Well it hasn't taken too very long for the stalwart Liberal insiders to start gunning for Stephane Dion. I have been vocal in my criticism of his leadership from the get-go but the Liberal Party as a whole is at fault for their current sad state. Stephane Dion did not make the party into the weak kneed losing machine that we see suddenly trying to crawl out from under blame for their historic losses. Stephane Dion did not single handedly fail to raise funds, confidence and interest from inside and from outside of the party ranks. And Dion did not fail to make an honest effort to lead a party that seemed to be indifferent to the tide rising against it. Now suddenly the knives are drawn and we see what really drove the Liberal Party through this electoral season, spite, avarice and bloody minded stupidity. To say nothing of rank incompetence. Way to go, fools.
Where were the Liberal voices over the last two years calling out Harper and the Conservative smear machine for their low brow, anti-intellectual attacks on their leader? Where were the Liberal responses to the constant barrage of ridicule and belittlement heaped on M Dion? Where were the Liberals willing to fight back against the sociopathic void that Stephen Harper displays in lieu of charisma? They were all bumbling about, quailing in fear of the big blue meanies and plotting their own ascendance. For months at a time it seemed the only Liberal voice defending Dion was that of terminal crybaby and obnoxoius wanker Jason Cherniak. That was the face of courage of in the Liberal Party? You sad fucks are lucky you won as many seats as you did.
So now the Liberals, in full flounder, are going to plunge into the next four years of Harper's uninterrupted, minority autocracy busily shooting their own feet off at every turn. At a time when continuity of leadership will be vital, the Liberals will set to squabbling and jockeying for the empty vessel of power. And what a display of future losing power we will get to witness. Bob Rae, hated and reviled through much of the last remaining Liberal stronghold in Ontario or Michael Ignatieff the authentic ivory tower elite who is perhaps the only potential candidate with less charisma than Dion and less warmth than Harper. Good luck with that. Here's my prediction for the two presumptive front runners, Canada will never, ever elect either of those two as Prime Minister.
Strange as it may seem, after my having called for Dion to be replaced while the Liberals were hiding from votes and refusing to stand up against the Cons, I am now going to call upon Dion to dig in his heels and tell the party snot rags that surround him to get fucked. This campaign showed Dion to be a decent person, certainly a smart person and a man with at least some potential. There are simply no better choices for the Liberals at this time. Another leadership convention will burn away what funds are available and serve no purpose but to further make the party appear unfit for trust or leadership in the house. With the reduced caucus, it is an opportunity for the Liberal Party of Canada to start throwing back at the Cons. As official opposition without enough seats to pose an immediate threat to the Cons, minus a large well of support from the Bloc and Layton's wannabe party, there is no reason not to start kicking the living shit out of every Con effort to frame legislation. Clearly the tone of Canadian politics under the Cons has taken a turn for the ugly, the juvenile and the mean. It is time for the opposition to take off the gloves and rake Steve Harper's dumpy ass over the coals.
Find a picture of Steve looking like a giant goober and paste that bitch on every billboard in every battleground riding in the land. Mock the awkward clumsiness of the man, tear him apart and piss on the pieces. Where are the clips of Mr Wooden garbling his French? Put them on an endless loop for the citizens of Quebec to enjoy. And most importantly, develop coherent policies, frame them in an attractive package and kick the living hell out of every retrograde move the Cons make. Harper and his team of adolescent stooges have set the ground rules, time to beat them at their own game. If the Liberal Party of Canada can't figure that out then we'll be watching them fade into irrelevance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
36 comments:
Where were the Liberal voices over the last two years calling out Harper and the Conservative smear machine for their low brow, anti-intellectual attacks on their leader? Where were the Liberal responses to the constant barrage of ridicule and belittlement heaped on M Dion?
Amen. It took the U.S. Democrats a few elections to learn that every Republican slam needs to be answered right away and just as forcefully.
Until the Liberals figure this out, they will be wandering in the wilderness.
You're wrong here PSA.
Dion might be a smart guy with some some admirable political scruples, but he's a bullshit artist first-and-foremost.
