Okay. So you're a portly male politician from the Great White North, with a penchant for homophobes, the "freedom" of anyone espousing intolerance veiled as "free speech", and being a pot calling a kettle black (vis-a-vis Gomery)... Just how do you plan on going about getting elected? What's the recipe to get you into power and help line the pockets of "the man" (the usual conservative fat-cats)?
You start with a smidgen of hired Australian Outback savvy... Mix that with some dumbed down, down home southern "good 'ol boy". Toss in a touch of "awe shucks", and there you have it - the makings of a populist Western neo-Con PM.
Pretty easy wasn't it? Canadians - even those who care about their politics - were easily distracted by "those corrupt Liberals". Anything that went wrong in the first few days of power... "I know, I know, it was those Liberals!" (reminds one of the old Cheech and Chong Corsican brothers script, where the hapless dimwitted orphans pertinaciously blamed the Gypsies for all that went wrong). Conservative MPs reveled in the "security blanket" of the last days of the election campaign (where Shrub could do no wrong), and in the "honeymoon" months of the regime.
Perhaps it wasn't that easy, and perhaps the Canadian voter has maintained a bit more of their concern for this country than first thought... "Little Bush" may have found that Canadians don't really care for neo-Con populism. As Canadians find out more and more about the Conservative agenda they like less and less of the Harper regime.
It started with appointments that went against every word of the "Accountability Act". The Cons followed up with their (non-existent) "made in Canada solution" for the global warming problem (operative word: "global"). The next move was to kill a gun registry that stable-minded Canadians everywhere (including police forces) wanted (a registry which independant UN observers indicate was actually very cost-effective in saving lives). Following these "bold" and very conservative moves - among others - Harper's angry minions decided to tackle an age old Canadian foreign policy position, by siding completely with one side in a Mid-East conflict. Callously toying with throwing decades of world respect for Canada out the window, the neo-Can-Cons have married Canada's position on the Mid-East to that of American neo-Cons like Bush and Cheney.
One really needs to wonder what reality these conservatives live in? It becomes easier to understand when one puts together the general make-up of a typical neo-Con: someone who never travelled much beyond their home town; never cared to learn about the world outside of their immediate scope; typically never study liberal arts of any sort; prefer American media to Canadian; are angry, angry, ANGRY, at anything they fear or dislike; and dislike anything different from what they are "comfortable" with (using buzz words like "tradition" and "family values" to cloak the anger, fear, and hatred).
So... here we are. The Cons are now sitting even in the polls. Neck-and-neck with a Liberal Party that they tried to tar with a scandal that never really occurred the way they tried to paint it. Neck-and-neck with a party without a leader! The Canadian public is now so "in touch with" what the Conservatives are trying to do, that they are leaning towards taking ANY Liberal leadership contender over Harper. Could the Calgary-based Con leader end up exactly like another former Calgary area MP (a much better man - one Joseph Clark)?
The Lebanon and Afghan wars are still at an early stage. The situations should be in full swing when the next session of Parliament begins. Perhaps this land can be saved from the real Harper agenda being rolled out any further. It looks like Canadians are getting sick of the way Harper is "standing up" for Canada - when standing up only amounts to standing above the media on the Parliamentary stairs pontificating to Canadians what our values should be.
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