The coalition strikes back for mainstream Canadians
The coalition strikes back
It looks like the proposed Liberal-NDP coalition isn’t about to sit on its hands while Harper tries to divide the country instead of stepping down gracefully. Positive politics can play well, especially when your opponent is overplaying the archvillian and getting into bed with the western gun-nuts.
There’s a petition here and a list of upcoming events here.
Make use of every tool at your disposal. For Stephen Harper’s Conservatives this is truly war.
*update* Handy tool to contact your MP and register your support, courtesy of the CLC. Click here to tell your MP that you SUPPORT the coalition.
Skinheads try to provoke coalition rally
I am not in favour of censorship, but it is incumbent for a Prime Minister to choose his words carefully. As pointed out by Ed Broadbent before, Stephen Harper has lied repeatedly to Canadians about the coalition, and stoked the flames of disunity to a dangerous degree. Today CBC reported:
Several skinheads tried to disrupt a rally organized by supporters of the federal Liberal-NDP coalition last Thursday night in Moncton, Codiac RCMP have confirmed.
Three men with shaved heads heckled the crowd of 200 people in Moncton who gathered to support the coalition formed between the two opposition parties to replace the Conservative government.
Police quickly cornered the men and kept them away from the rally.
Deedee Daigle, one of the rally’s organizers, said she’s seen the ringleader at other public rallies.
Reactionary lies by a Prime Minister dangerously embolden those who put ideology before the public interest and the law. This is not the leadership we want for Canada. Pay a visit to One Watchman for a video audit of Harper’s calculated duplicity.
PQ surges in Quebec; Thanks Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper has recklessly endangered our country’s unity for the sake of scoring cheap political points with his base. It looks like we saw the first result of his negative campaign tonight, in the results from Quebec’s provincial election:
The surprise rise of the PQ may have roots in Ottawa, whereas the virulent Conservative campaign against the “separatists” supporting a Liberal-NDP coalition may have spurred soft Quebec nationalists to register their displeasure at the ballot box.
…The election marked a comeback for the PQ under Pauline Marois, 18 months after she took over the party’s leadership. Ms. Marois returned the PQ to Official Opposition status after the dismal third-place, 36-seat result of the last election under André Boisclair.
Last night’s results also became a test of Ms. Marois’s strategy to sideline sovereignty as a campaign theme. The move was seen as savvy at a time when Quebeckers have shown indifference toward the issue; the wild card was whether the strategy would alienate the PQ’s traditional base.
Instead, Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have helped reinvigorate it.
While the Liberals may be softening their commitment to the coalition with their caucus coalescing behind the barely-Liberal Michael Ignatieff, the landscape of Canadian politics will remain dramatically changed over this Conservative-created political crisis. Ironically, thanks to the extreme hatred they’ve inspired towards Quebec nationalists, the Tories will likely spend the bulk of 2009 bending over backwards to earn back the Bloc’s support.
Dear pollsters: you’re forgetting something
Reading the polls this week, whether it’s Ipsos, Ekos, Compas, has been an exercise in frustration. I take no issue with the results – my problem is with the questions. Inevitably, the two questions asked are “do you support the Liberal-NDP coalition supported by the Bloc Quebecois or do you support the Conservatives?”
See what’s missing here? The Conservatives can’t govern without the support of one of the other three parties, but that’s never mentioned in the polls. My dream poll would be sorted for Conservative supporters and ask the following:
Harper compared Bloc Quebecois to pro-slavery U.S. South!
Warning: I vomited a little when I discovered this. Combing through Harper’s 1997 speech to the right-wing U.S. Council for National Policy, I found the following bomb:
The Bloc Quebecois is equivalent to your Southern secessionists, Southern Democrats, states rights activists.
Here’s a history refresher: the Southern secessionists were explicity racist and the defenders of slavery. They went to war over it. As for the the term “Southern Democrats”, the following definition from Wikipedia gives you a clear picture of what Harper was talking about:
In the early 1800s, they were the definitive pro-slavery wing of the party, opposed to both the anti-slavery Republicans (GOP) and the more liberal Northern Democrats. After losing control of their territory in the American Civil War, and during the Republican-led Reconstruction that followed, Southern Democrats regrouped into various vigilante organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White League.
Source: Wikipedia
Well, that’s now officially the most disgusting Harper quote I’ve ever read, and that’s saying a lot. Discuss.
Harper’s contempt for Canadians
You can take the Prime Minister out of the neo-con National Citizens Coalition, but you can’t take the neo-con out of the Prime Minister. Just so everyone remembers Stephen Harper’s contempt for our nation, recall these gems from the speech he gave to the right-wing U.S. Council for National Policy, as vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition in 1997:
…In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.
…your country, and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world.
…if you’re like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians.
…our executive is the Queen, who doesn’t live here. Her representative is the Governor General, who is an appointed buddy of the Prime Minister.
…The House of Commons, the bastion of the Prime Minister’s power, the body that selects the Prime Minister, is an elected body.
…Some people point out that there is a small element of clergy in the NDP. Yes, this is true. But these are clergy who, while very committed to the church, believe that it made a historic error in adopting Christian theology.
Thanks CTV archive!
NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE AND ACTION ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN – FORGOTTEN?
Let’s all take a moment to remember the 1989 tragedy at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal, when 14 women were murdered in gender-motivated violence.
Sadly, our Conservative government seems to have forgotten the significance of this day. The government page about the tragedy has no news releases or statement from Prime Minister Stephen Harper on this day of national mourning.
*update: Nothing on the PMO’s news release page either.
Worth watching again
Okay, so I’m phoning it in because it’s Friday, dammit. But it’s still worth reminding ourselves of how Harper’s shabby, self-interested political manoeuvres put his party before the economy and got us to this point.
h/t: 1337hax0r.com
