is suggesting. There has been talk of that since he was elected as the Leader of the party.
For the life of me, I cannot see him allowing militants within the party to remain as MP's if that were the case. I don't believe that Mr. Dion would have put up with infighting in his party for this long if it were true. Maybe he is promoting some leaks for his own advantage. Would be a smart thing to do.
Fool Harper & the media so that they end up with egg on their faces when Dion proves them wrong.
I like the fact Dion seems to play with the Harperites as the cat with the mouse .. and hold them in suspense with not reacting on the planted traps....as they expecting it.
it is a sure way to make Harper to explode sooner or later .
I see a new steel in Dion's eyes and I like it!!!
marta
Inside every media pundit is a political operative wanting to break free.
I believe virtually all of them want to be in the back rooms making policies and exercising power instead of actually reporting what is going on.
That is why they spend so much time talking about political strategy. Witness the latest BS from Jim Travers and Chantal Hebert regarding the Liberal Afghanistan motion.
No real assessment of the merits of the motion, just as assessment of the political strategy behind it. (Wrong assessments by the way).
There is a reason why these folks are not in the back rooms. They are lousy political strategists.
As for the "disunity" in the Liberals Party it is being trumped up. I worked as for the Chretien Liberals and even then there were disagreements in the caucus. Often rather serious ones. However, they were ignored by the media because they did not fit the media narrative of the day.
Today however, the media narrative is that of a disunified Liberal Party so any disagreement is magnified to feed it.
Finally, as I have said before, it is usually bad political strategy to give your main political opponent what they want. Stephen Harper obviously wants an election this Spring so unless the Liberals have a compelling reason to give to him or they are guaranteed a victory they should deny Mr. Harper what he wants. (It could very well make his head explode.)
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