No, just dumb.
A Conservative civil war, with Harper back in the trenches? Are they insane?
Is Stephen Harper about to rise, Lazarus-like, from the political dead?
On the face of it, the very idea seems like absurdity in hot pursuit of farce. After all, following the debacle of 1993 — when Canadian voters nuked the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada — the party was definitely in need of a Moses. It’s just that no one was suggesting that it should be Brian Mulroney.
Why would they? It was Mulroney who created the perfect storm of electoral revulsion that resulted in Kim Campbell being blasted into oblivion, along with all but two members of her caucus. The lesson? It’s not normal for the guy who organizes the Charge of the Light Brigade to be given a new command.
So it was with moderate surprise that I read this week that, according to a “respected senior Conservative”, the name of one Stephen Joseph Harper was being advanced in Tory circles as a possible contender for the Conservative leadership.
Which is like saying Donald Trump has a shot at being the new Archbishop of New York. This bit of speculation was retailed by no less a pundit than the National Post‘s John Ivison. (I checked to make sure this wasn’t an April 1st leftover, and that Ivison was not moonlighting with 22 Minutes. Negative on both counts.)
The theory that accounts for the bizarre prospect of Harper Redux is that the CPC is a party in danger of bifurcating like a worm chopped in two by a garden spade. One part of this wriggling creation would be the Reform and Canadian Alliance element of the party which swallowed the old PCs after the “merger”. The other part would be the Red Tory excommunicants who have had no part to play in Canada’s decade of Tea Party Republicanism under Harper — except, with one or two noteworthy exceptions, as his accomplices.
The potential return of Harper, despite his loss of sixty seats and the government in the last election, is being driven by the urge to preserve the unity of the party — i.e. Western Canadian control of the conservative movement. And what is he supposed to be guarding it against? The heretical influence of progressive ideas from the old Joe Clark Brigade.
“These guys (the Harperites) are ideologues,” one knowledgeable source told me. “They hate Red Tories. Harper courted Peter (MacKay) for the merger. As soon as they had him, they shamed him continuously. No Red Tories allowed.”
https://ipolitics.ca/2016/04/07/a-c...-harper-back-in-the-trenches-are-they-insane/
A Conservative civil war, with Harper back in the trenches? Are they insane?
Is Stephen Harper about to rise, Lazarus-like, from the political dead?
On the face of it, the very idea seems like absurdity in hot pursuit of farce. After all, following the debacle of 1993 — when Canadian voters nuked the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada — the party was definitely in need of a Moses. It’s just that no one was suggesting that it should be Brian Mulroney.
Why would they? It was Mulroney who created the perfect storm of electoral revulsion that resulted in Kim Campbell being blasted into oblivion, along with all but two members of her caucus. The lesson? It’s not normal for the guy who organizes the Charge of the Light Brigade to be given a new command.
So it was with moderate surprise that I read this week that, according to a “respected senior Conservative”, the name of one Stephen Joseph Harper was being advanced in Tory circles as a possible contender for the Conservative leadership.
Which is like saying Donald Trump has a shot at being the new Archbishop of New York. This bit of speculation was retailed by no less a pundit than the National Post‘s John Ivison. (I checked to make sure this wasn’t an April 1st leftover, and that Ivison was not moonlighting with 22 Minutes. Negative on both counts.)
The theory that accounts for the bizarre prospect of Harper Redux is that the CPC is a party in danger of bifurcating like a worm chopped in two by a garden spade. One part of this wriggling creation would be the Reform and Canadian Alliance element of the party which swallowed the old PCs after the “merger”. The other part would be the Red Tory excommunicants who have had no part to play in Canada’s decade of Tea Party Republicanism under Harper — except, with one or two noteworthy exceptions, as his accomplices.
The potential return of Harper, despite his loss of sixty seats and the government in the last election, is being driven by the urge to preserve the unity of the party — i.e. Western Canadian control of the conservative movement. And what is he supposed to be guarding it against? The heretical influence of progressive ideas from the old Joe Clark Brigade.
“These guys (the Harperites) are ideologues,” one knowledgeable source told me. “They hate Red Tories. Harper courted Peter (MacKay) for the merger. As soon as they had him, they shamed him continuously. No Red Tories allowed.”
https://ipolitics.ca/2016/04/07/a-c...-harper-back-in-the-trenches-are-they-insane/
