Tagged: Stephen Harper
Are the bastards winning?
RossK has decided to take a hiatus. As he says:
I just found myself losing my sense of humour with the poli-blogging a little…And when that happens I’ve learned it’s time to take a bit of a break
This is too bad. Ross’s blog, The Gazetteer – along with Norm Farrell’s and Ian Reid’s – are my favourite stops for B.C. politics and he has provided many good insights. But what about his lament that the “Codswallopanarianists might actually winning.” Ross points to City Caucus’s Mike Klassen aping Ezra Levant’s “money-laundering” libel as the straw that broke his camel’s back (with a mention of the much more serious issue of the Tory Government using the RCMP and the Canadian Revenue Agency to intimidate and silence legitimate criticism).
Two very much related things come to mind. The first is the parable of the scorpion and the frog1. If you believe the facts are on your side, that the evidence is overwhelming that our democracy is being eroded in a significant fashion, that our economy has been rejigged to favour the most privileged…well there’s a reason for that. And that is it’s in the very essence of those responsible to make those choices. Thus they are simply being true to themselves and won’t one day wake up and say “oops…boy was that ever crazy!” and reverse course…
They simply can’t help themselves.
The Conservative Party of Canada, no longer held in check by minority government, is showing us its nature. Shutting down independent voices, silencing dissent, that’s its nature. It cannot be anything else. Stephen Harper built this party and filled it with people like him. The British Columbia Liberal Party is an extension of a faction of our “business-overclass” and we see, even now at this late date with its polling numbers in tatters, it repeating the patterns of the past. It cannot be anything else.
And the facts, in a can’t fool all of the people all of the time kind of way, are revealing this. And this forces them to take ever more extreme positions in order to avoid addressing or provide a diversion for what the facts reveal.
For me, the “Tyee hid it’s Donation Button” post was high-comedy, but I can see how it might depress. Repeat a lie often enough, etc. But note how this story has evolved. First it was, well, perhaps some charities are violating some regulations. Now we’ve moved from there to money laundering accusations -> which no matter how you try to parse is a suggestion of criminal activity.
It’s an extreme charge, an easily refuted charge, and to me it signals weakness not strength.
Whether it’s Mike Klassen/City Caucus or the Vancouver Province, they are going back to the well with retreaded canards that have already decisively failed to sway the civic electorate. Or it’s Ezra Levant, pushing (and in his case often exceeding) the boundaries of truth to enter the realm of defamation and libel.
The second thing is we have a precedent for all this, in our neighbours to the south. Roy Edroso notes:
Once upon a time these guys were a fringe, of the sort that any political movement would need to lose if it were going to be taken seriously; now, they’re an important part of the Republican base.
This isn’t good news for the Republican Party. It’s very bad news. People are waking up. Rush Limbaugh’s ratings are tumbling. The Heartland Institute shoots itself. This is the Canadian right-wing’s future.
Ezra Levant is not an upgrade.
It’s not sustainable over the long haul – eventually they’ll collapse in on themselves, as they have before. The right-wing spent a decade in the wilderness at both the Federal level and at the provincial level here in B.C.. I believe it will happen again.
I don’t know RossK personally, but I have a sneaking suspicion he’ll be back blogging sooner rather than later. The facts are on his side.
1 Yes, the frog died too. Don’t push fables too far!
Compare and Contrast: Just who is the zealot?
That’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper weighing in on Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons with Peter Mansbridge. In addition to this interview, Mr. Harper was equally unambiguous with the Globe:
Mr. Harper said he has no doubt that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. “There is absolutely no doubt they are lying,” Mr. Harper said, referring to statements by Iran that the nuclear program is for peaceful uses.
“The evidence is just growing overwhelming. This is not, as was the case of Iraq, merely the opinion of allies,” he said.
It echoes, almost note for note, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s. As I’ve mentioned before it echoes, almost note for note, Harper’s certainty in 2003 that Iraq was pursuing nuclear weapons:
I noted that there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein operates programs to produce weapons of mass destruction. Experience confirms this. British, Canadian and American intelligence leaves no doubt on the matter. Saddam Hussein’s continued non-compliance and non-cooperation with the United Nations only confirms this information.
