Saturday, March 05, 2022

Tunnel Vision


The National Post reports that Andrew Scheer will support Pierre Poilievre for the Conservative leadership:

Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer will support Pierre Poilievre’s bid for leadership. The announcement will be made on Friday evening during a rally in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Scheer was seen beside Poilievre as he was making his second promise as leadership candidate: repealing what he deems as “anti-energy and anti-pipeline legislation,” formally known as bills C-69 and C-48, and building “Canadian pipelines with Canadian workers.”

In addition to killing C-69 and C-48, Poilievre has said that he will scrap the carbon tax: 

Speaking to media, Poilievre promised to replace them with new laws that would “protect the environment, consult First Nations and provide them with paychecks and give quick decisions on proposed energy projects,” should he be named leader and then elected Prime Minister.

Scheer's support for Poilievre indicates that he still doesn't understand why he lost his quest for the brass ring. And Poilievre's stand on the environment indicates that his vision doesn't extend beyond the Manitoba border. 

It's tunnel vision. And it appears that the Conservatives can't find their way out of the tunnel.

Image: tnc.news

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You don’t think Kenny is going to resign and run for the cCons.? Working with Poillievre to step aside while offering him the position of Fiancé Minister and Deputy Minister. If the thought is Trudeau is bad, look out then me babies. Anyong

zoombats said...

"It's tunnel vision. And it appears that the Conservatives can't find their way out of the tunnel". More like they have their heads up their own asses. Having Sheer support you is more like the kiss of Judas. Oh well, at least it will be interesting when it comes election time

Owen Gray said...

If the Conservatives take over, Anyong, we'll be in a march darker tunnel.

Owen Gray said...

They seem incapable of learning anything, zoombats.

Al said...

“Canadian pipelines with Canadian workers.” and Russian steel?

Owen Gray said...

Good question, Al.

e.a.f. said...

If the conservatives elect P. as leader, the Liberals will most likely remain in office for a long time. P. was Harper's baby and we know what happened to him and all those after him. P. is not some one who ought to be running a country, especially ours. Perhaps he can get a job some where else.

Canadian pipelines? well they are in Canada so that makes them Canadian and I don't remember foreign workers coming in to build them. I think Mr. P. simply thinks he has a catchy slogan Now if pipeline companies from other countries are his concern, he ought to have a look at who owns the oil companies here in Canada. It was his good political buddy, Harper, who thought it would be a good idea to have a free trade agreement with Communist China .

Owen Gray said...

If the Conservatives do choose P, they'll have a hard time winning a majority government, e.a.f.

BJ Bjornson said...

Sadly, I suspect the Conservatives are in the same spiral that the Republicans have found themselves in. They fired up their base by ramping up culture war issues to get people angry and fuel hatred of the left, but keep trying to put a moderate face on their party when it is time to go to the polls. That worked for a little while, but eventually the mob wants its due. Once you start down the path of working the mob up into anger to win power, you need to keep the mob angry, and that can only happen by finding newer and more outrageous things for them to be outraged about. They don’t want mealy-mouthed dog whistles anymore, they want a Trump to pull out the bullhorn. That drives away the more moderate members, which gives the hard-core folks even more power to drive the party further to the right, driving away even more moderates, giving even more power to the hardliners, and so on and so forth.

And so, after Scheer got beaten, they tried to bring in Mackay as a moderate, but he got beaten by O’Toole running to his right, and wouldn’t have even made the final round if the party didn’t put their thumb on the scales to make their eastern voters count way more than the party’s base in the west. O’Toole tried to pivot to ‘moderate’ during the election, but the party can’t even accept climate change as real, and trying to be halfway reasonable when the mob occupied Ottawa got him turfed and the party installing Murphy Brownshirt as their interim leader. Now there are rumours of Charest running for the leadership, and putting the election off until September is supposedly a blow to Poliviere as it gives opponents of his more time to gather resources, but the result is going to be the same. The party’s base wants a fire-eater who will continue to stoke their anger and hatred. Reasonable Red Tory’s need not apply, and going too ‘moderate’ during the regular election now risks losing voters to the PPC. This is very bad for Canada going forward. We really could use a reasonable right wing party, even if I don’t ever see myself voting for one again. Sadly, I don't see the moderate conservatives taking back control and dumping the crazies to find a new home with the PPC, mostly because they've turned too many of their own supporters into the kind of people who want the PPC policies, but stay with the Conservatives because they think they are much the same and have a better chance of winning.

@e.a.f - Regarding the foreign workers building those pipelines, it is worth looking up the Temporary Foreign Worker program. My relatives in Alberta were pretty pissed some years back seeing ads for foreign welders and the like to come work on oil and gas projects rather than those companies hiring Canadian workers. Hell, they used TFWs to keep fast food joints going without raising wages during the boom years and continued to do so even when things weren’t so great. Covid put a temporary hold on such things, but I am certain our capitalist overlords will happily go back to the program to boost their profit margins as soon as they possibly can.

Owen Gray said...

When you cater to the mob, they demand more blood, BJ. And as Macbeth said, "I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er"