Erin O'Toole does not want the residents of Canada's prisons to be the first Canadians vaccinated. It's part of the old Stephen Harper playbook. Robin Sears writes:
Canadian conservatives since the Reform Party-era in the ‘80s have often skated too close to the line on Islamophobia, guns, refugees and Indigenous rights.
O’Toole needs to put a clear red line on the other side of those dangerous dog whistles. Instead he has renewed doubts.
Stephen Harper's Party were Northern Republicans -- and they haven't changed:
Conservatives are admittedly masters at this American style of incendiary rhetoric, but it has trapped them with the same base — aging, rural and Western — for nearly two decades now. It perhaps signals some uneasiness in O’Toole’s caucus and activist base about giving up attack politics that he would do something as borderline racist as saying that no prisoners — or presumably therefore no prison employees — should receive a vaccination until every “other” Canadian has.
Is that really the message O’Toole has for Canadians about a more caring, less vitriolic Canadian conservatism? With a single foolish statement, he has gifted the Liberals and the NDP with a powerful weapon against him.
This week he doubled down, with someone in his camp authorizing an email conversation on his behalf with the bilious Ezra Levant and Rebel Media — the same collection of angry adolescents that helped bring down his predecessor. And the capper: a Tory fundraising page on the party’s website actually carried the headline, “Justin Trudeau is rigging the next election in his favour.” The page came down after the attack on Congress.
It would hard to think of a less appropriate time to be tempted to revive somewhat ominous slogans like “Take Back Canada” — it begs the question from whom and for whom? It should be retired after having been erased from everything with the party name on it. O’Toole did put out a statement last week saying most of the right things about white nationalism and the use of violent political rhetoric. But given the party’s record over the past two decades, that will not be good enough.
The Harper Party has changed its leader. But the party itself hasn't changed.
Image: The Toronto Star
8 comments:
O'Toole's statement about white nationalism and violent political rhetoric is inconsistent with granting an interview to Rebel News, a purveyor of both of those. As always with politicians, pay more attention to what they do than what they say.
Cap
Precisely, Cap. Talk is cheap.
We all know that old saying, Owen, and it is proven time and again when it comes to politics and political rhetoric, especially in challenging times: "A leopard does not change its spots".
That old saw remains true, Lulymay. The new boss is the same as the old boss.
Owen, that "Take Canada Back" slogan is a dog whistle to Canada's "Old Stock" (aka Conservative racists). RG
Exactly, RG. The Harperites believe that somehow immigrants can't accomplish what they and their ancestors did.
O'Toole is another Con liar. Man of the people, what a joke. A very BAD joke. His revealed Zoom call to the Young Conservatives of Ryerson about residential schools having been only a grand empathetic attempt to educate those First Nations kids, as if, and that "most of the lefty radicals are also the dumbest people at your university," reveal what a twisted and bigoted mind the man has. Ryerson has about 50% visible minority students. What do they think of this paleolithic ape, this right wing troll, supposed "leader" of a major national political party, and obviously a racist? It's embarrassing that any Canadian has views like this, let alone a "leader". Leaders unite, not divide by dunning others; ergo, O'Toole is not a leader, simple as that.
Imagine if O'Toole had been PM during this pandemic. We'd all be dead already, or at best floundering in the wake of gross incompetence exhibited by the like of Upper Class Twit of the Year Boris "I'm brilliant" Johnson over in the UK. The man with the lawn shears haircut and not a clue to be found all the way from one ear to the other, merely fluff. Look at pictures of people still crammed together on the London Underground going to work just to survive. A lockdown in name only - why, those people have to learn to hold their breath for Britain, a chap like Boris thinks. Kenney and Moe in the prairies provide a good example of what happens when Conservative "leaders" face a crisis. They don't face it, they blame others for their failings. Sask has now outpaced Alberta in the per capita new virus infection rate. How's that for rugged Con individualism? The milk of human kindness never ran through these people's veins. One can only assume they are sociopaths.
BM
That's the common thread that ties all these guys together, BM. They know nothing about the milk of human kindness.
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