This runs contra the opinion of the IAEA, U.S., and Israeli military and security services. What’s more, U.S. and particularly Israeli military and security officials are no longer being subtle about their disagreement with leaders like Harper and Netanyahu on Iran.
[H]ead of Israel’s military, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, declared that the Iranian leadership had not yet made a decision to build nuclear weapons, that it was unlikely to go this “extra mile”, and was composed of “very rational people”. “Decisions must be made carefully out of historic responsibility but without hysteria,” added Gantz in a not-too-subtle dig at his political masters.
And…
[F]ormer head of Shin Bet (Israel’s MI5), described Netanyahu and Barak as “not fit to hold the steering wheel of power“. He went on: “I have observed them from up close … They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off … They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won’t have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race.”
And…
Dagan’s predecessor, Efraim Halevy, has said “it is not in the power of Iran to destroy the state of Israel”, and that “the growing Haredi radicalisation poses a bigger risk than Ahmadinejad”. Then there is the current head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, who is said to have told an audience of Israeli diplomats in December that a nuclear-armed Iran would not constitute an “existential threat” to Israel.
The U.S. military leadership is also circumspect:
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said in a television interview that it was “not prudent at this point” to attack Iran, and “a strike at this time would be destabilising”.
But in a comment likely to fuel speculation about Israel’s military plans, he added: “I wouldn’t suggest we’ve persuaded them that our view is the correct view.” The two countries were having a “candid, collaborative conversation” which was continuing, he said.
His concerns were echoed by William Hague, the British foreign secretary, who said it was “not a wise thing at this moment” for Israel to launch military action against Iran.
All of this says a lot about Benjamin Netanyahu. But it also says a lot about Stephen Harper. In fact this, more than any other questionable thing he’s done while in power, reveals the most about the man’s soul. And it is, in my opinion, truly frightening.
It speaks to a black and white, Manichean worldview. It speaks to the dismissal of the advice of experts. It speaks to governing by faith…to whatever end.
This is social conservatism at its absolute, dangerous worst.
At it’s hypocritical worst.
“As a concerned Israeli citizen who lives in the state of Israel with his family and all of his children and grandchildren,” he said, “I love very much the courage of those who live 10,000 miles away from the state of Israel and are ready that we will make every possible mistake that will cost lives of Israelis.”
It’s very easy to be brave when you don’t have skin in the game.
It really speaks to how the Harper Government[tm] makes decisions from top to bottom on anything.
Compare and contrast: Canada’s burgeoning moral authority
Harper is also looking for commitments to improve human rights in the world’s most populous country and will have a chance to deliver the message directly to China’s current and incoming leadership during a series of bilateral tête-à-têtes over the next four days.
vs.
Canada ordered its intelligence agency to use information that may have been extracted through torture if public safety is at risk, it has emerged.
The directive, obtained by Canadian media through freedom of information laws, was issued in 2010.
Compare and contrast: Stephen Harper, WMD Supersleuth
Mr. Harper said he has no doubt that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. “There is absolutely no doubt they are lying,” Mr. Harper said, referring to statements by Iran that the nuclear program is for peaceful uses.
“The evidence is just growing overwhelming. This is not, as was the case of Iraq, merely the opinion of allies,” he said.
Stephen Harper, Globe and Mail, Jan 17, 2012
I noted that there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein operates programs to produce weapons of mass destruction. Experience confirms this. British, Canadian and American intelligence leaves no doubt on the matter. Saddam Hussein’s continued non-compliance and non-cooperation with the United Nations only confirms this information.
Meanwhile, in the evidence-based universe:
“The IAEA does not assert that Iran has resumed a full scale nuclear weapons program nor does it have a program about how advanced the programs really are,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call. The official was speaking on background.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has released a report which it says has credible evidence that Iran has carried “out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device”, but has offered no estimate of how long it would take Iran to be able to produce a nuclear weapon.
