Jonathan Kay on the Gift for Harper
If Stéphane Dion really wants to be Prime Minister, let him. The best Christmas gift the Conservatives could get right now is to lose power.How does that make sense? Let us count the ways:
1) Having an unpopular dud like Stéphane Dion as leader hurt the Liberal brand. Having him as prime minister will kill it. There was a reason Canada decisively voted down this guy in the October election. Let them rediscover it.
(2) The Liberals will heretofore be known as the party willing to jump in bed with separatists to get their grubby hands on power. Don’t you think that will be an interesting talking point to bring into the next election? This will cement the Tories’ status as the federalist alternative in Quebec, and the guardian of national integrity in the rest of the country. national post
One might almost think that Kay overheard the same imaginary conversation I did.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I’m wondering if you’re going to revisit the Plan B theme.
I know that it irks you, and many other conservatives, that Harper is ( was? ) running the government the same way a right leaning Liberal would but, given that his attempt to implement a couple of ideas much less conservative than yours may well land him with the job of opposition leader again, do you think it might be time to re-evaluate plan B.
If you want to change to political centre of gravity, you need to do it at a pace you can sustain.
Not exactly on topic. Still, it seems to me that Plan B has a strategic merit that is about the same as that of the imaginary conversations.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
For Canadians, the Conservatives have been wrong on almost every issue that has defined what Canadians believe in. On the questions of universal healthcare, and small “l” liberal community standards, the Tories have been swimming upstream. As a result they’ve spent 90% of so of the last century on the outside looking in. Those of us “of a certain age” remember the vicious lying fight they put up against universal health care.
Harper has “won” two minority governments. Despite an historic Liberal collapse in Quebec he was unable to win a majority. Why? Because Canadians are not ready to hand over our “social network” to the “tender care” of the Religious Right and the Reaganite “Trickle Down, Deregulate, Government is the enemy” crowd.
As in the USA, the “right” doesn’t want government “leaner” it wants Government “gone.” The US shows us the end game of that philosophy. Canadians know better.
Polls always show a majority of Canadians as being “center/left.” Harper’s hatred and disrespect of the opposition may have now created the “New Liberal Democratic Party” of Canada.
Thank you Mr. Harper, your disrespect is going to give Canadians the opportunity to elect, “Change we can believe in!”