Attack ads and the law of unintended consequences

So the Conservatives have spent $36 million making Ignatieff toxic in the eyes of voters who are gullible enough to believe such dreck.  But what happens if the majority of Canadians who despise the Conservatives are motivated to vote against Harper?  They are innoculated against voting for the Liberals.  So they turn to the one Leader that Harper would like to see elected less than Ignatieff.  As the pundits say, politicians use attack ads because they work.   But not always they way the attacker intended.

The government we deserve

There should have been enough evidence of corruption, sleaze and
incompetence to drive the polling of the Conservatives down to single
digits by now. If news that the F-35s will be delivered without
engines doesn't 't do it nothing will.

At that point the possibility that it is not the Harper campaign that
is in a bubble must be considered. It is a large portion of the
electorate. They don't want to be bothered with their civic
responsibilities and that is exactly what Harper is offering with his
miasmatic campaign. "Vote for me and never have to worry about issues
again.". Or don't vote at all for that matter.

This is why "Rise Up!" is so important. If it gets traction, it will
change everything. I am under no misconceptions as to the reach of
this blog but the more people progressives of all stripes can GOTV the
better chance we have to save Canada.

My sincere thanks to Michael Ignatieff

If the unthinkable does happen (which I don't think will happen - more on that in a later post) and Harper takes over our government with a majority, at least one person made an impassioned plea to try and get the people of Canada to wake up and stop it.

On Harper's treatment of Guergis

I feel a lot of sympathy for her. She has put a face on the anguish suffered by everyone who has crossed Harper's path. Whether her treatment (looked at in the context of Linda Keen and Belinda Stronach) is a sign of a particular misogyny on the part of Harper or a generally sociopathic personality is up in the air. I do wonder how any woman could consider voting for the Conservatives after this. But a lot will.

Ms. Guergis laid just about every emotion response out there for all to see. All that was missing was a recognition of the affect similar treatment of others must have had on them and remorse on her part for having take part as a member of his government. I feel for her. I will begin to respect her when she apologizes to Dion, Ignatieff and the rest of a very long list.

I was wrong about Harper

I long suspected that Harper was so adamant about purchasing the F-35 jets because there was some gravy in it for him. He is, outside of his political career, a man of startlingly few accomplishments. It would not be surprising if he felt the need for a nest egg to fall back on. He wouldn't have been the first conservative politician to use aircraft purchases to make a few extra bucks. But I now realize that I had totally misjudged the situation.

He doesn't want to buy the planes to feather his nest. I don't believe that he is the least bit surprised that the price of these jets is screaming to the stratosphere. He probably wants to see them go higher. He has long sought to defund the government so that social programs are unaffordable. After cutting the GST to create a structural deficit and running up the largest deficits in Canadian history, committing us to $100 billion+ on planes we don't need will be the capstone to this act of sabotage.

Holding him to a minority isn't enough. He must be defeated.