If you wonder how conservatives -- real conservatives -- are reacting to Stephen Harper's cross country tour, read David Krayden over at ipolitics. Krayden writes that he will vote Conservative -- not because of Stephen Harper, but in spite of him and a campaign that is all about him:
At any rate, it’s misleading to talk about a Conservative party campaign in 2015. This is a Stephen Harper campaign. If you understand that, you understand the thrust behind the ‘Just Not Ready’ ad: the veiled suggestion that Trudeau can have the office once Harper is done with it. This campaign just doesn’t put the leader front and centre — it focuses entirely on Stephen Harper, apparently excluding all other candidates. When Harper was in Vancouver last week, he stood — alone — against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. No incumbent MPs or earnest candidates by his side. The slogan attached to his podium was about him; it didn’t even mention the party.
Krayden long ago reached the conclusion that Harper is not who he claims to be:
At any rate, he’s leading a party that is conservative in name only. In a July pre-campaign announcement, Harper proudly claimed that the introduction of his government’s Universal Child Care Benefit was a “historic day” for Canada. And so it was — it was the day that a serving Conservative PM decided to define his legacy and political prospects in terms of how much money he’s willing to dump on the taxpayers who gave it to him in the first place.
Harper has already cleared the caucus of social conservatives: the list of Conservative MPs not running again is a Who’s Who of evangelical, assertively pro-life legislators in Canadian politics. Harper and the keen kids in the PMO have intimidated this crew for years.
Harper was never a social conservative. Once, he was a libertarian. Now he’s a libertarian who thinks big government — big Harper government — is the answer to all of Canada’s problems. He has become a living, breathing oxymoron.
Some might be tempted to remove the first two syllables of that last word. But the truth is that Stephen Harper is too smart by half. The Duffy trial has revealed how morally bankrupt the Harper government really is. Nigel Wright's blood is in the water. Ray Novak will be the next to bleed publicly.
The question is, "Will Harper be part of the carnage?" If there are enough people like Krayden willing to vote for him, Stephen may escape Nigel's and Ray's collective fate.
8 comments:
Yes... I was afraid that at Harper's 'exclusive' photo op on the Vancouver waterfront that his silent local Con MPs and newbie (no comment) candidates would all flop off the pier and join the other seals in the harbour. They would have enjoyed the sea frolicking far more than the PM's awkward and shameful deflection of the question everyone is asking.
The Con campaign is a fail.
Bill
The campaign was supposed to bleed Harper's opponents dry, Bill. At the moment, that's not where the blood is coming from.
'he will vote conservative.....' does he not realize that all those con MPs (at least those who have not quit) have condoned and enabled Harper, when the brand is flawed and you still by the product you need to rethink your shopping habits!
A vote for Harper enables Harper, Rural. It appears that integrity is in short supply among conservatives.
I do not understand it Krayden points out harper flaws [failures] and admits to the party of one yet he is going to vote for him anyway? I think maybe he should have a long talk with a shrink...
Oxymoron? How about insanity? Insanity - extreme foolishness or irrationality.
As I said, Mogs, integrity seems to be rare among conservatives. If he voted, he could spoil his ballot.
The name 'confusion' of the political parties does lead to a lot of misguided and unintended votes.
A large number of older Conservative voters are relics of the old Progressive Conservative Party of Dief,Stanfield and Clark, and because the harpercons call themselves the CPC, I suspect a lot of the old folks see that PC as being the same and cast their loyal votes for them.
Out here in BC the `ruling` Liberal party is anything but Liberal but a lot of voters out here will never vote federal Liberal because of the horrible governance we get from òur`provincial Liberals.
I suspect other provinces also have the same name for completely different factions as well and a goodly number of votes are misplaced because of it.
I suspect that parties deliberately try to sow confusion, Ron. For a lot of Conservatives, the story of the merger between the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party is history they simply don't know. What matters, for them, is the word "Conservative."
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