What Have They Got That He Ain't Got?

Michael Harris writes that the Harper campaign has begun with some strange twists:

I’m not sure what democracy is anymore in Canada, but I’m pretty certain it's got nothing to do with agreeing to get frisked and letting people and dogs mess with your junk before you attend a political event. Do they even do that in Myanmar?

Harper The Great and Powerful, he writes, is beginning to look like the Cowardly Lion. Even once firm supporters of Mr. Harper are turning on him. John Robson announced in Friday's National Post that he wouldn't be voting Conservative this time around:

Power has corrupted [Harper] and his party. I wrote nearly two years ago that Harper is unfit for office because he lied to Parliament over the Wright-Duffy affair, insolently telling incompatible tales five days apart in October 2013, and lying about having contradicted himself.

Instead of recoiling from this cynical deceit, his party enthusiastically embraced it. If they think him worthy of public trust, they aren’t either.

It doesn’t matter where you look. The Tories talk tough in foreign affairs and praise the military. But they gut defence to fund cynical handouts. They rope in the rubes by feigning concern about traditional marriage, abortion and God. But they do nothing. Indeed, when Health Canada approved the abortion drug RU-486, this administration, which takes credit for every sparrow that takes wing in Canada, suddenly hid under the bed.

These people are not honourable. Indeed, they laugh at honour. They cherish the low blow, the devious tactic, the unprincipled bribe, in a relentless, sneering, partisan tone. People I know and like retweet Pierre Poilievre with vicious glee. I weep for them and my country.

Behind all the bluster, they're running scared. As Bert Lahr famously asked in The Wizard of Oz:

 What makes the Hottentot so hot?  What have they got that I ain't got?

Courage.