tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post7769644604585098802..comments2024-03-26T20:19:35.180-04:00Comments on Northern Reflections: An Ornery BunchOwen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-39976174597746381152021-10-10T12:43:23.161-04:002021-10-10T12:43:23.161-04:00Living along the American border has always been p...Living along the American border has always been problematic, Mound. It has robbed many of us of a good night's sleep.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-82011484265853079872021-10-10T12:39:35.635-04:002021-10-10T12:39:35.635-04:00That's another familiar criticism of the Liber...That's another familiar criticism of the Liberals, John -- all hat and no cattle.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-60183473596055251142021-10-10T12:31:28.302-04:002021-10-10T12:31:28.302-04:00Harper expunged from the Conservative ranks whatev...<br />Harper expunged from the Conservative ranks whatever vestiges of a progressive element existed. Mackay was his Quisling. Mulroney was compliant. Only Joe Clark and a small following walked. Yet Harper wasn't quite as successful as he imagined. In 2015 a number of card-carrying CPC members, some I've known for decades, concluded he'd gone too far and either didn't vote or cast their ballots for Justin Trudeau.<br /><br />We see in the States today an emerging dichotomy of rural Republicans and urban Democrats. In the flyover states that hands control to the Republicans that they use to dominate the Senate. In Canada, the Tories have bested the Trudeau Liberals on share of popular vote in the last two elections yet Conservatives keep taking far fewer seats.<br /><br />Kinsella argues that ideology only matters in election campaigns. Once the votes are counted there's little sunlight between Liberal and Conservative. In other words, the center holds. <br /><br />What concerns me is the radicalization of politics in our country, a fragmentation that creates opportunity for the anti-immigrant, anti-vaxx, anti-climate crisis tropes, that now drive much of the GOP support to spread into Canada.<br /><br />There has been a growing number of op-eds in the US media suggesting the Repugs will retake the Senate in next year's mid-terms and the other branches of government in 2024, ushering in at least 10 years of Democrats in minority. Biden has been successful in reversing a number of Trump's excesses but imagine what a unified Republican Congress under the leadership of a "vindicted" Trump presidency would inflict on the US. Among other things it could unravel the wobbly global consensus on averting climate catastrophe or be the final nail in the coffin of the Atlantic convention. Canada wouldn't stand a chance of remaining aloof to that sort of thing. <br /><br />The Disaffected Libhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13135599782685108764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-77304060853811916102021-10-10T12:24:32.695-04:002021-10-10T12:24:32.695-04:00Of course, the danger to the rest of us in the way...Of course, the danger to the rest of us in the way that the Liberals run their party is that we could end up with a superficial pinhead pretending to run the country.John B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07402794337521523610noreply@blogger.com