Do Conservatives take voters for fools?

mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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Voters take Conservatives for fools.

Do Conservatives take voters for fools?: Hepburn

When they were in power, Conservative cabinet ministers were the loudest cheerleaders for Stephen Harper’s nastiest and most controversial decisions and policies.

To listen to them even just a few days before the Oct. 19 election, you would think they truly believed Harper and the party could do no wrong.

Indeed, some ministers were the very people directly in charge of implementing the contentious mandates on everything from killing the long-form census to promoting a “snitch line” on “barbaric cultural practices” and rejecting calls for a public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

They seemed to thrive on it, arrogant and defiant toward anyone who disagreed with them.

Suddenly, though, these same ministers today are back-peddling as fast as they can from the very policies and practices that they championed during the Harper era.

Some of them are so pathetic in their efforts to distance themselves from disgraced Harper policies that they are verging on the excuse uttered by junior military officers of “just following orders.”

Where were these ministers over the last nine years? Were they that afraid of Harper, who ruled with an iron fist?

Or did they love the prestige and power of being a minister so much that they swallowed their pride, principles and courage and instead spouted lines promoting policies they disagreed with or hated?

And for sheer gall, some of these weaseling ex-ministers are lining up to run for Harper’s old job as Conservative leader.

Let’s start with Rona Ambrose, the new interim party leader. Without a hint of insincerity, Ambrose insists her caucus will no longer engage in the “nastiness” of the old Harper government and will be more “constructive, effective” in working as the Official Opposition.

..much more...

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/opin...servatives-take-voters-for-fools-hepburn.html
 
T

tay

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May 20, 2012
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The question could be 'Will the CON supporters who voted for them in 2015 agree with their new 'we want to be part of the Sunny Days' stance as well?

They seem to be following Mulcair's disastrous plan of 'swinging' to the left (as opposed to Mulcair's swing to the right) to capture votes from soft Tories but they will only upset their Reform and Alliance base so they may as well quit the charade and carry on as they were to maintain their 30%......

For years, the Tories refused to hold an inquiry into what the RCMP says are more than 1,200 cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Now she is all in favour of an inquiry (link is external), saying it “is an absolutely non-partisan issue, it should never be political.”

And wasn't the census, particularly the Long Form deemed as invasive by the CONS and their supporters?

Next is Tony Clement, the former industry minister who cancelled the long-form census of 2011, a move widely denounced inside and outside of government. Clement was relentless in implementing the change, insisting it was needed to protect citizen privacy.Now Clement is expressing regrets (link is external), saying in hindsight that “I would have done it differently.”

Then there’s Kellie Leitch, who -- academically at least -- is supposed to be very bright:, the former labour minister at the centre of one of the lowest points in the Tory campaign. She hit that point when she joined cabinet colleague Chris Alexander in announcing “a snitch hotline” (link is external) to report “barbaric cultural practices.” In reality, Leitch was urging Canadians to target Muslims in their neighbourhoods. Now Leitch, who apparently dreams of succeeding Harper, says the plan was misunderstood and not communicated very well.
 
Colpy

Colpy

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Nov 5, 2005
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The question at the moment is not whether the Conservatives are re-grouping, but whether the National Poodle is capable of learning from the Paris attacks. It appears he is not. We will all live without a long form census. Whether we will all live with Justin's imported ISIS is another question.



And as for the above bit of visual vacuity, f u k off. There is a time for peace, and a time for war. When the barbarians are slaughtering your young people out for an evening of "music". it is a time for war.

I know, like "Je suis Charlie" this makes all the lefty morons feel all warm and righteous inside, so they don't have to DO anything. While crying "Je suis Charlie" you all heartily approved every news caster in Canada refusing to show Mohammed cartoons. If we were REALLY "Je suis Charlie" the Charlie Hebdo covers would have been everyewhere.
 
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JLM

JLM

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Nov 27, 2008
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mentalfloss said:
Voters take Conservatives for fools.

Do Conservatives take voters for fools?: Hepburn

When they were in power, Conservative cabinet ministers were the loudest cheerleaders for Stephen Harper’s nastiest and most controversial decisions and policies.



http://m.thestar.com/#/article/opin...servatives-take-voters-for-fools-hepburn.html
Click to expand...

A good leader can be nasty and controversial in that "tough medicine" isn't always taken willingly. You should listen to all suggestions and ideas but at the end of the day the leader has to make the decision and some people are going to be pissed off. Tough titty. :)
 
Corduroy

Corduroy

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Feb 9, 2011
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You could give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they never really supported those policies they just bought into the groupthink. It's like if your friend is dating someone you can't stand but you don't say anything and then when they break up you're like "oh I hated that guy all along. Girl, you could do way better."

Or you could take the cynical approach and just chalk to up to them being politicians and politicians say things that make them popular. That's actually a more realistic approach. They can hardly be blamed for it as that's what they do and hey this is a democracy. It might be impressive when a politician goes against popular opinion out of principles, but when they go along with that, that is the way it's supposed to work.

Or you could say as you are that they take voters for fools, which is also what politicians do and is often true.
 
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