Talk about over-the-top rhetoric. Bob Rae's latest harangue , where he accuses Harper of being responsible for "robocalls" directing voters to the wrong polling locations, really doesn't suit a man of his intelligence. It is pure political B.S. in its finest form.
Rae said the real blame for any election trickery rests with the political culture Harper has created in the party. "The prime minister has created a Nixonian culture," Rae said. "This stuff doesn't happen unless the boss lets it happen. He has allowed to seep into his party and into his organization a culture of attack and, frankly, a culture of deception and dirty tricks, where almost anything goes. (Aaron Wherry, Maclean's)
If we take Rae at face value, then his comment that, "This stuff doesn't happen unless the boss lets it happen," implies that Chretien must have known everything that various Liberal operatives were up to in what became known as the sponsorship scandal. Even with my Tory leanings, I somehow doubt that is true.
As for a culture of attacks, that has been a part of politics since time immemorial. In this country, it is the attacks that get major news coverage with very little coverage of items where political parties agree with the government. As for Harper being the one to bring a "culture of attack" into politics, Rae had turned to provincial politics by 1984, admittedly for another party, and while he was absent from the House of Commons, the Liberals introduced the "Rat Pack."
To their credit or discredit, depending on your point of view, they were one of the most formidable attack machines Question Period has seen. In fact, we based a lot of our Question Period techniques on their tactics. The Rat Pack even took their antics outside of the chamber. Does Rae forget Shelia Copps (who just ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the Liberal Party) crawling across a table to get at then-Conservative cabinet minister Sinc Stevens?
Neither were the Liberals any slouches when it came to ministers attacking opposition members. They were always quick to play the racist card when Reform or Canadian Alliance members would question Alphonso Gagliano.
Again using Rae's logic, Liberals lying about cutting the GST or breaking their promise several times to introduce a national child care program means that then-Liberal leaders Jean Chretien and Paul Martin must have decided that their party and politicians in general could lie with impunity. Again I doubt that is true as there are often economic reasons why platform items get put aside, but it does make great political rhetoric to attack them for breaking a promise.
Rae's attack probably served its purpose. It got him and the Liberals some media coverage which is always difficult for a third party to achieve. Unfortunately, no one called him out on some of his assertions. The new civility in parliament is a wonderful thing to behold!
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If the roles were reversed, and it was a political party other than Harper's Conservatives who planned, orchestrated, benefitted and then denied responsibility for this sorry Robo-call mess; does anyone believe Harper would stand by, quietly watching it get swept under the rug?
I think not.
Even Mr. Beardsley, partisan that he is, cannot really expect Canadians to shrug off the blatant attempts to manipulate the election as "just politics as usual". Messing with the vote is "r@t f----ing" (Woodward & Bernstein, "All the President's Men") of the worst order.
Perhaps next election we should have UN observers in so as to ensure a fair outcome.
Boy will be boys - who ever supposed voting mattered anyway?
The Capitalist Government of Canada is only too happy to steer voter preferences appropriately to enhance the best interests of corporations and the rich.
Move along folks, nothing to see here.
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He prorogues parliament to better suit his needs, fires or muzzles scientists, cuts off debate, takes debate behind closed doors, smears the reputation of environmentalists, etc. And if you think for one moment we are now to believe one lowly fool, in love with Harper, planned and executed this latest scandal alone, you're dreaming in colour. Let's not forget, the conservative record was already stained before this latest scandal, with electoral fraud.
If you're going to talk about unbefitting behaviour, you're pointing your finger at the wrong person. Any political party needs to be held accountable, but the current one in power, led by iron-fisted Harper, more than deserves the scrutiny.
Your article is frivolous, and deflects the attention away from the real issue at hand.
The issue here is not about politicians attacking each other or that the media chooses to cover same (thankfully we have media in Canada that actually holds politicians accountable).
The issue is about an attack on our most basic right as Canadian citizens...the right to vote.
There is clear evidence that robocalls were received in at least 18 different ridings...by someone claiming to be from Elections Canada, telling people to vote at a different location...a location that was not a voting station.
Whether Stephen Harper knew about this or not...we do not & may not ever know. But the point is to investigate this to the fullest & quickly, to stop this illegal tampering with citizens' voting rights.
We have seen this go on in the U.S. over the years...apparently becoming so commonplace that they seem incapable of stopping it.
We must not let that happen here. We are better than that.
I question the concern you have for our country...given your lame attempt to redirect the focus & treat this matter as just another slight to the conservative party. Bogus.
34 ridings is hugee, it could ensure the conservative go to the back burners of politics and never return again. in one of these ridings liberals lost by only 17 votes..
how about you starts focusing on legitimate concerns n stop wasting time.
But at risk of losing his chokehold on the Canadian political system, I would NOT put it past him to use some international incident OR a staged "terrorist" attack or some other reason to declare a state of emergency and suspend the byelections....how this will play out in the int'l press is anybody's guess, for now we're still pretty much invisible.
The Liberals have limited things to gain with the way they are handling the situation themselves, because what they are doing is blaming their 3rd party status on foul play. All that serves to do is 'strengthen' the ties they have with their existing membership and does little to bring back the voters they lost to the NDP. Certainly the rhetoric that's being thrown around would suggest if not for the robocalls that the Liberals would be the ones in power, when in reality at best the Conservatives would simply been held to yet another minority government.
While quite a few people are completely convinced that the robo calls came from Harper himself, I honestly doubt Harper would be that careless as he's been careful to do everything by the books. His tactics might be unscrupulous, but he's always made sure to walk that line very carefully. People might say that it's totally within his character to rig an election, I would say that's completely uncharacteristic considering how careful he is in his plotting.
The Liberals' third party status is actually quite beyond the point: voter suppression tactics involving fraudulent telephone calls are unacceptable and illegal in Canada, and anyone who calls himself a political leader should be very concerned over the effect this sort of thing could have on Canadian democracy.
I would agree with your last point - that Harper's fingerprints are anywhere to be found on a dirty-tricks file - that's what staff are for!
if anyhting this is exactly characteristic of him. any dirty trick that will help you win an election if game. he sneakier the better, the less of a trail the easier it is to deny and throw onto some underling.