Harper's Not a Lame Duck but a Dead Duck
Saturday morning Canadians were greeted with a funereal black box on the cover of the National Pest. Had a pope died, a Queen, or some other head of State?
Nope none of those, though a death was eminent.
The headline screamed out: IS CONSERVATISM DEAD
Well if it wasn't before it sure is now.
And ironically this particular issue of the Pest was unable to be printed on time so everyone can read it for free, yep, free on the web. And they have an eight page special on the opening of Parliment, hence the screaming headline about the politcal corpse of Conservativism in Canada.
And in this case you get to read why the vox deroit is declaring Harper another dud for the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives. Dead Man walking declares the
The rightwhingnuts love the three strikes policy, until it applies to them and in this case the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives have had three leaders from Alberta; Manning, Day, Harper, and all of them have failed to defeat the Natural Ruling Party, the Liberals.
When the Pest, the voice of the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives since it was founded (by arch criminal capitalist and neo-aristocrat, Lord Black) starts playing the funeral marche for the Conservatives, and the fall session of the House hasn't happened, then we know they are doomed. Doomed I say, bwahahaha, ( I say in my best mad scientist laugh)
And that shade of doom over the Conservatives is Harper. This was not just a horrible summer for the Harper, which it was, but it has been his Annus Horribilus since last summers election of a minority Liberal Government. A government that handed its head on a platter to Harper.
And with all the finesse of a court jester he tripped and let the head regain it's body. St. Paul de Baptiste, and his Liberals breathed a sigh of relief and the poor Harper can only enter the House this fall as the titular Leader of ' Her Majesty's Official Opposition', because the real, official, effective opposition is the NDP under Jack Layton, as Harper has admitted himself, in another amazing self defeating slip of the lip. "Whether we have an election this fall is a question for Jack Layton, not for me."
Length of Liberal tenure depends on NDP again
Normally we mourn the passing of someone by wearing black arm bands, perhaps the Left wing in the House, the NDP, Bloc, and Liberals should don them for the opening of parliament in memory of the once and future PM Stephen Harper.
And its not just the National
Harper Accuses Media of Getting the Story Wrong
And you can't blame the media for poor leadership, lack of a platform, and proving as the Conservatives have, in a twist on Maggie Thatchers phrase, that 'There is no Alternative (TINA) to the Liberals as government.
Eternal spotlight on the Conservative mind
By Kevin Werner
(Sep 23, 2005)
The turnout at the Hillcrest Restaurant on Concession Street said it all about where Hamilton's Conservative Party stood in the community's collective consciousness.
Local Conservative party officials had touted the fundraising dinner as a major event, attracting anywhere from 200 to 250 people.
By 6:30 p.m. there were a handful of people milling about the bar. By 7 p.m., the number of people who turned out to listen to Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay was about 80 people, including staff and other political operatives, as chagrined party officials made the best of the situation.
It's not a surprise.
The argument was made that the public remains in summer mode and have tuned out politicians and politics in the aftermath of the political hysteria of the Gomery Commission's corruption revelations.
The excuse is lame.
As Marie Antoinette learned the hard way, don't piss off the Fourth Esate or they will demand your head.
“Any Conservative, anywhere, at any time, can, by criticizing other Conservatives, become an instant and enormous media star. That’s just the way it is, we’ll have to get used to it.”
— Conservative leader Stephen Harper, Sept. 22.
“Even f------ Hitler got better press.”
— former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney, in the book The Secret Mulroney Tapes.
Harper repeats Mulroney's error
By: Curtis Brown, Brandon Sun
Can you tell the difference between these two complainers? They’re both conservatives, they both lead conservative parties, but Mulroney — unlike Harper — didn’t grumble about the media until after he became prime minister.
If Harper ever wants to reach 24 Sussex Drive, he’d do well to stop kvetching about the press and start doing his job.
In the past couple of weeks, reports have been surfacing that some Tories want Harper to step aside. These Tories are nobodies, really, but their rumblings have garnered a significant amount of media attention, especially in The Globe and Mail. Harper refused to comment on their comments, but decided instead to lay the blame at the feet of the reporters assembled for his speech for ignoring the hard work he’s done all summer flipping burgers, kissing babies and raising money for the party.
“Now of course you would not know any of this reading some of the press recently, (instead) there have been stories of various dissidents,” Canadian Press quoted him as saying during his speech.
Harper’s grouchy attack sounded an awful lot like the lines another prominent conservative once spouted about Canada’s fourth estate. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney, quoted in the controversial The Secret Mulroney Tapes book (which I rushed out and bought Monday), savages the reporters who made his life miserable for nine years.
The Tories aren’t 14 points behind the governing Liberals in the polls because the media is against them or delights in airing their petty battles. No, the Tories trail the Liberals because Stephen Harper and his caucus can’t get their you-know-what together and offer Canadians a viable alternative to the Liberals.
Harper and his party need to stop griping about the media. If they act like a real opposition instead of a pack of clowns who blame their woes on things beyond their control, Canadians will be more likely to vote for them.
Their alternative is to act like Mulroney did towards the fourth estate. Just look how that ended up for the man who has gone down as one of the most hated prime ministers in Canadian history.
Der Fuerher gets bad press
And it's not just the 'liberal left' media calling for Harpers Head. It's the right whingnut press as well!
What Canadian Conservatives Need to Learn
by Rachel Marsden
Another week, another high-profile conservative meltdown over party leadership. This week’s came courtesy of Carol Jamieson—Vice Chair of the Conservative Party’s GTA Presidents Council. In an open letter to fellow conservatives headlined on Bourque Newswatch, Jamieson whacked Stephen Harper around like a bloated piñata on the summer yard party circuit, ultimately calling for him to step down.
Jamieson has the right idea about Harper. It’s the same idea I’ve had for years. A guy who can’t even dress himself properly probably shouldn’t be running a country. But until Canadian conservatives get their act together, Harper is exactly what they deserve. And it’s not like there’s a whole lot of talent riding the pine in that party, either. At least none that hasn’t already been thoroughly discredited by conservatives themselves.
Unfortunately even with his (pending) death declared by the Pest, the Harper will lumber on, his corpse stinking up the House, until the People of Canada officially bury him and his party in the Spring Election.
Bye Bye
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