How irony killed Stephen Harper
Look at the defining ads of the election campaign: Harper went after Trudeau with a sledgehammer, airing attack ads that condemned him for being “just not ready.” Mulcair swallowed the narrative line and earnestly proclaimed: “I’m ready!”
What did Trudeau do? Did he swing back with a bigger sledgehammer? No, he turned the phrase on its head. Sure, he said, with an ironic twinkle in those teasing brown eyes, I’m “just not ready” — then came the punchline: just not ready to put up with five more years of Conservative rule.
clever, oh so clever, that ironic twist on Harper’s own phrase. Some have said that Harper was tone-deaf to the plight of Syrian refugees. I say he was tone-deaf to Canadian irony.
For proof, look no further than Harper’s promise in the late stages of the campaign to establish a tip line where Canadians could rat each other out for so-called barbaric cultural practices. “Barbaric cultural practices” — my God, it was comic gold! The name itself cried out to be mocked, and mock it we did.
This Hour Has 22 Minutes immediately jumped on it, creating a sketch in which anonymous tipsters called into the hotline to report such offences as a captive woman being forced to kiss a fish — a “barbaric practice” that turned out to be a Newfoundland screeching-in ceremony. Meanwhile, Canadians spontaneously created the twitter hashtag #BarbaricCulturalPractices to report a slew of horrific offences: Wearing socks with sandals #BarbaricCulturalPractices! Beer-bellied men in Speedos #BarbaricCulturalPractices! Triple-bacon-pork-belly poutine #BarbaricCulturalPractices!
http://m.thestar.com/#/article/opinion/commentary/2015/10/23/how-irony-killed-stephen-harper.html