Time and time again they have portrayed Harper as being merely a tad right of centre and have credited him with masterfully reining in the more radical members of his party. Of course this is nonsense, one only need to look at his inner circle, the ministers he has come to rely on to get a true measure of the man. Toews, Kenney, Flaherty, Clement, and Baird, not a moderate conservative among them, in fact the last three all senior members of the Mike Harris' regime and no one ever accused the Harris government of being moderate.
The latest installment of what I describe comes courtesy of Michael Den Tandt: Prepare for an onslaught of Harper the Reasonable
Obama’s re-election therefore provides him with just the lever he needs,
within the Conservative base, to shoehorn them, kicking and screaming,
even further towards the moderate middle: “See what happens if we’re too
extreme?” The first signs of this were evident in the government’s
willingness to split the second omnibus budget bill, and send the
component parts out for examination by parliamentary committees.
Once again Harper is described as somewhat moderate yet burdened with an unruly caucus and base that must be controlled and dragged to the centre. Den Tandt's example of Harper's reasonableness is yet another example. The splitting up of the Omnibus bill has been done in such a way as to guarantee little if any meaningful examination and is yet another illusion foisted on the Canadian people by Harper and his media cronies.
The same holds true of his policies, Beyond the Borders, CETA and FIPA all consistently portrayed as non threatening, their opponents accused of near suicidal wailing, no big thing really when in fact they border on treasonous sellouts of our sovereignty. No wonder we seem to be losing this battle for our Canada.
The media in the US bent themselves backwards to portray a super close presidential election, some going as far as predicting a potential Romney landslide. So sometimes the media spin isn't gobbled up by as many people as they like to believe, especially in this changing environment where social media and alternate news sources are eating away at their audience share. So I like to think that there is some hope. Plus I see the economy getting far worse than what the Harper Regime dare to admit and I hope they wear it as proof of their dismal failure to govern fairly or effectively.
ReplyDeleteYes the Cons will sink or swim with the economy. Unfortunately right now even though Harper's numbers are in the cellar he and his party are still viewed as best able to manage the economy,the media has played no small role in this.
DeleteBreak down that myth and they are toast. Today's announcement of a delay in slaying the deficit sure helps the cause in that regard.