I was watching the news tonight and watched CTV coverage of Rona Ambrose as interim leader of the Conservative party. It did my heart to see Rona up at the podium answering questions. Actually. From the press. I saw that nothing had changed when abruptly stopped the news conference and just left. She done good Stephen.
Harper Taught Rona Well
- Thread starter Frankiedoodle
- Start date
It is going to be interesting to watch Ms. Ambrose wrangle the Con caucus. Harper kept the rural social conservatives inline through force of will, misdirection and majority while having a large number of urban seats to work with. Ms Ambrose doesn't have most of those luxuries. I think she'll have her hands full with internecine backbiting in the coming months.
To start with the press would go on all night and all leaders know there is a time limit.
The social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives will lay low for a while if smart.
Within a year and a half they will fight for control of the party and if social conservatives
win the jig is up. The party will split and the Harper dream will be the last curtain call
for the lot of them. They need to purge the social conservative power base while keeping
them in the party that is going to be the test for any leader
The social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives will lay low for a while if smart.
Within a year and a half they will fight for control of the party and if social conservatives
win the jig is up. The party will split and the Harper dream will be the last curtain call
for the lot of them. They need to purge the social conservative power base while keeping
them in the party that is going to be the test for any leader
Rona Ambrose is a pretty smart cookie. I think she will do well as interim leader.
It is too bad that the media vilifies the Conservatives at every opportunity. They have a mad on because Harper didn't allow them enough information/interviews and they just won't let go of their malice.
It's a new era in politics; let's reserve judgment until we see what happens.
It is too bad that the media vilifies the Conservatives at every opportunity. They have a mad on because Harper didn't allow them enough information/interviews and they just won't let go of their malice.
It's a new era in politics; let's reserve judgment until we see what happens.
Meet the New Ayn Rand-Loving Leader of Canada's Conservative Party
Most recently, Ambrose was tasked with fighting the expansion of Canada's medical marijuana system. After a string of court defeats, the government was forced to expand access to the medical marijuana regime. The most recent defeat forced Ottawa to allow the medical use of cannabis oils and edibles. Ambrose said she was "outraged" at the decision. She also introduced regulations that effectively stopped safe injection sites from opening in Canada, despite a Supreme Court case chiding them for doing exactly that.
She, too, comes from very similar stock to Harper. Born into an oil family, she is, despite her outrage at marijuana use, a self-described libertarian — as well as a fan of arch-conservative author Ayn Rand — and will likely do little to curry favour with the political center in Canada.
Ambrose — who is the party's third female leader — has the difficult task of re-introducing the Conservatives to voters, specifically women and youth, who overwhelmingly came out for Trudeau's Liberals on election day.
Despite criticism, Ambrose was seen as a capable minister — especially when she was defending the government on its controversial decision to push forward on the F-35 fighter jet procurement, despite cost overruns and delays. As Maclean's wrote in 2012: "When she stands up for the troubled minister of defence every day in the House of Commons, the public works minister is the picture of confidence."
http://news.vice.com/article/meet-t...anadas-conservative-party?utm_source=vicefbca
Most recently, Ambrose was tasked with fighting the expansion of Canada's medical marijuana system. After a string of court defeats, the government was forced to expand access to the medical marijuana regime. The most recent defeat forced Ottawa to allow the medical use of cannabis oils and edibles. Ambrose said she was "outraged" at the decision. She also introduced regulations that effectively stopped safe injection sites from opening in Canada, despite a Supreme Court case chiding them for doing exactly that.
She, too, comes from very similar stock to Harper. Born into an oil family, she is, despite her outrage at marijuana use, a self-described libertarian — as well as a fan of arch-conservative author Ayn Rand — and will likely do little to curry favour with the political center in Canada.
Ambrose — who is the party's third female leader — has the difficult task of re-introducing the Conservatives to voters, specifically women and youth, who overwhelmingly came out for Trudeau's Liberals on election day.
Despite criticism, Ambrose was seen as a capable minister — especially when she was defending the government on its controversial decision to push forward on the F-35 fighter jet procurement, despite cost overruns and delays. As Maclean's wrote in 2012: "When she stands up for the troubled minister of defence every day in the House of Commons, the public works minister is the picture of confidence."
http://news.vice.com/article/meet-t...anadas-conservative-party?utm_source=vicefbca
I suppose you aren't referring to Sun Media, National Post, The Globe and Mail, Global and CTV along with a multitude of Talk Radio Stations (that all endorsed the CONS) when you say that the media is mad at Harper.......
