Yesterday I wrote about the message Brian Jean tried to put out on the CBC. As I mentioned, he made a mess of it so today, the big guns came out.Jim Prentice was on Question Period today trying to put across the same message, this time armed with a slick publication that apparently 'costs' the Liberal plan. He also got a free airing of another juvenile ad that they just produced, courtesy of CTV.
Think about that for a second. A government taking the time to produce a speculative costing of the opposition's plans and creating ad's outside of a campaign? Something tells me this is more than their usual nastiness. For instance why is Prentice out there selling this lie? Wouldn't the Minister of Finance be a more logical choice than a Minister of Industry? Of course, Flaherty's messaging isn't very good is it? Harry Potter anyone? Prentice is able to keep calm most of the time and he tightly controls his message. In fact, he sounded like an automaton, repeating at every opportunity that the Liberals would put the country into a deficit.
So, aside from their expected juvenile behaviour, what is driving this? I suspect that it has to do with the fact that every policy statement that Dion has put out, from Environment, Child Poverty, Infrastructure, Kelowna, etc., has been overwhemingly positively received by stakeholders. The Con record on the other hand, not so good. They've ticked off cities, mayors, Premiers, Aboriginal Groups, Income Trust Investors, parents who require daycare, Environmental Groups, and the list goes on.
What's really frustrating is the fact that they are given a national platform to lie and they do it without shame. Who does that in life? In this case though, I think they've taken a step too far. Obviously the Liberals are not about to plunge the country into deficit or debt, (Prentice interchanged the two words today which was bizarre) and now that the Con's have handed the Lib's a document that they can go through line by line and say, this is a lie, this is a lie, etc., they can be exposed for the posturing liars they are with ease. It's in black and white.
In the interview, Prentice said it was time to force the Liberals to document and inventory their plans for Canadians. What? Why? Who the hell is Prentice to force the Opposition to do that prior to an Election? Are the Con's so devoid of ideas and how to implement them that they need Lib's to lead them by the hand? Apparently.
No, this government is in trouble me thinks and as a result, so is the country. They have increased spending by 15% in two years. Tax cuts, crime bills and terra is all they have. Any more time with them at the helm is bad news for all of us. I think the upcoming budget is going to be mighty interesting and perhaps will be precisely the right time to take the liars down.
The term 'nervous nellies' is being used to describe the doves in the Lib caucus. I think the term may more aptly apply to the Con's at this point. A stunt like Prentice pulled today may just be enough to rally the Lib troops.
The interview can be found here, (click on the link below the LaPierre article, look to the right for the Prentice vid. A reaction from John McCallum here.
Far and Wide also speaks to this subject here.
9 comments:
"Wouldn't the Minister of Finance be a more logical choice than a Minister of Industry?"
Flaherty isn't exactly a great advocate when it comes to criticizing others about deficits.
Well exactly Steve. I've railed on that in the past so I left it out.
I think we are in for a surprise...not in a good way.
That's not to say that he'll show a deficit of course, but he hid it in Ontario didn't he?
"That's not to say that he'll show a deficit of course, but he hid it in Ontario didn't he?"
I think the Cons make a gigantic error, with the mini-budget. There was no need for them to hand out all those goodies right then, except to innoculate themselves from criticism over the ballooning surplus. Now, they have left themselves little room to be pro-active, essentially their fiscal hands are tied. I said at the time, the Conservatives would get little traction for the mini-budget, because the real focus would be the budget, they handicapped themselves. Remember, it was only a few weeks after the mini-budget that Flaherty started to warn of an economic slowdown- where was the foresight in October? I suspect a couple minor goodies, but not much to WOW anyone.
Then this made it all the more foolish for the Grits to abstain in the budget.
These tax cuts pushed us into debt. Now we will have to raise taxes to balance the budget.
What's really frustrating is the fact that they are given a national platform to lie and they do it without shame
It's easy to get a cheap soundbyte in, it's harder to get the truth out.
This is the same tactics used by Bush in the south...
The mini-budget in the fall was part of a plan for a fall election.
Throne Speech, mini-budget, election.
Neither one was supposed to pass.
So now the Conservatives find themselves in a pickle.
No agenda and no money with which to gloss over that fact.
Although, I would not mind seeing an election call in a couple of weeks I would prefer one later in the Spring or even early fall. Let the fact this government is drifting in the wind sink in a little more with Canadians.
"The mini-budget in the fall was part of a plan for a fall election."
That was part of it too. The reason they went so far, made some measure retroactive (pretty uncommon) is because they were afraid of the mounting surplus which was starting to take shape. The last thing the Cons wanted was the embarrassment of a 15 billion surplus, ala the Liberals, heading into a potential campaign. When the figures started coming in, the Cons sort of panicked and cleared the decks. I don't think they were planning to go that far when they initially decided to push for an election.
Did anyone notice that Robert Fife asked Prentice 3 times how they were going to help manufacturing and all 3 times he talked around it.
....what's that saying? Oh ya, 3 times and your out.
"No agenda and no money with which to gloss over that fact."
Dion is now playing with the fact that there is 10 billion available in surplus. He is going to dole out 7 billion in a public infrastructure investment. How will the Cons respond?
If there is more, the Grits can also throw in the exemption of income trusts.
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