Saturday, April 13, 2019

The Method Behind The Madness



Like his Orange Cousin to the south, Doug Ford is a disruptor -- and a master of distraction. Mitch Potter writes:

From the vengeful, shock-and-awe downsizing of Toronto city council to the ham-fisted and ultimately failed attempt to install old family friend Ron Taverner atop the Ontario Provincial Police, isn’t Ford still simply bumbling forward with a haphazard bagful of random ideas, still clumsily feeling out the limits of his new-found power?

In the midst of the madness some people see a method:

No, according to many veteran scholars of Ontario politics, who see in this government’s latest moves — and in the distractions themselves — clear evidence that old, tried and true Progressive Conservative patterns now are taking hold around Ford. They now see sophisticated method in the seemingly populist madness.
It is no accident that every time the tough stuff comes out (the budget, the transit plan), the Ford government has a companion piece to go with it to take the conversation elsewhere,” said Tim Abray, a doctoral candidate at Queen’s University’s department of political studies who specializes in the effects of political communication on voter behaviour.
“The Ford government is getting very good at popping these things out and the best example is the biggest story of the last week — the seemingly trivial and largely symbolic and meaningless licence plate slogan change to a 50-year-old phrase from the summer I was born — ‘A Place to Grow.’
“It’s worthy of discussion — but is it worthy of dominating discussion? That’s not lost on the government’s communications strategists. It’s a weird and very different hybrid — a populist premier with an unclear, uncertain agenda together with a highly orchestrated, carefully modulated communications machine that, when things get hot on contentious issues, is able to bait discussion away from policy and toward symbolism.”
That symbolism, not by accident, signals to a specific thread of nostalgia that has coursed through Ontario conservatives for decades.

Some see Ford as Mike Harris 2.0. But Nelson Wiseman isn't so sure:

Wiseman, a veteran professor of Canadian Studies at University of Toronto, is an outlier among the scholars interviewed for this article, in that he now sees Ford more closely aligned with Donald Trump in style and substance than he did a year ago.
“I threw water on that idea. But I see it more now because it is clear that like Trump he feels he can dictate by fiat and to some extent he can. It’s entertaining, it’s disruptive and it’s disturbing — and it is consistent with someone who doesn’t know the system, doesn’t know how it works and what he does know he doesn’t like — and feels like he has a mandate to blow it up,” said Wiseman.
“What’s clear is that while the majority of his MPPs didn’t want Ford as leader — and a good number of them, I believe, think he is the yahoo that he is — they are also frightened of him because of course he holds their future in his hands. He can keep them from running as a conservative in the next election.”

This gray head has concluded that, at this point in time, we've displayed a talent for electing the pathologically stupid. That's the method behind the madness.

Image: The Toronto Star

14 comments:

Rural said...

"we've displayed a talent for electing the pathologically stupid."
Perhaps not so stupid if their focus is self promotion, spinning lies, flimflamming the public and making money for themselves and their friends at our expense Owen! We (or at least far too many of us)the electorate are the stupid ones.

Owen Gray said...

An excellent point, Rural. We have only ourselves to blame.

John B. said...

That’s what you’re witnessing: the triumph of stupid. Ford is nothing special; but be that as it may, his success shouldn’t have been unexpected. He could have been anybody. Something like him was almost certain to occur as a manifestation of our inattention. He’s the archetypal man of his times. He’s just a dumb guy who wandered in from the street for want of anything else to do and just happened to fit the role; while our stupidity is the actor in the leading one off of which the method actors in the background have been trained to play.

Why don’t we stand up and take a bow, we stupid idiots. Everybody else is doing it. That’s how anxious we seem to be to escape from the freedom that’s supposed to be so important to us. Our performance continues.

Owen Gray said...

Our performance continues, John. And we should know better.

zoombats said...

Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx3sOqW5zj4

Owen Gray said...

I have a soft spot for that show and its shamless puns, zoombats. Bullwinkle went to Whazzamata University -- otherwise known as Wazzamata U.

the salamander said...