I seethed just a little bit in recent days listening to vanquished Tories talk about how they're going to be "nicer" people in the post-Harper future. Some of them said they were just too mean, nasty sort of - not at all like the wonderful, kind, compassionate creatures they really were inside all along.
Wait a second, they're pulling the "Good German, Bad German" defence. Vee did not like to do it but vee vas only following zee orders of zee legitimate authority, der Fuhrer Herr Harper.
Right, blame it all on Harper. No, sorry, we decided a long time ago that doesn't wash. We saw enough of you, for almost a decade, to know that you never hesitated to go nasty whenever the opportunity arose. At times you got so into character you even looked deranged, unhinged.
You were a scowling, churlish bunch, always ready to crush dissent by impugning motives, branding them as "inimical" to the country, demeaning their patriotism. And now you're Good Germans indeed.
And you did it collectively, the lot of you. Now, for you to try to make Harper, your fuhrer, take the blame it simply won't fly. However I think it warrants the coining of a new noun, a collective noun to describe the rancid lot of you - "asswhole." Yes, I think that'll do nicely.
I wonder what noun we will come up in 4 years to cover the current set of a-s-sholes we just elected?
The Harperites don't seem to understand why they lost the election.
"We got the big things right," Jason Kenny says. "We got the tone wrong."
Andrew Coyne disagrees (link is external). The Harperites lost because they got the big things wrong.
They were always about power, not principle:
With each about-face, broken promise or abandoned principle, from corporate subsidies to foreign investment to deficit spending, from the rights of MPs to the discussability of abortion to Quebec’s nationhood, it became harder and harder to understand just what principle or philosophy was guiding Conservative policy — other than blind obedience to the leader.
At their very core, they knew their was no philosophy -- no set of principles -- which guided their decisions. That is why they ultimately lacked confidence. And that lack of confidence had disastrous consequences:
And from this void grew the darkness. People are inclined to be generous to others when they feel confident in themselves; they will be open about their plans when they believe in their purpose — and trust that others can be brought round to them as well. Not only is it not enough to change the tone, then. It’s not even the point. What has to change first is the Tory psyche. They have to believe in themselves, which is to say they have to believe in something.
In the end, they were in power to serve the ego of one man. Michael Harris has it right. They were a Party of One. That is why they lost the election.
Andrew Coyne: First fix for the Conservatives — their psyche | National Post
"We got the big things right," Jason Kenny says. "We got the tone wrong."
Andrew Coyne disagrees (link is external). The Harperites lost because they got the big things wrong.
They were always about power, not principle:
With each about-face, broken promise or abandoned principle, from corporate subsidies to foreign investment to deficit spending, from the rights of MPs to the discussability of abortion to Quebec’s nationhood, it became harder and harder to understand just what principle or philosophy was guiding Conservative policy — other than blind obedience to the leader.
At their very core, they knew their was no philosophy -- no set of principles -- which guided their decisions. That is why they ultimately lacked confidence. And that lack of confidence had disastrous consequences:
And from this void grew the darkness. People are inclined to be generous to others when they feel confident in themselves; they will be open about their plans when they believe in their purpose — and trust that others can be brought round to them as well. Not only is it not enough to change the tone, then. It’s not even the point. What has to change first is the Tory psyche. They have to believe in themselves, which is to say they have to believe in something.
In the end, they were in power to serve the ego of one man. Michael Harris has it right. They were a Party of One. That is why they lost the election.
Andrew Coyne: First fix for the Conservatives — their psyche | National Post
Rona best tighten up the yappers.......
Conservatives are feeling a “certain liberty” to speak candidly, without fear of “reprisals” or the pressure of government where even a minor difference of opinion could be construed as a split in the party since Stephen Harper stepped down as leader on Oct. 19 following their election defeat.
“They were told not to talk to the media. Any association with the media was tended to be frowned upon,” said former Alberta Conservative MP Lee Richardson, who won four consecutive elections between 2004 and 2011. He was also a Progressive Conservative MP from 1988 to 1993 under former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
“It was expressed at caucus either by the caucus leadership or by the prime minister himself. There was no doubt, it didn’t really matter where it came from. Everybody knew where it was coming from. There was one guy making the rules in that party,” Mr. Richardson told The Hill Times.