Once again, for emphasis, he was environment minister when Canada completely violated its Kyoto Accord obligations. He was a failure on the environment. His running on an "Green Shift" platform was useful as a way to con the Greens into allying with him, and to make Canadians forget his past failures. Who chose to say it was only the media making his "Green Shift" important when he got tired of explaining it? Dion.
Dion did this because he's a Liberal. Liberals are unprincipled corporate stooges addicted to the joys of distributing spoils when in power.
That's why I vote NDP.
I don't vote for them, and occasionally join them because I "wannabe" a Liberal. I support them because if there's any party that has a hope in hell of turning this country leftwards, it's the NDP. A capitalist-controlled "big tent" party cannot do this. Ever.
Capitalism has been suffering from a declining rate of profit since 1970 and has been pursuing increased immiseration of the rest of the world ever since, and they have made it so that the mushy middle cannot hold. The mushy middle is where the Liberals opportunistically plopped themselves, and it's dissipating.
The best thing that the Liberal Party of Canada can do for this country is to quickly die. Not continue to muddy the waters for voters who need a clear choice.
I'm surprised, quite frankly. After a wretched start, I had thought Dion was just kind of hitting his stride towards the end of the campaign and showed promise for the future.
I had also thought that being freed from triggering an election would have allowed him the liberty to do a little manipulating of his own with Harper. It's a given that nobody wants to go back to the polls for quite a while — but that doesn't give Harper free reign. Quite the opposite, in fact.
A period of aggressive opposition during which time the party could rebuild and fix some of its chronic internal policies while constantly attacking the government would have been the tonic it needed to get its fighting spirit back.
But nooooo....
I won't disagree with your Outlaw Josey Wales approach the Liberals need to take - "You gotta get mean, plumb mad dog mean..." - but Dion is poison.
For whatever reason, he is not connection or resonating with people, including lifelong Liberals. Case in point, as I said over at Red's place, my life-long Liberal wife does not like Dion and, if not for her old high school teacher running as a Liberal in our riding she would have voted Conservative. Her parents DID vote Conservative, because they did not like Dion or the piss poor selling job of the Green Shift - they were afraid of losing their income splitting.
I know this is anecdotal, but they aren't unusual. Remember, it was soft Liberals voting CPC that won all of those Ontario seats.
And they all told me they would have voted Liberal if either Iggy or Bob Rae was the leader.
So, its either Dion steps down and takes a secondary or backroom leadership role, of the Liberals have to spend a hell of a lot of money and effort countering his image with ads outside of the election cycle, just as the Cons did to destroy it.
It might work, but I'm not sure Dion can recover....
It strikes me that Bob Rae is mainly hated and reviled by people who would never, under any circumstances, vote Liberal. What really matters is whether they are able to convince people who already or who might vote Liberal to share their feelings. At least based on Toronto Centre, there's no evidence to support the idea that potential Liberal voters have anything against him. He won the riding with 53.6% of the vote, while Bill Graham averaged only 51.7% over 4 elections (High of 55%, low of 49%). If we count the by-election (which we shouldn't) then his average would be 56.4%.
The NDP, on the other hand, for the first time since the merger of the PCs and CRAP, finished in third place, despite the Cons having to dump their initial candidate.
I think people counting on seeing their own hated for Rae mirrored in potential Liberal voters may be in for a sad surprise.
Hammer Harper Hard. (tm)
The NDP has blown their wad. The will be scared stiff of an election now that the have spent to the limit and are in debt up to the eyeballs. The NDP has pissed off their former core in the labour and environment sectors. And they will find fund raising very hard when the fools who support Layton are unemployed.
Dion can step up and go after Harper knowing that the NDP will prop Harper up. Meanwhile show Harper to be the jerk he is, fund raise and allow Dion to continue to grow in perception.
constant vigilance
NDP will prop up Harper? You've discredited yourself right there. Don't you remember the gutless lying cowards who propped up Harper were the Liberals.
The NDP hasn't blown its wad.
The Liberals have no wad to blow. They're intellectually barren, a political dead-end.
"They're intellectually barren..."
I think that's the way Canadians like their political parties. No "scary" new ideas. Sheesh! Get with the program. ;)
I was commenting this election that to its credit, the NDP is running better, more grownup campaigns every election. I attribute this, in part, to the fact that whatever one thinks of Jack Layton as a person, an MP, a politician, or a party leader, he has improved his political electioneering skills over every election in which he has led the party.
