Harper launches the last of his flying monkeys?

Harper's Master Plan had so much promise.  After his well deserved defeat, Harper would retire as leader so he could work his magic as Chair of the International Democratic Union. He needed a caretaker leader for his Franken-Party  Hopefully , someone so anodyne, the Conservatives could wait out an election cycle.  Then Harper's right hand man could assume the mantle after earning his spurs as Premier of Alberta.

So, we ended up with "Harper With A Smile" (TM).  Scheer was pushed out essentially for being the loser we all knew he is.  K-Man has been exposed as so toxic that even Albertans are wising up to him.  So much for Plan A.

Kenny a non-starter.  Same with Ford.  Other acolytes are immediately seen as too toxic.  Red Tory gophers keep popping their heads out of their burrows and need to be whacked down.  What is a master strategist to do.

K-Man was his master warrior.  Harper's farm system is pretty thin.  Not much scoring talent in the minors.  What is he to do?

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  As a result, we see Pierre Polievre floated as a candidate.  Really?  If Scheer wilted under scrutiny what will happen to this weasel.  If this is the Conservative's best and brightest, Trudeau will be PM until he can collect CPP.Recommend this Post

Scheer's expenses fiasco is a many faceted embarrassment for the Conservatives

The lifeblood of the Conservative is fleecing all of the senior citizens across the country $20 at a time.  They extort this money by ginning up fake stories to rile up those with a predilection to outrage.  For this to continue, they must have faith that the money is being wisely spent to attack the evil Liberals and bring about the nirvana of a hard right government.  Everything must be and seen to be above board.

Harper, for the most part, deftly handled this requirement.  Scheer on the other hand...Yikes.  This might have been the final straw.  Perhaps it only accelerated an eventual reckoning at the convention.  Concern that he may have inappropriately accessed $900,000 in funds donated  by granny?  Scheer lays bare the myth of the ethical Conservative.

But what does this say about the managerial competence of the senior Conservative leadership.  That is supposed to be their calling card with both the donator class and the corporate world.  That Scheer might have misappropriated $900k of party funds shows a shocking ly poor level of governance.  And who is on the board of the Conservative Fund?  Stephen Harper.  The managerial genius some Conservatives desperately pine for.allowed this to happen.  Not a good look on Harper.

All in all, this is the Conservatives in a nutshell.Recommend this Post

Sisyphus had nothing on the Conservatives

Rather than learn from the heavy hints from the people, the Harper Party is doomed to repeat the mistakes of history.

• Preston Manning: Led a small claque of western based socially conservative splinter group that was going nowhere until the Mulroney Progressive Conservatives collapsed.  Even with the prostrate PCs, the Reformers could only form an opposition.  Never a government.
• Stockwell Day: Rename the party to Canadian Alliance.  New leader.  Same old homophobic, misogynistic anti-social program policies.  Same old electoral failure
• Stephen Harper: Merge the party and rename it.  New leader.  Same old discredited policies with less traction than bald All Season tires on black ice.  Added a few even worse ones.  Managed to scrape out two minorities governments with the help of RCMP intervention and In and Out money laundering.  Turfed after one thin majority government.
• Andrew Scheer:  "Harper with a smile".  Remember that one.  Notwithstanding constant attacks from a biased media based on manufactured scandals, all this poltroon could offer was the same old ideas as out of touch with Canadians as Preston Manning was.  Homophobia, misogyny, bad fiscal platform.  Harper's tax cuts.  Electoral result ?  Failure.

And who is being floated a leader?  Erin O' Toole.  Jason Kenney, Rona Ambrose.  The pundits will try to talk some life into these retreads in an attempt to sell some papers but a party led by any of these chips off the Conservative Block will soon be sussed out for what they are.   Here is an example of how bad these candidates would be:  They make Peter McKay seem plausible

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My Hot Takes on the NATO Hot Mike

A few thoughts I haven't seen raised elsewhere.

• Trump had it coming.
• It was immature and unprofessional for Macron, Johnston, Princess Anne and Trudeau to joke about Trump, no matter how horrific his press conferences that day were.
• Could anyone imagine Andrew Scheer being as welcome as Trudeau was in that group?  For all his failings, Trudeau is seen in the international arena as a good representative for Canada.
• Heads of State are human after all and do tend to make jest at buffoons in their midst. Stephen Harper was often mocked at international events.  Who could forget the comments when he missed a group photo because he was in the bathroom?  Or the snickers when he wagged his fingers at Putin.
• In some ways this sort of behaviour could be categorized as bullying and perhaps that is the most egregious part of this example.

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