After winning power in 2006, Mr. Harper imposed tight message discipline on his caucus for almost 10 years, which the party followed until their election defeat on Oct. 19.
But right after losing the election, and Mr. Harper’s announcement that he was stepping down as party leader, Conservative MPs have been openly criticizing the way their leadership ran the national campaign.
Conservative MPs feel ‘certain liberty’ after 10 years under Harper’s message discipline | hilltimes.com
Conservatives are feeling a “certain liberty” to speak candidly, without fear of “reprisals” or the pressure of government where even a minor difference of opinion could be construed as a split in the party since Stephen Harper stepped down as leader on Oct. 19 following their election defeat.
“They were told not to talk to the media. Any association with the media was tended to be frowned upon,” said former Alberta Conservative MP Lee Richardson, who won four consecutive elections between 2004 and 2011. He was also a Progressive Conservative MP from 1988 to 1993 under former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
“It was expressed at caucus either by the caucus leadership or by the prime minister himself. There was no doubt, it didn’t really matter where it came from. Everybody knew where it was coming from. There was one guy making the rules in that party,” Mr. Richardson told The Hill Times.
After winning power in 2006, Mr. Harper imposed tight message discipline on his caucus for almost 10 years, which the party followed until their election defeat on Oct. 19.
But right after losing the election, and Mr. Harper’s announcement that he was stepping down as party leader, Conservative MPs have been openly criticizing the way their leadership ran the national campaign.
Conservative MPs feel ‘certain liberty’ after 10 years under Harper’s message discipline | hilltimes.com
It was an election, not a Palace Coup, but how does this mentality not surprise me from people who believe garbage like: We are the natural governing party.
I am not a Harperite, I am fiscally conservative and I have had serious issues with the Conservative Party on a number of issues. I do however, find the ridiculous belief that it is game over for the conservatives laughable. The same way I laughed at those who thought the Liberals would never come back.
Justin Trudeau had better deliver on a portion of what he has promised or he will find himself in a very uncomfortable position. For idiots like Mentalfloss and others who think the downturn in Alberta's economy is a joke, I wouldn't be laughing too loudly. Alberta has kept people across the Country employed, kept their mortgages paid, their families fed. From Nfld to BC.
I spent the better part of three years living in the cab of a truck, and flying home every two months because of a lousy economy in and pathetic pay in Ontario. I finally sold my house and moved out here and I am still gainfully employed.
I feel for my fellow economic refugees who are now wondering if they are going to be able to make their mortgages back home if they get laid off. No joking matter. The boom is over, for now, but it will come back. It always does.
I re-read the article and I don't see anything about the Oil biz in it, nor this Natural Governing Party, so you may have quoted Kenny's comments inadvertently, which doesn't erase the fact as he points out that they just followed the PMO directives in how they acted, as if they couldn't change their tone.
And I can't comment as to whether mentalfloss, or anyone else that thinks Alberta's decline is a laughing matter because any decline in any sector in Canada that causes hardships is not a laughing matter.
But as Coyne responds, it just wasn't their tone, it was with their attitude and vision which if it doesn't change will allow the Libs to be the NGP.
And I don't see Reformers or Alliance members (Canada's versions of Tea Partiers) becoming 'socially nice'. It's just not part of their platform.....
But in the main what characterized the Tories’ 10 years in power was timidity, mixed with inconsistency. They took few risks, invested almost no political capital, articulated no broad vision. Where they did act, it was as often as not by stealth: important measures would be found buried four hundred pages deep in an omnibus bill, or parsed from some throwaway remark by the prime minister at a conference in Switzerland.
Andrew Coyne: First fix for the Conservatives — their psyche | National Post
Conservative strategists recognized too late the obvious pitfall of crafting an election strategy around making fun of their main opponent's 'nice hair'.
Turns out just about everyone likes nice hair, but maybe not Rona's hair......
"We're going to be nice hair all the way all the time from now on," promised the new leader, pledging to usher in a new era of 'sunny ways glaze' after a decade of apparently just getting the tone wrong (link is external).