I think the Liberals could benefit from a similar stretch of time under the leadership of one, smart, committed leader. I think that Dion is still finding his feet as the party leader, and I don't think that Rae or Ignatieff would do any better.
For those who think that those who still revile Rae wouldn't be Liberal voters anyway, please think again. Many in my family flipped between the old PC party and the Liberals throughout my childhood, and now that the Cons are no longer in any sense Progressive, they're Liberal voters. As former teachers and Ontario public servants, they become very, very unhappy at the thought of Bob Rae leading the Liberal party. They'd never vote NDP, in a million years; they probably won't vote for the Cons under Harper; Rae leading the Libs might just drive them to vote Green.
mmm smell the synapses burning. so here we are kids. the left and the pseudo-left all ready to eat our own. i'm not a liberal, hell, i'm not even a fan of the liberals. my point here is that plunging the liberals into a leadership convention strips their purse and leaves them vulnerable, yet again, to the machinations of harper and the tweezer headed chorus he operates. way to go. dion might not be the right choice or even a good choice but he is in the big seat for the moment.
if the libs collapse into self reflection, ego masturbation and the internecine scrapping of a convention then they are essentially absent from their role in government. again. all the pissing and moaning about strategic voting is over for the moment but how about some strategic politicking.
look, the cons have had their shot. they have done their worst to belittle, demean and diminish dion. they've been allowed to get away with this crap uncontested and there's not much more they can do to the guy. if dion nuts up walks into the house and starts shredding fatty and the goobers and doesn't let up, he'll be a dozen points up the polls before steve knows what hit him. leaderless, the libs have no authority to push in the house or in committee. it is time, right this fucking minute, that all of the grasping twats on the supposed left shut their pie holes and took a fucking look around to spot the real enemy. it ain't dion.
if dion wobbles off into the sunset who is next on the con jobbers hit parade. how will layton's greasy image hold up to a couple of years of the treatment that dion has weathered. agian, i ain't a liberal, i'm just saying.
A few questions now the election is over for the moment:
1 -- Will the Cons have to pay back the $1.3 million from the last election? I mean, the other last election?
2 -- will the Cons have to pay back the postage for the election flyers they sent out under parliamentary privilege?
3 -- will the Cons have to deduct the cost of attack ads they aired before Harper decided to let the rest of the runners join the race when he was halfway down the track?
4 -- Cadman?
5 -- who the heck paid for two years of pre-election attack ads anyway? Exxon? Is this a matter of record?
6 -- gold star to whoever accurately predicts the next oversight agency Harper bullies. Two stars if he fires the boss, deconstructs the agency, or sues them.
Meanwhile, I urge us all to get lovely little digital voice recorders and handheld video cameras and politely Stalk the Cons, collecting recordings and videos for when we will need them, two years down the road. Go to fundraisers, church talks, policy talks, town halls, pot lucks, fundraisers, whatever, and see what you can collect. This will give us a fun hobby for the next little while.
Noni
PS Seeing as how I know practically nothing about any of the Cons except Harper, does anyone know who would step up if Harper suddenly decided to shave his head and become a Buddhist? --NM
sigh,
PSA,
I'm not sure what's difficult about my thesis. You can call this the left and the pseudo-left gnawing at each others' carcasses, but at the end of the day what you are doing here is suggesting tactics that the Liberal Party of Canada can use to remain a viable contender for power.
And my point is that allowing the Liberal Party of Canada to remain a contender only needlessly diverts progressive voters into believing that a capitalist-dominated political party can deliver the goods because their rhetoric in opposition is so touching.
If you want to continue to advocate for the confusion of the electorate, for the perpetuation of this chaos, I'm going to have to disagree.
that the Liberal Party of Canada can use to remain a viable contender for power.
And why not? They're the only government that's managed to carry social democratic principles into reality, as opposed to letting them fester in the bog of screeching, indolent, under-remunerated socialists.
Sorry, but democracies are stuck with a compromise between business/capitalism and social democracy for the foreseeable future. The party that best establishes the right balance is the one that will garner the broadest appeal.
Or, get your revolution on, already. I won't join you, but I'll enjoy the drama.
