Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been saved by the rain on the plain. With Calgary recovering from serious flood conditions, it is no time for a Conservative Convention. Stephen Harper must think that God is smiling on him. If he had his way, the convention would never happen. He does not need it. He probably thinks of it as a masquerade for people with dyslexia. Party goers will wear masks to allow them to have their say.
Regrettably, few will be able to say what they really wish to. It will be difficult to contain the frustration. Harper held these people off from 2006 by saying wait until we have a majority. And lo, since 2011, the Conservatives have had a majority and they all want to know what he is waiting for now? It is actually lucky for him that not all of his party want the same thing. It just might take a smarter man that Stephen Harper to play off the different factions of his party against each other.
You would think that financial Conservatives would be the easiest to placate. That might not be the case. Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised that they are going to balance the books in Canada in time for the 2015 election. That might happen if they can figure out a way to delay the 2015 election until 2020. It is when you realize that these financial Conservatives are the ones who do the fundraising, that you realize that Harper hardly wants to annoy them.
But he is in far more trouble with the religious right. These people could care less about the budget but they are out to hang people and Harper has been sitting on them. Well that egg has hatched. He is in as much trouble with his caucus as he is with these crazies. They want to protect the rights of the unborn, take us back two centuries in women’s rights and bring back capital punishment. What is really frightening is that they are doing this in the name of the Lord and Stephen Harper best get out of the way.
One thing he cannot figure out is what to do with the party people who believed him when he said he would bring in democratic reform. His simple plan to make the Senate Conservative has blown up in his face and he has no excuses left. He can hardly stall more by telling people that the Supreme Court might give him an answer, maybe, sometime next year. To make any change in the Senate, he might have to make nice with Ontario and Quebec and that sure is likely to happen!
And on top of that some of his caucus are becoming tired of being treated like they came to Ottawa on the sole of some farmer’s boot. And fat chance for more than a few of the back-bench drones in the cabinet sweepstakes that are supposed to happen this summer. What is the point of changing deck chairs on a sinking ship?
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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