The Rob Ford Circus has laid bare the void at the centre of modern Canadian Conservatism. Michael Harris writes that the party -- and what it stands for -- has degenerated into what he calls ROFO Madness:
ROFO madness is when you smoke crack cocaine and show up in videos making death threats. Your mother blames it on your weight problem. Then you sell bobblehead dolls of yourself to people lining up to have their picture taken with you.
As with business and government, and news and entertainment, notoriety and celebrity have merged. And there are always cheerleaders in the media — no matter how many times you pull your pants down in public.
And so, having been ditched by CFRB, the Ford Brothers are headed for SUN TV, where they will become the Jerry Springers of Canadian television. But the madness cannot be contained to Toronto. Consider the reaction of the Harperites to the trials of their political linchpin. Consider, most particularly, the reaction of Peter MacKay, the Minister of Justice. His ministry has busily been enshrining more severe punishment for drug users. And Mackay has declared Justin Trudeau unfit for office. Harris writes:
Here’s what Canada’s justice minister said when the sinophile currently leading the Liberal Party admitted to taking a toke:
“By flouting the laws of Canada while holding elected office he shows he is a poor example for all Canadians, particularly young ones. Justin Trudeau is simply not the kind of leader our country needs.”
But MacKay applies a different standard to the mayor:
But when Rob Ford admits to buying and smoking drugs — including crack cocaine — while holding elected office? When he admits to drinking and driving, maybe even drinking on the job? Not a word about law-breaking from Peter. Not a word about fitness for office. Not a peep about coming up a tad short in the role model department. No, Peter MacKay gushes compassion and intones that that the mayor “needs help”.
This is hypocrisy squared. On the one hand there is MacKay’s partisan hypocrisy, offensive because it involves issues of equal justice. On the other, there is the Conservative Party of Canada’s deep policy hypocrisy.
The hypocrisy suggests that the Harperites are hollow at their core. They live, T.S. Eliot wrote, in "death's twilight kingdom."
14 comments:
.. cognition, coherence or wisdom cannot somehow be absorbed via Peter MacKay's daily partisan lipstick application .. or by being proclaimed a 'Justice Minister' by a malignant Prime Minister.
His 'stance' is based in ignorance & pompous rhetoric & his legacy is likely well deserved mud .. whether re Defense, Procurement or Justice
Not sure who is the lesser light.. or dim light bulb.. Oliver, MacKay, Fantino, Kenney, Clement or Baird.. or Harper himself.. they all seem quite seriously cracked ..
Certainly, salamander, the Ford scandal has cracked open the hollow shell that is the Conservative Party of Canada.
I would dearly love to see the "Dirty Tricks" manual given to MPs to disrupt committee meetings when Harper first came to office. It's kind of the beginning of this mess in my mind. Here Are The Instructions On How To Debase The Institution To Which You Were Elected. It's the germ of the idea that you can do whatever you like without consequence, is it not?
True, 131220. From the beginning, these folks have held all those who do not share their ideology in contempt.
What we are witnessing now is the harvest of that contempt.
Their hollowness victimizes all of us, Owen, given their pernicious effect on the body politic.
And sadly, Lorne, the ones who suffer most are the ones who are closest to them.
It's as though the entire nation was caught up in a contagion of corruption and manipulation. Dark Ages Canada.
Harper is no Conservative, what-so-ever. He was Policy Chief, for his Northern Foundation of 1989. Harper had hired Wolfgang Droege and his Heritage Front as, security for Preston Manning. That should have been everyone's first clue as, to what Herr Harper really is. Herr Harper too has his degenerates, doing his dirty work for him. Harper has signed a deal with, the Red Chinese Communist Army, to back him up.
Shame on Peter MacKay. There are some ladies who, are holding MacKay, directly, personally responsible, for the evil Herr Harper governing our country. An out and out Fascist Dictator. What kind of a Canada, does MacKay want his baby boy to grow up in?
Herr Harper's team are, useless, spineless, gutless wonders. Shame on the entire ruddy lot of them.
And they continue to hang on to power, Anon.
It's the triumph of ignorance and thuggery, Mound.
The Cons are rotten to the core, and maybe even more.
But they pose as paragons of virtue, Anon.
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dried grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar.
If only that had "dried voices," Kirby, instead of shrill, angry ones.
They are stuffed men, however. And their headpieces are filled with straw.
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