Liberals really really really want to run the country. There's no ideology to it, they just want power. That offends both the Left and the Right because they both want to change the country, as opposed to just running it.
I think, anyways...
I am reminded of an old fable about the IBM executive who had just lost a million dollars. Called up on the carpet, he expected to be sacked. After chewing him out, the big boss told him to get back to work. He asked "I thought you were going to fire me". And the boss says, "Are you kidding? I just invested a million dollars in you, and I'm damned if you're not going to go out there and get my money back!"
The moral of the take being, that Dion has now lived through a campaign and proven what a bunch of liars the CPC and their perpetual attack ads were. Remember all the BTs smirking about how Harper would destroy Dion in the debates? Remember all the harridans shrieking about how Dion would burst into tears like a four year old at any minute? Remember how he was supposed to whine and stamp his feet about how unfair it all is? As Canadians now know, all lies.
He has proven himself more of a man than Harper, by any measure. Principled and statesmanlike. And pretty much unflappable. The very best they could do was get him near the end of a long campaign with fatigue setting in and by asking convoluted hypothetical questions. And what did they get? A fucking blooper. Not a chilling picture of the man's true contempt for Canadians like we got with Harper. Just a blooper reel.
He must immediately start a crash course in English immersion. The kind where he speaks only English in casual situations and in meetings. Only English TV, newspapers. He can speak French on Sundays. He really needs to be comfortable in English when under pressure. But this is way easier than Harper's problem. Dion can improve his English a lot more easily than Harper can grow a heart.
As for Parliament, I think he might as well go for broke. If they want to turf him in May, fine. But he should no longer abstain from votes. I supported that strategy, as it shows an honest attempt to let the CPC govern. Well we did that, and look at the betrayal of trust, Harper trying to get a majority before the financial mess hit.
No more. Stand and support the Throne Speech, certainly, since it is not a law. It is simply courteous to do so. But "every vote is a confidence vote"? Go ahead. Make my day.
You want another election in another month? Fine. Fuck you, Mr. Harper. You will lose.
You call that a fable? What do you call a fable, then, liberal supporter?
Liberals really really really want to run the country. There's no ideology to it, they just want power. That offends both the Left and the Right because they both want to change the country, as opposed to just running it.
You are almost correct on that. I dislike and fear ideologues, because they become extreme and in the really extreme (communist on the left or nazi on the right) they are willing to sacrifice people in large numbers, simply to serve the ideology.
Naturally, the ideologues also paint the pragmatists as "three reallys want to run the country" or "just want power". My view is they just want to prevent ideologues of the left or right from gaining power and wreaking havoc.
Ideologues are also inflexible and certain of their own correctness. The pragmatists will adapt and use ideas wherever they come from. This causes ideologues to get very miffed because they see that somehow their good ideas were "stolen" (without us having to live with their bad ideas). So we have Medicare from a minority supported by the NDP. We went from Mulroney's $40B deficits to surpluses thanks to pressure from Reform. And we have a plan to cut GHGs thanks to pressure from Green.
In each case, the "stolen" idea did not go as far as the miffed ideologues wanted, but a pragmatic, doable initiative emerged.
You call that a fable? What do you call a fable, then, liberal supporter?
Um, could you repeat the question?
I'm not sure if it actually happened so I called it a fable. It was told to me as an illustrative example of learning from mistakes.
...I dislike and fear ideologues, because they become extreme...
To live according to an ideology is to live in a fantasy world.
You know those virtual reality helmets they have for playing video games? Adhering to an ideology is like putting on one of those helmets that almost matches the real world, and then traveling around, driving your car on the virtual roads no matter where the real world's roads are like or where the people and buildings happen to be.
Noni
That offends both the Left and the Right because they both want to change the country, as opposed to just running it.
I'm not sure if that offends you or not. I'm not electing a government to change the country. This country works fine as it is, and has for over 400 years, despite Imperial neglect, systemic poverty, inter-ethnic conflict that reduces most other countries to civil war and many other reasons that make this weird, complicated country so successful.
You don't fix a machine that isn't broken. You just run it.
