The Conservatives have now revealed their game plan for fighting seven attempts to overturn results from last May's election. There is a conspiracy afoot, they say. In a 750 page "brief," they allege that the Council of Canadians, which is underwriting the challenges to last May's results, is motivated by “antipathy ... towards the Conservative Party.” One assumes that the Conservatives feel no such antipathy toward the opposition parties.
The Globe and Mail reports that:
The Tories ransacked the legal dictionary to make their case, arguing the Council is guilty of “wanton or officious intermeddling” in funding cases by individuals Canadians.
“It is evidence that the council’s business model is to leverage anti-Conservative sentiment in order to raise money and continue to employ professional agitators like [chair Maude] Barlow.”
What it all amounts to, the Conservatives argue, is a back door attempt to overthrow the government -- and the villains are the NDP:
“The Council has strong ties to the NDP and the labour movement leadership dating back to at least the 1980s,” the Conservatives say.
“It has expressed, on numerous occasions, that it wishes to topple the majority government that Canadians elected on May 2, 2011 and that it would prefer NDP rule.”
Several commentators have noted Stephen Harper's Nixonian inspired politics. What the Conservative response to the court challenges reveals is that Joe McCarthy's ghost stalks the halls of 24 Sussex Drive.
For Stephen Harper, opposition means conspiracy.
