Erin O'Toole wants to put a kinder, gentler face on his party. But, Bob Hepburn writes, since he became the Conservative leader, he has pandered to the party's darker angels:
The Conservative party has increasingly become the home of far-right conspiracists, COVID-19 anti-vaxxers, emboldened hard-line gun lovers and politicians spouting anti-socialist hysterics.
Through all of this O’Toole has tried to appease the worst elements in the Conservative fold by issuing vague statements that say nothing, neither condemning nor praising the actors who are now defining the party as it prepares to fight the coming election.
Consider the way O'Toole has dealt with his leadership rival Derek Sloan:
O’Toole has refused to condemn Tory MP Derek Sloan for sponsoring a nation-wide petition championed by anti-vaxxers that spreads falsehoods about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, more than 30,000 people have signed the petition.
Instead, O’Toole insists it is the Liberals’ “incompetence” that’s to blame for Canadians’ fears about the vaccines. Right now, this tacit support for the anti-vaxxer crowd is about the only thing people are talking about when it comes to the Conservatives.
And then there is the case of Pierre Polievre:
O’Toole has given free rein to Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre, his most senior MP, to flirt with the conspiracy crowd by becoming a cheerleader for far-right loonies who have convinced themselves that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other global elites are plotting to impose a socialist order on the world, enriching themselves and making the masses poorer.
In recent weeks, Poilievre has gone to vast lengths to demonize what’s called the “Great Reset,” a simple, non-offensive vision by the World Economic Forum that suggests the COVID-19 pandemic provides a chance to adopt policies to reduce economic inequality around the globe.
And, like the nutbars south of the border, the Conservatives are calling their opponents "socialists:"
Far-right Conservatives love to toss the word “socialist” at Liberals and progressives, firing up their base and suggesting Canada is heading toward destruction. During the Trump presidency, the smearing of “socialists” has become more common in Canada.
The best example was a recent column in the National Post by Leslyn Lewis, who finished third in the Tory leadership race and will be the Tory candidate in the Ontario riding of Haldiman-Norfolk. Lewis, a darling of the Tory right and touted as a possible future leader, warned in excitable language that Trudeau is leading “a socialist coup” in Canada, which she described as “a quiet and bloodless revolution that seeks to control our lives through economic dependency,” right down to confiscating part of your retirement savings.
The party is now guided by its darker angels.
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11 comments:
Little changes with the reformatories.
Sheer pandered to the loonies and Day worshiped his dinosaurs . Harper kept his under control with lies they wanted to hear.
So Poilievre's demonizing the laughable "Great Reset" coming from the billionaires who meet at Davos every year? Wow, that's got to be a first, PP's on the same page as Naomi Klein! Some intrepid reporter ought to ask him when he became a socialist.
Cap
The Conservatives continue to move to the lunatic fringe, rumley.
Poilievre poses as a man of principle, Cap. But his principles frequently change.
Bringing the kooks into the fold probably won't affect their support much. I've got some conservative relatives and when I talk to them about this kind of stuff, they just shrug and carry on about socialism. However, they are happy to use our social(ist) programs like health care, education, roads and other infrastructure, CPP, etc.
They rail about socialism, Gordie -- but don't take away their healthcare.
In his book Main Street Sinclair Lewis has businessmen and conservative politicians accusing their opponents of Socialism. We've had a 100 years of this taunt. How can a simple usually misunderstood word have so much power?
Socialism is one of those hot button words, Toby. The dictionary meaning doesn't matter. It's the manufactured nightmare that does.
I grew up in the world of the UK's Harold Wilson.
They were the days of western socialism.
What we have now are buzz words to defile any social conscience as being subversive.
We have become self destructive.
What is abhor ant is that we worship the worst of the worst that have accumulated ill gained wealth.
TB
Misplaced adulation is nothing new, TB. What is new is that so many of us display that dangerous failing.
What is new is that so many of us display that dangerous failing.
Have we become so shallow that we cannot live without icons..
Perhaps we have become so accustomed to dishing out our hopes and feelings to social media that we have become incapable of facing reality.
TB
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