.. Rural takes us part way to the truth.. but the truth is..
In Canada, the political Parties supply us, the voters
with candidates to vote for..
We the voters or society
do not tell Parties who are suitable candidates
brave enough to actually represent us
& our ridings in OUR Parliament
Yet money and corporate power certainly do.

In North America the Party System is corrupted
In Canada we need to gut, strip down, pressure hose
the diseased political system from the riding level up.

(Note to Canadians.. Canada is not the USA
and emulating the GOP or Democrat election crimes
is certain disaster for Canadians)

Meanwhile the political parties via their 'leaders'
whether its Ford, Trudeau, Scheer, Horgan, Kenney etc
use slogans, insults, fantasy, polls, media as distraction 'tools'
to hide whatever odd ideological tidbits
might float in their party toilet bowls after excretion & one flush

What if a Canadian riding specified this prior to next election ?
ie no upcoming candidate may be on the ballot
if representing a current Party.. No Party may be involved !
No money may be spent campaigning, must be volunteers only
no signage, no polls, no robo or live calls, no voter databases

What Rural reminds us or points to is a 'majority'
For example - A Majority of Alberta's UCP aligns with Jason Kenney
ie for some odd reason(s) every UCP candidate in every riding
somehow supports the worldview or political Catholic orthodoxy
of that strange creature named Jason Kenney..

Doug Ford and the Ontario Conservative Party glee club
somehow is in loving evangel lockstep, with deadwood Scheer
inheritor of The Harper petro super power & arms manufacturing
export to anyone with the foreign $ .. Again.. remarkable unity
perfect synchronized idealogy & belief..

Justin Trudeau et al.. doing dubious backflips for Lavalin
and some truly unexplainable full morman front somersaults
for pipelines jammed across BC.. and there ! Look !
Its all 'nation building' (foreign owned hydrocarbon ?)
But look ! Ah um.. expanding diluted bitumin
will pay for lowering methane escape & CO2 increases
What ?

OK.. this is where 'captured media' comes in real handy ..
In the menage a trois of Government, Corporations and Media
its hard to determine who is sleeping with whom or cheating on both others
Exceptions aside (and there are some..)
we used to seek 'responsible, transparent government'
we used to 'expect' thriving, striving business endeavor
we assumed mainstream media was driven by journalism
So what happened ?

Please consider what's 'christian' or 'evangelical' or biblical..
(as if that 'branding' is of any use anyway.. other than as garbage fantasy)
or whether our current political parties & elected governments
and OUR elections & democratic structures they now subvert
are now marked for extirpation, the healty habitat destroyed
& soon to be extinct.. thoughts n prayers eh..

Owen Gray said...

Thoughts 'n prayers, indeed, sal. Well said.

John B. said...

I don't know what's in legislation, but I don't think there's any current means by which electors can specify anything regarding the conduct of elections in their district. How about a non-aligned or all-party and independent electoral district association that must forbid the development of alliances and cliques? How would it be accorded its mandate?

Owen Gray said...

Good question, John. The nature of politics is making alliances. The question that arises is who controls those alliances?

ffd said...

How about an electoral system that reflects the will of the electors? New Zealand started out with the antiquated and unfair first-past-the-post system and then successfully switched over to a modern system. It can be done but most Canadians say if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Doug Ford got about 40% of the votes and so would get 40% of the seats and 40% of the power under a fair electoral system. What's so hard to understand about that?

Canadians need to expand their horizons and stop settling for archaic minimums just because that's all they know. They need to get curious and find out about things they don't know.

Owen Gray said...

Some of us voted for Justin Trudeau because we believed he's deliver electoral reform, ffd. Unfortunately, we misunderstood or were misinformed.

ffd said...

I was involved in the electoral reform campaign. I can remember my small activist group visiting our federal Member of Parliament to express our support for changing the electoral system.

But most people simply were not interested and thought things were fine the way they were. Most of them didn't realize there was more than one way to run an election anyway.

I think this had to put Trudeau off; why give people what they don't want even if it would enormously benefit them? It just won't work. I would have lost motivation myself if I had been a politician. So I don't blame Trudeau myself though I know lots of people who do.

Owen Gray said...

Ultimately, ffd, we're in this pickle because of voter ignorance.