Though many Iran critics have focused on the report’s claims that Iran continues to participate in activities that indicate interest in building a bomb, the administration chose to focus on the IAEA’s conclusions that a “structured program” to develop a nuclear warhead was halted in 2003.
Update: Other doubters include…Israeli Intelligence:
The Israeli view is that while Iran continues to improve its nuclear capabilities, it has not yet decided whether to translate these capabilities into a nuclear weapon – or, more specifically, a nuclear warhead mounted atop a missile. Nor is it clear when Iran might make such a decision.
Behold the future!
The Stephen Harper Govtm won’t allow the Cdn Forces to assist with flood cleanup for the most practical, non-ideological of reasons:
“Furthermore, the services you’re asking for — if they were authorized — would place the Canadian Forces in competition with the private sector, at the local or provincial level, which could perform this type of repair work.”
Jesus murphy.
UPDATE: Not to be outdone, the Ontario Conservative party proposes to harness the great untapped prison labour force.
Quick post-election thoughts
It was the Liberal-NDP vote-splitting in the Big Smoke that won the day for Harper. How did this happen? Well lots of smarter people than I have waxed poetic already, but here is my 10 second take…
I found this Liberal Party postmortem by Robert Silver very telling. Of note:
We entered the election with a clear strategy to triangulate the NDP on just about every single issue save Afghanistan.
Personally I think “save Afghanistan” is a bit of deal-breaker for many progressives but that’s just me. But even then the strategy strikes me as internally contradictory, given their party leader. Veering left with Tony Blair clone Michael Ignatieff at the helm? These two things cancel each other out.
Which is to say Michael Ignatieff was an incredible, perhaps fatal, mistake for the Liberal Party. It’s too bad because the Tories were vulnerable. Very vulnerable. And it wasn’t the Corporate Income Tax or the JSF or the Income-splitting or any of the other policies that helped those that needed help the least.
It was contempt of Parliament. It was prorogation. It was the abuse of authority. It was the suppression of information. I can’t say with any certainty if this is true, but I have the strongest of hunches there were a lot of Conservative voters in the ilk of my Dad – lifelong Conservatives who were deeply troubled by the behaviour of Stephen Harper’s crew. And then there were the Blue Liberals. And while these latter issues were discussed during the campaign, they were never the central message of the opposition parties.
This should have been hammered on to Harper again and again. He was on autopilot on message most of the time. “An unnecessary election? No, sir, you brought this on yourself. You have lied to Parliament. You have lied to the Canadian people and it will not stand, sir. It will not stand…”
That would have resonated with Dad.
Etc.
Ed Broadbent on integrity
As we head into the last week of campaigning for our latest Federal election, as we see Conservative candidates engaging in what can only be charitably described as “win at all costs, law and ethics be damned” behaviour, it’s good to be reminded (this is from 2008) what a man of actual honour and integrity thinks:
I suppose if you were a Tory supporter you would try to dismiss Mr. Broadbent’s measured words as hyperbole. You would be grieveously mistaken to take that view.
“That’s invented. There’s so much cuckoo around this…”
That’s Queen’s University Parliamentary expert Ned Franks on this statement by Stephen Harper:
“You said in your statement that the party that wins the most seats would get to try first. Then you think you’d all get together, vote against it and replace the government. That’s not how our system is supposed to work in this country.”
No Stephen, that’s not how it works. The government needs the confidence of the House of Commons, which when you have a majority is a given. However Le Roi here wants us to believe a minority government should automatically be granted the confidence of the House as if it were a majority. As long as that government is Conservative. If it isn’t, all bets are off.
Alas, in the debates last night Harper left some flanks exposed that the other leaders failed to launch torpedoes at. Especially this lack of understanding of and/or contempt for our democratic processes – which has always been a vulnerability for him in terms of public perception.
Oh well…
Profiles in courage
Profiles in courage: Propose a one to one debate with your main rival then….don’t.
Hoisted by your own petard
Stephen “No Coalition” Harper stumbles and trips on a memory hole:
Whoopsie.
