They Still Stand In Awe Of Harper

Last week, Kellie Leitch suggested that prospective immigrants to Canada should pass a "Canadian values" test. You'll remember that, during the last election, Leitch and then Minister of Immigration Chris Alexander pitched  a "barbaric practices" snitch line. Michael Harris writes that Leitch:

is a one-woman wrecking crew for the party of MacDonald and Mulroney. She parroted the Harper line, signalling that the CPC hasn’t learned a single thing from its recent electoral thrashing. She represents the abyss, not renewal.

Leitch, however, isn't the only former cabinet minister with a Harper obsession:

Take Peter MacKay. When Harper finally left public life, MacKay had a chance to be his own man, or at least what is left of that commodity. Instead, in a sucky and transparent attempt to woo the old Reform wing of the party who might be useful should he decide to run, he dipped deep into the wells of sycophancy and sang Harper’s praises — for leaving his “indelible” mark on the country, for steering Canada through the recession, and for getting the nation’s books balanced.

Those who survived the last election keep repeating Stephen Harper's view of the world:

They continue to play the violin for Stephen Harper. They continue to act as though the loss in 2015 was the result of great ideas poorly articulated, rather than a decade of tyranical one-man rule that very nearly ruined the country with Harper’s warmed up version of Northern Republicanism. Remember how Harper himself mused about banning the niqab in the federal public service, but denied that his government’s anti-Muslim ranting had anything to do with attacks on Muslim women? Trump-like? You know it.

And they refuse to look at the election results:

The party lost the youth vote and young females. It lost First Nations people, scientists, and immigrants. Someone has got to figure out a way to get them back — and it isn’t more tax cuts for wealthy corporations, niqab bans, information blackouts, or rat lines.

Harris suggests that perhaps Michael Chong is the only leadership candidate who doesn't doesn't still stand in awe of Harper.

Stay tuned.

Image:ocanada.com

Don't Call It The Conservative Party

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In Canada, Conservatism means Confrontation. It's not about respect for institutions or the rule of law. It's not about wise economic management. It's about focusing on "the other" and destroying him or her. Lawrence Martin writes:

It’s not just Mr. Harper who equates conservatism with confrontation. There’s his new Defence Minister. Many commentators, myself included, have written flatteringly about Jason Kenney over the years; super smart, tireless worker, more inclined to fact than fiction. But more recently, he has come across as a gaffe-prone grandstander. His office has made unsubstantiated charges about Russia confronting Canadian warships in the Black Sea. He tweeted a photo purporting to show Muslim women in slavery that proved to be nothing of the sort. He wrongly accused the NDP of opposing every overseas military deployment in Canadian history. He also got his facts wrong about the Liberal record on defence spending.

There are yahoos in the party -- Larry Miller comes to mind -- who have no clue about the meaning of the word the party takes for its logo. But there are others -- like Chris Alexander -- who you would expect would not throw words about carelessly:

Mr. Alexander has had experience as a diplomat – in Afghanistan, no less. But you’d never know it. Last week, he listed the hijab as a face covering that has no place in the citizenship ceremony. The problem? It’s a head scarf, not normally used to cover the face. “Hey, before you send a race-baiting e-mail,” tweeted Liberal strategist Gerald Butts, “at least know the difference between a hijab and a niqab.”

Like the Cowboy from Etobicoke, the Conservative Party of Canada is a fraud. Call it the Confrontation Party. Call it the Know Nothing Party. Call it the Harper Party. But don't call it the Conservative Party.

The Last Progresive Conservative

Stephen Harper is about to shuffle his cabinet. And those who are presently in it -- but who will not run in the next election -- are taking their leave. Among them is Ted Menzies. Jeffrey Simpson writes:

Mr. Menzies was the last former Alberta Progressive Conservative left in the new Conservative Party created by Stephen Harper. When Mr. Menzies sought the nomination, he ran against a clutch of Reform Party types who cancelled each other out and allowed him to slide to victory. Once nominated, the election was a formality.

All the other Alberta Conservative MPs are either from the old Reform Party or weren’t involved in electoral politics before running for office. With his departure, the Alberta caucus will shift just a bit further to the right.

And, even if the players change, they will all be singing from the same hymnal:

This government’s tone and style are beginning to wear on more and more Canadians. The ferocious partisanship, the excessive secrecy, the negative television ads, the mendacity directed at opponents, the overwhelming sense that enemies (including most of the media, of course) abound, the almost manic preoccupation with spin and image and now the little scandals from the Senate have created the impression, outside the Conservative core, of a government that has ideology and agenda but not much heart, empathy, feeling or understanding for anyone who doesn’t share that ideology and agenda.

Simpson ends with a seminal question:

Ask yourself: How many senior Conservatives smile? Most are so scripted by the Prime Minister’s Office that they dare not show whatever humour they possess, or they turn it into sarcastic blasts at the opposition.

The Conservative Party -- like the man who heads it -- is now officially, and thoroughly, a nasty piece of work.