"Find a picture of Steve looking like a giant goober and paste that bitch on every billboard in every battleground riding in the land. Mock the awkward clumsiness of the man, tear him apart and piss on the pieces. Where are the clips of Mr Wooden garbling his French? Put them on an endless loop for the citizens of Quebec to enjoy. And most importantly, develop coherent policies, frame them in an attractive package and kick the living hell out of every retrograde move the Cons make. Harper and his team of adolescent stooges have set the ground rules, time to beat them at their own game. "
And pay for all this advertising...how exactly? As you point out they seemingly have no idea how to raise money without huge corporate donations - Chretien's little poison pill gift to Martin remember? They are flat broke. They were even before the election and now they're even broker-er.
As as been pointed out, most recently by Dr Dawg, the Liberal Party isn't so much a political party as 'a spoils distribution machine'. I don't think they were made for poverty or powerlessness and we've all seen the auto-cannibalism that has resulted from those states.
Expect it to continue.
And why not? They're the only government that's managed to carry social democratic principles into reality, as opposed to letting them fester in the bog of screeching, indolent, under-remunerated socialists.
I've been trying patiently explain for years that the Liberals didn't just do these things out of the blue. There was pressure from the people and pressure from the left. Those screeching whatever other arbitrary adjectives you used.
The achievements that you mentioned are all far in the past, by the way. Liberal Party bankruptcy has been in open display since 1993.
Sorry, but democracies are stuck with a compromise between business/capitalism and social democracy for the foreseeable future. The party that best establishes the right balance is the one that will garner the broadest appeal.
I see. And this eliminates the fire-breathing socialists of the NDP I'm to assume? And the Liberals embody this perfect balance how exactly?
Or, get your revolution on, already. I won't join you, but I'll enjoy the drama.
Um, I'm talking about voting for a political party. If that's "revolutionary" for you then, well, ...
You haven't articulated either an argument for why the Liberal Party is still a social-democratic party, or a defence for their joyous slashing and burning of the welfare state that their ancestors built in the 1960s.
These are serious issues, and vapid, knee-jerk support for the Liberal Party, based on groundless assertions and delusions don't cut it.
As as been pointed out, most recently by Dr Dawg, the Liberal Party isn't so much a political party as 'a spoils distribution machine'.
That's only because Dr. Dawg read that somewhere...he really does not understand liberalism (or economics for that matter). And an academic whining about spoils distribution is irony incarnate.
He does hate Liberals, though...oh yes he does. The old hippie socialist will concur with arch-enemy libertarians as long as they hate Liberals as much as he does.
You haven't articulated either an argument for why the Liberal Party is still a social-democratic party, or a defence for their joyous slashing and burning of the welfare state that their ancestors built in the 1960s.
What liberal welfare state survived the 80's? Answer that question first.
No argument from me that the Liberals abandoned social welfare when they were conned into thinking Canada had hit a debt-wall in 1993. Re-read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine...Canadian financiers were screaming at financial analysts for not being panicky enough. Whether the Liberals were behind that, or whether they simply reacted, I don't know. But they didn't sell off health care or education or the foundations of the welfare state. They simply balanced the books.
One more thing...
You haven't articulated either an argument for why the Liberal Party is still a social-democratic party,
That's because it isn't. Read up on political liberalism, sometime (here). Political Liberalism strives for a compromise between business/capitalism and social democracy.
thwap i respect you and i honestly admire your writing. you are well within your rights to disagree with me on this. but in all sincerity, if the liberal party were zapped into oblivion tomorrow, i truly believe that a lot more, one fuck of a lot more voters woud drift into harper's camp than into layton's. given the current structure of canadian electoral politics the ndp will remain pretty much where they are, 4th place. the liberals exist and much like the toad beings that populate the american democratic party, they are somewhat better than the other major alternative.
since i am all prognosticatorizing on this, i will repeat, if the ndp wants to make progress, real progressive advances, they need to ditch layton a hell of a lot more than the liberals need to park dion. my choice there, and again i repeat, charlie angus. this election has shown us exactly how far the country will shift toward layton's ndp and it is no where near enough to make any sort of claim for the future. all he had to do in this election was not shit himself and he was bound to make gains. congrats. he didn't shit himself.
