John Baglow: Conservative death throes

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      By John Baglow

      An animal is most dangerous when it’s wounded, they say, and the Conservative Party of Canada has been metaphorically bearing that out for months. Sinking steadily in the polls, it has sought to further impose its brand of sado-politics upon our long-suffering country, even against its own best interests.

      In its last days it has been showing its teeth, snapping and snarling: jamming the union-busting Bill C-377 through the Senate, tearing at the fabric of free collective bargaining with omnibus Bill C-59, spiking a transgender rights bill, and tabling legislation to forbid Muslim women from taking the oath of citizenship in traditional niqab dress.

      It passed Bill C-24, formally establishing two classes of citizenship. It introduced an act to condemn some criminals to life without parole. It cribbed American voter suppression legislation to make it more difficult for First Nations, students, and the poor to exercise their franchise. And of course there was the infamous Bill C-51, establishing a largely unaccountable political police with the power to override the charter of rights.

      The Supreme Court of Canada is unlikely to allow any of these profoundly unconstitutional measures to last: Harper has already racked up a string of losses before them. But the rule of law, as we have seen during a seemingly endless series of scandals (which began, in fact, even before the 2006 election) and legislative jiggery-pokery, seems to be just a minor annoyance for the Conservatives when they’re on a tear.

      Like Parliament itself, in fact: since 2011, the Conservatives have shut down debate more than 100 times. Harper earlier distinguished himself as the only prime minister in Canadian history to be found guilty of contempt of Parliament.

      Through all this, the Conservatives have been spending scads of taxpayers’ cash on nakedly partisan advertising, activities and personal self-aggrandizement. Harper has surrounded himself with criminals and lowlifes to further his agenda. It all smacks of political racketeering. There ought to be a law.

      But now the flailing of this dying regime has begun in earnest. A symptom: rejecting Ches Crosbie’s candidacy in the Newfoundland Labrador riding of Avalon, leaving themselves with no candidate at all (the deadline for nominees was June 25). The province has no Conservative MPs at present. This isn’t likely to improve the odds.

      Then there’s the Mother Canada monument, approaching Hallmark levels of kitsch, tearing a hole in a pristine national park; and the planned memorial to the victims of Communism, promising to similarly deface the nation’s capital. If those monstrosities are actually built, it will cost the taxpayers millions.

      And the attack ads. The Conservatives may even have broken their own law with the latest one, and things weren’t made any better with senior Conservative spokesman Kory Teneyke’s odd performance on national television.

      There is no point trying to apply the rational-actor model to any of this. It defies rational explanation. But this sort of thing is not unknown in nature. We’ve seen this self-destructive behaviour before—dealing blow after blow to veterans, who, we might think, should be a solid part of the Conservative base, or alienating senior citizens by raising the retirement age—but these latest spasms are simply bizarre.

      The wounded beast is dying, vomiting venom as life slowly drains away. We can put it out of its misery on October 19. Surely at this point it’s the only humane thing to do.

      Comments

      20 Comments

      Really?!

      Jul 4, 2015 at 3:44pm

      It's more like electoral democracy is dying, tho very slowly. This sort of gaming the system is all that has ever happened--the only issue is that historically the population was less stratified, so it was easier to go along with it.

      Why would anyone who was not mentally disabled want to have anything but self-government?

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      Barry William Teske

      Jul 4, 2015 at 4:14pm

      There are two classes of people in Canada.
      Those that have the money.
      Those that control the money.
      The rest do not count.
      The last 8 years were about making it the law.
      Dead or not was not the point and never the focus; only a smokescreen.
      Proof?
      Just look at the new laws.

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      ninigik

      Jul 4, 2015 at 4:21pm

      A sot to the heart of the beast with a long gun seems fitting. And no, CSIS, I'm not threatening actual violence!

      Edward Lueng

      Jul 4, 2015 at 6:25pm

      If Stephen Harper goes down this election, and he deserves to, he will not have a very good legacy. A government that tries to pass legislation that gets shot down in the SCoC and does harm to this country and it's people should be tossed out. They're acting like right wing lunatics.... Good riddance....

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      No Con Job

      Jul 4, 2015 at 6:48pm

      Thanks highly entertaining with the caveat that its true and frightening.

      In fact this bunch are very much like Putin in their political and legal manipulations.

      They one thing you did not mention was the China Free Trade Deal that gave away Canadian resources to China like NAFTA but for Communist China on steroids.

      Signed away in Valdivostok Russia very much like Putin would do except even Putin would never sign away his Countries resources to any other Country much less Communist China.

      The Cons and Putin's Russia have a lot in common unfortunately for us.

      I am voting anyone but Cons can't wait for Oct. 19.

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      Glen Campbell

      Jul 4, 2015 at 7:55pm

      Throughout the history of Canada there has never been such a travesty of injustice perpetrated by one man as this Stephen Harper has. Whether it has been the omnibus bills like C-45 which tears right through the fabric of Canada or Bill C-51 that has the branding of regular people as terrorists, this is by far the most paranoid group we have ever seen. The absolute and unmitigated ripping apart of environmental protections and unfettered access to pristine wilderness by multinationals will leave vast scars on this land. The "Fair Election Act" is anything but fair will limit who can vote in the upcoming election almost guaranteeing him another win. Not to mention most of his upper Cabinet bailing out on him tells us that even they don't like him. He has worn out his welcome and if it wasn't for his party's electoral fraud shouldn't have been here in the first place. The man is evil and has to go folks, get your vote on eh.

