While most Canadians simply laugh off the silly “Trudeau’s not ready” commercials playing with increasing intensity on English-language television, there is another more layered campaign underlying it. This more insidious campaign is spreading through social media and says that Trudeau is ‘dangerous.’ If you have not received the core threats of this campaign, it is probably because you do not fit the demographics.
If you are not a rabid right-to-life supporter, you would not be included in the outrageous campaign against Trudeau for his stance on women’s rights. Not content to pillory the Liberal leader for his condoning abortion, this campaign makes statements about his stand on late-term abortions that are absolutely false. Bear in mind that this campaign is directed at the extreme right-wing religious groups who support the Conservatives in any event. The Conservatives recognize this demographic as about a third of their base vote and they will play hard ball to protect that base.
It is similar to the gun nuts. We are lucky to not have a bunch of loonies running around this country such as the American National Rifle Association. Never mind that most national police chiefs supported the national long gun registry, the Tories scrapped the registry as soon as they had a majority government. It might be hard to pin a number on the size of the gun supporting demographic, it spreads across the country like influenza. They are Conservative lap dogs and Trudeau is dangerous to them.
This background campaign gets more complex when you get into subjects such as the national security Bill C-51. Trudeau and most of his caucus supported that bill despite the screams of anguish from real liberals. We expect it was a sop to the right wing of his own caucus but it is costing Trudeau in terms of left-wing votes this fall. He tells us that the bill can be fixed but Trudeau hardly needs the ruction. The Conservatives are gleefully picking at the Liberal scabs.
And that is how the Conservatives still hope to win the October election. They have the bags of money from years of fund raising from their more rabid followers. Despite all their mistakes and bad planning, Mr. Harper is staying beyond his best-before date to try for one more mandate as Prime Minister.
The Conservatives have a base vote of close to a quarter of Canada’s voters. They proved four years ago that they could vilify the Liberal Leader, concentrate on their base and misdirect voters in close ridings to win. It was made easy when only 61 per cent of voters cast their ballots. We need to improve on that.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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