The copyright on the big lie theory expired centuries ago. The ancient military theorist Sun Tzu explained misinformation and its value in his tome “The Art of War.” There is little new in the way Canada’s Conservatives use lies for political advantage. What is new is how stupid Canadians are who let them get away with it.
Simple misinformation is one thing. That is putting a slightly different spin on things to make them more acceptable to the public. These are not prevarications as much as sugar coatings to get the gullible among us to swallow something more noxious. For example, when Defence Minister Peter MacKay wanted to use a Search and Rescue helicopter to leave a fishing camp, somebody suggested he represent it as an overdue training exercise. It could have worked if the lie had not been blown by both military underlings and his ‘friend,’ the Prime Minister.
What is really stupid is to let a blown piece of misinformation become a cause cèlébre. MacKay would have been far smarter to ‘fess up and play the incident for laughs.
But nobody was laughing in the Town of Mont Royal where the Conservatives were paying a telephone bank to tell people that their Member of Parliament was resigning. That was rather insensitive when you consider that it is an electoral district with more Jewish voters than elsewhere in the Province. For the Conservatives to try to laugh that off as a prank was particularly dumb.
That seems to be the problem with many Conservatives. You can hardly be dumb as a stump and expect your lies to be effective. Take Environment Minister Peter Kent in the House of Commons the other day when he explained his version of the Kyoto Accord decision. After not allowing any opposition politicians access to the South Africa conference, he should not criticize them for not being there. This annoyed them.
Stupid lies seem to abound in Stephen Harper’s Ottawa. The one we have the least time for is the one that says the long gun registry does not work. If it does not work, why are police chief’s across Canada saying it does work?
That is the same as the Canada Wheat Board. It no longer belongs to the Canadian Government and is owned and run by Canadian farmers. And Mr. Harper says he has been asked by the farmers to shut it down. It seems to us that the ‘farmers’ Mr. Harper is referring to have never run a combine. This is not a farmer-friendly decision.
It seems we have barely scratched the surface of the lies Mr. Harper is capable of during a majority government. The next few years will not be fun.
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Copyright 2011 © Peter Lowry
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