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      dan garson

      Jul 4, 2015 at 8:06pm

      You might vote in a new party in October but whatwill the end result be? Not much different I think.

      The Oil and Gas industry that bankrolled the CPC is hurting but not shut down entirely as it must be. That won't be palatable to a lot of people, especially the Alberta NDP, who are showing all the signs of being Canadian equivalent of Tony Blairs government along with some Pinkwashing. How do you deal with that province, besides some mediocre and (soon to be destroyed by climate change) agriculture Oil and Gas is the only reason people live in Alberta.

      The NDP itself is not looking great either, its leader is married to a Zionist and the leader himself has a murky background. It does not help that the party seems to lack ideas on how to reach Canadians with its actual policy beyond sound bites and "Stop Harper". Thats all well and good, but when every media outlet despises you, the average Canadian believes treats Economics babble, if not market fundamentalism, as the only thing thats real. That does not work well long term. It would take a book to discuss the views of the young and or non voting public but it looks bad. Tech Libertarians, Freemen, various kinds of religious fanatics or bigots, or broken beyonf repair with autism and other health and psychological problems. These people are time bombs; a homegrown British National Party, Hikkimoris and a social welfare system that can't even begin to take care of a couple million people unable to care for themselves is what is coming.

      And what of PSAC's fellow government workers. The RCMP committed criminal acts to force out the Liberals, what do you think they will pull on an NDP government after even more of the CPC's friends were added to its ranks. The same goes for the rest of the civil service; it has been packed with Trinity Western university religious fundamentalists, Young conservatives types, home schoolers, CPC loyalists al, and every last one of them will have to be fired or they wll wreak havoc, and that can't be done in a month or even a year.

      Somehow, I think we will end up missing the devil we knew.

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      SurferChris G

      Jul 5, 2015 at 10:57am

      There is great hope for representing a larger number of Canadians. It is "proportional representation" so the comments that only the people with money will be represented is less likely. For example Justin Trudeau wants to implement it for future elections and I think the Federal NDP are offering a hybrid version. In the past and even now the Conservatives could appeal to a minority and still win - their base being seniors and say rural folk. But with "proportional representation " a larger percentage of the voters would be needed to rule. ( I could be wrong - check it out) So , the comment 'missing the devil we knew" above does not seem to apply. There was a CBC News show this year that asked the question whether the political system was broken and the consensus was that it was. One solution that was offered was "proportional representation" It also is presented as an alternative to "first past the post". Petitions to promote "propotional representation" are offered at such places as the Federal NDP site or Fair Vote. Apparently in other countries parties need to reach more of a consensus and may be better managed. Check it out and see if it is something that could give hope to disenfranchised voters.
      The Tories are definitely fear mongering. An example is the PM in Calgary warning that if the Liberals or NDP are elected that a economic disaster like the Greece economy meltdown could happen in Canada. I just watched a show and a pundit said that you cannot compare Greece and Canada. The Tories strategy is more about trying to trigger emotional reactions so you won't vote for another party (than presenting facts in an unbiased way) The other federal Parties could grow the economy by diversifying away from Big Oil and - Canada could actually have a stronger economy. For example, another show said Canada is a leader in satellite technology. So incentives in entrepreneurship, small business, engineering and whatever else is required - could lead us to more Nasdaq 100 type companies - in Canada!

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      response to dan garson

      Jul 5, 2015 at 11:06am

      Ah the old false equivalency argument "all parties are the same" argument from Tory supporters who have difficulty now posing as all out advocates of a disastrous, corruption-plagued Tory government. I'm seeing more and more of these types of responses.

      You'd have to have a low IQ or in a coma to believe this when the Tories have set so many precedents: voter suppression, fraud in every election campaign, warrantless spy bills, the engineering of a police state through C51, muzzling scientists, laying off 100 of Canada's top scientists, staffing the National Energy Board with oil industry lobbyists, gutting 100-year-old environmental protection laws, literally burning science research and decades of scientific archives, auctioning off science research and tossing anything not sold into dumpsters, scrapping the long form census and creating a voluntary census that produces garbage, according to the head of the Canadian Economics Association; using the Treasury to finance your election campaigns, spending $750M on partisan ads, denying recessions twice...and that's just the tip of the Harper iceberg. Yeah, no other party did any of the above but heh all parties are the same. Sure thing, Dan.

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      Chuk

      Jul 5, 2015 at 11:16am

      Hope you don't eat these words. I'm hoping for a regime change and hopefully a repeal of some of these laws and policies, too. But harpers gang were still ahead in the polls just this spring. And we still feel the sting of how far polls can be off, while we expected the swearing in of provincial NDP here in BC. Instead; were swallowing years more of the same. If you really want to put this dangerous dog down, then get active and vote!

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