with the liberals under intense fire from all sides they were bound to lose ground. with their leader being dragged through the swamps undefended, it was a given that some defectors would go orange but a fuck of a lot more of them went blue.
for myself and for the future of canadian democracy i would like to see some solid movement toward proportional representation. that is the only way that progressive politics and platforms will be advanced. period. the ndp can't do it because they won't be given the mandate. sorry. it isn't the way i want things or how they should be but that's the truth as i see it. canada will not elect an ndp government on the national level and certainly not under the leadership of jack layton.
so. given that the liberals will continue to exist and since they will have to either clean house, retool or fuck off, i would prefer that they don't piss away what remaining money and energy they have fighting amongst themselves, giving steve, the prime minister over all of us including progressives, harper carte blanche to do as he frickin' pleases.
dion has taken every hit they could throw at him. it is his turn to hit back. that sure doesn't mean that he will. no more than it means that the party will extract their heads from their collective shite tubes and join him in a long overdue beat down on big steve and the bullies. this is all hypothetical and what i think will actually happen is that the libs will find a way to fuck themselves into the ground. the grown up versions of cherniak will search out a way to turn raisins into turds with infighting and power struggles.
still in a perfect world, dion marches into the house and rips a strip of harper, pulls off his belt and starts whipping him. do that for a week or two and the donations will start to flow. and if they don't, steve harper still gets a richly deserved shit kicking.
ti-guy,
I was under the impression that you yourself referred to the Libs as a social democratic party.
psa,
It might very well be true that if the Liberals died tomorrow most of their supporters would vote for Cons of some sort.
But that depends on two things: 1 the Liberals dying instantly and 2. there is an election the next day.
The sooner it is made clear to people that the capitalist system isn't interested in compromising or even keeping past promises, and that you can't have your welfare state and eat it too, the sooner voters will have to mature and face reality about their system.
Paul Martin's Haitian crimes are evidence enough that the Liberals are just as connected to this deathsquad system as any other capitalist party.
Voters aren't going to "mature and face reality". If the Libs ceased to be, the majority of voters would just pick the next most familiar party, and that's the Cons (I know, they much like the old PC party anymore, but that's not what the vast majority think). With the hopelessly complicit and compromised media, this isn't going to change. Like it or not, the online group who actually reads these types of things is still tiny compared to those that glance at th efront page headlines, watch local TV news for 10 minutes, and then tune it all out.
AS I've heard it explained - Imagine a friend of yours who is probably of average intelligence, you know, not clueless, but not on top of ideas and information outside of sports/entertainment news, not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Now, remember that half of the people out there are dumber than him/her. Those completely unengaged, but easily persuaded, people do not like big change unless it they are told to (see media coverage of AdScam, as opposed to apparent perjury by our sitting PM) by apparent authorities. Well informed friends don't even dent their brains until the TV tells them the same things.
I was under the impression that you yourself referred to the Libs as a social democratic party.
Never. I think most Liberal supporters are at heart, social democrats but understand the need for compromise. Otherwise you end up with Democrat/Republican or Conservative/Labour dualities, neither of which leads to policies that reflect the synergy we want from a market economy that responds to social/public needs but to wild swings or empty-headed centrism.
Well said, Ti-Guy. That articulates perfectly why I don't wish to see such a duality in this country, and I say that as a person who is generally even further to the left of the NDP.
Absolutely frank frink. This stupid partisanship fighting is going to give Harper a defacto majority for the next four years, as is the internal Liberal back stabbing.
No wonder Harper was so gleeful with winning just a minority.
Maybe NDP wants to become some kind of post-Thatcher Tony Blair Labour Party. Good luck with that.
In the meantime, Harper will create as much destruction as Thatcher did. Perhaps our centre and left of centre politicians are admirers of 12-step programs and think Canada has to hit rock bottom before recovery can begin.
The New New Democratic Party. Motto: This Time, We'll Get it Right!
Heheh - apparently Liberals really really really wanting to run the country, no ideology to it, they just want power also offends Liberals...
"If the Liberal Party of Canada can't figure that out then we'll be watching them fade into irrelevance."
I'm getting a comfy chair so I can fully enjoy the self destructive Liberal bloodbath to come.
Please don't tease the Liberals, bocanut. It'll only make them more deserving of power.
Post a Comment