Great Moments in Spin
If there are ever "spin awards", Tim Powers deserves the statue:
It's no surprise the Liberals are to blame, but that kind of obvious spin won't win you awards. Where Powers really brings it home is when he postures about Harper's strategy to do "mind bogglingly" awful things as part of a master plan to stir up the hornet's nest and spur on support for senate reform.
Maybe this has been Harper's strategy all along. He shuts down Parliament so that Canadians learn a valuable lesson about democracy. He destroys the Census so that Canadians learn to appreciate it. He takes the country from surplus to deficit, to spur on public support for fiscal responsibility.
Brilliant!
PARLIAMENT HILL—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s inflammatory decision to stuff two failed Conservative election candidates back into the Senate on Wednesday does “boggle the mind,” Conservative Tim Powers admits, but argues the storm of controversy will focus public attention on the unelected Upper Chamber, stir up a “hornet’s nest,” and spur support for Mr. Harper’s plan to reform the Senate.
Mr. Powers admitted to The Hill Times the impending appointments are an absurdity—which continued to draw rising criticism on Thursday with two provincial premiers attacking them and backroom Tories in the Senate even raising eyebrows.
But Mr. Powers blamed the minority Liberals in past Parliaments for the spectacle, saying they delayed Senate reform measures that Mr. Harper has been proposing since 2006. Mr. Harper also announced his intention to send another defeated Conservative election candidate, former intergovernmental affairs minister Josée Verner, to the Senate, but the ire of critics was focused on the two former Senators.
It's no surprise the Liberals are to blame, but that kind of obvious spin won't win you awards. Where Powers really brings it home is when he postures about Harper's strategy to do "mind bogglingly" awful things as part of a master plan to stir up the hornet's nest and spur on support for senate reform.
Maybe this has been Harper's strategy all along. He shuts down Parliament so that Canadians learn a valuable lesson about democracy. He destroys the Census so that Canadians learn to appreciate it. He takes the country from surplus to deficit, to spur on public support for fiscal responsibility.
Brilliant!
posted by calgarygrit at
11:00 a.m.
16 Comments:
And yet the Liberals lose half their caucus in the election. What does it say about the Liberals?
By
Anonymous, at 11:42 a.m.
What does it say about the Liberals? They haven't learnt how to play dirty politics.
By
kitt, at 12:31 p.m.
"And yet the Liberals lose half their caucus in the election. What does it say about the Liberals?"
More importantly, what does it say about the low collective intelligence of the sheeple who voted CPoC? It tells me that when people are offered up policies and ideas of how we can begin to get out of the mess of the last five years, they choose to ignore reality. Not saying that the Liberals, or any party, had all the answers but at least they were talking about real issues—unlike the CPoC who were coasting on their so-called stability and prudent fiscal managers mantra (as if massive federal deficits somehow make these charlatans good economic managers) or the NDP who are still mired in the old school management/labour dichotomy with a dollop of soveriegnists to taste.
People don't think. They react. It's all emotion over logic. Spin over substance. They choose to not think about the pressing issues and problems of the day. They choose to isolate themselves, close their eyes and pray that a magic fairy will fix everything for them when they awake from their long slumber. Alas, that will never happen.
On a side note, I assume that a good portion of Dear Leaders™ base were hoping for the rapture predicted by the snake oil salesman Harald Camping yesterday. Will they now reassess their belief system? I think not. The base is a walking laboratory for epistemic closure.
By
CuJoYYC, at 12:43 p.m.
Ok, so why are the Tories doing better than the Liberals? Answers so far:
1. The Conservatives cheated (fought dirty), and the Liberals are of course oh-so-honourable.
2. Canadians are stupid.
Gee, that totally explains it.
Eventually this whole "Liberals did it, so we can do it" attitude of the Conservatives will wear thin with Canadians. Hopefully by then the Liberals will have taken SOME responsibility for their performance, and will therefore be in a position to capitalize.
By
Robert Vollman, at 2:24 p.m.
What does it say about the Liberals? They haven't learnt how to play dirty politics.
Now that's funny.
By
The Invisible Hand, at 8:07 p.m.
If "failed Conservative election candidates " are not fit for the Senate,
why did the LPC and NDP (media and 'experts' too) think
a "failed Liberal Party" was fit to lead a coalition government?
By
wilson, at 9:27 p.m.
Wilson, the harper Cons conned their support parrots all the way to a majority regardless of all the stupidity the control freak Harper did which most times bordered on nothing but ugly attack ads and their Conned sheeple fell for it all bait, hook and sinker. Nothing but a bunch of yuppies easily conned and brain drained in the process.
Eventually Wilson he will screw you guys just as easily as he did with the rest of us who did not support him and his party. And Wilson, it was mostly Harper himself who did the screwing, not his party members.
By
marie, at 12:34 a.m.
Dan, I can't believe you ignored the Prime Minister's commitment to transparency, through supressing increasingly important documents and records in the hopes of eventually producing the public outcry that surprisingly never comes.
By
Don, at 9:40 a.m.
@Don, you're funny, too!
Tell me, what documents were released under the Chretien, Martin, Trudeau era which weren't released under Harper?
The Opposition Parties NEVER saw program costing data before, yet the Opposition under Ignatieff led Canadians to believe that they had a Constitutional right to see them (which is clearly not the case).
You want to talk about abuse of Parliament? Look at the flagrant and increasing abuses carried out by the Liberals and NDP with the aid of the Bloc, over the past five years.
By
Anonymous, at 9:52 a.m.
Look at the flagrant and increasing abuses carried out by the Liberals and NDP with the aid of the Bloc, over the past five years.
Please provide an itemized list of all of those abuses.
Thank you.
By
Anonymous, at 12:02 p.m.
Despite being a conservative supporter, I find the appointment of these candidates distasteful and dishonest. If they wanted to stay in the senate they shouldn't have run for elected office. Doing it just because so and so did it is not an acceptable answer.
I mean, there were openings, so it's not like they couldn't be filled, but surely there had to be other candidates to consider...I hope more Conservative MPs break rank and speak out against these appointments.
Thanks for being a reasonable liberal blog, CG. I find your posts well thought out and enlightening to read whether I agree with them or not.
I just happen to agree with this one despite sitting on the blue side of the aisle. If Harper really is doing these things to draw attention to an issue, he needs to start dealing with said issues.
By
Dennis, at 12:22 p.m.
"Please provide an itemized list of all of those abuses."
I'm not going to debate each and every one of the Opposition's abuses here, but just about everything the Liberals were crying about in their final days as the Official Opposition were abuses of Parliament.
By
Anonymous, at 3:10 p.m.
OK then, how about a list of five such abuses on the part of Liberals or the opposition generally?
Put up or shut up.
By
Anonymous, at 3:47 p.m.
Let's face it. Until every last Liberal, and possible Liberal is flushed out and squished into oblivion ... they will be at fault for everythig. And then the attention will turn to the NDP.
Why govern when you can break promises and blame it on somebody else. Masters of diversion.
By
Anonymous, at 11:02 p.m.
@Anon 3:47
I have provided the examples you requested.
By
Anonymous, at 8:00 a.m.
@Anon 8:00
No, you have not.
By
Anonymous, at 10:29 a.m.
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