That nice Mr. Harper, we always knew he might be good for something. His efforts to help Justin Trudeau raise funds are really paying off. It is helped by that stupid attack ad that the Tories are running ad nausea on their favourite television networks. You know the one, the pixie dust around his name, the sexy underwear, and dialogue that you would expect from eight-year olds in the school yard. And now they are going to send it out in print via taxpayer funded householder mailings by the slavish Conservative MPs. That action alone should raise an extra $5 million for the Liberal Party.
Meanwhile, the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair is having fits because he cannot get any ink from the media because they are all so enamoured with Justin. After all, Stuffy Tommy is supposed to be the Leader of the Opposition, not Justin. He is jealous. He wants to know how he can get the Prime Minister to run attack ads against him.
But Stephen Harper is making a different kind of mistake these days. Two years before an election, he is stiffening his stance as the “law and order guy.” And he is particularly tough on terrorists. That is a position that could be like cutting off the tree branch while sitting on the wrong side of the branch. He fails to understand that he has already won most of the yahoos who will buy into that line. They even believed him when he said he had to build more prisons when crime statistics in Canada showed a decline in crime. (He solved that problem by cutting off funding to the statisticians.)
Harper’s classic comment last week was when he told Canadians that “this is not a time to commit sociology.” It was supposed to be a criticism of Justin for musing about the root causes of home-grown terrorism. It left many Canadians wondering when we are supposed to consider what to do about the problem.
Mr. Harper’s biggest problem with Canadians is too many of them can think. Not everybody will buy the Conservative Party extremist cant. They never have. The only way the Conservatives can hope to maintain a majority government is to help maintain some semblance of balance between the opposition parties. An electorate determined to get rid of the Tories will swing decisively behind the opposition party with the best chance to defeat them. He has to help maintain some balance.
Right now the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau are basking in Harper’s attention.
-30-
Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]