Conservatives always know when NOT to keep a topic running. If this was story about Liberal deeds, there probably would be 4 pages on here by now. Why is Harper protecting Mulroney? Harper squealed every chance he could about cash filled envelops regarding the Liberals.
Am I surprised? No. It's just the typical hypocrisy I've come to expect. Just as I'm equally non-surprised by the reactions of Harper's supporters to Mulbaloney. The reaction of muteness.
Not to won't worry. I wasn't going to just Harper bash. I was actually thinking of pulling up my old rant page and giving a dig on Dion. I knew the Liberals wasted too much time figuring out who should lead. Meanwhile they gave the 'New Government Of Canada' too much time to consolidate and control the message.
I think Dion is a decent guy, but the situation calls for an aggressive opponent against Harper. Minus the air of arrogance and self-importance that Layton portrays. Layton begging for votes on the election debates still irks my memory of him. Moreover, pulling the plug on the prior government while in a good position to affect policy showed me he wasn't good either in strategic thinking. The best way they could have strengthened the NDP party was to have showed the public they were effective at doing something. Creating a new resume of accomplishment.
They had the government of the day in their pockets at the time with Martin. They were in a position to affect policy with actual compromise. Something they can't do with the Harper people. Harper compromises with nobody. But Layton pulled the plug anyway. His head was just too gigantic with ego to leave enough 'thinking room' for why one is in politics in the first place. The 'why' being to enact positive change in society. Not to simply hunger for votes. And now no NDP kind of daycare. Instead, much, much less with Harper.
Good strategy in politics is getting your vision accomplished, and then having a record to run on. Layton makes a lot of noise, but blew the opportunities by which he could have given his party a better record. That in my mind would have swayed voters and improved the NDP support base. Not the, "please vote for me, please" kind of talk that I heard on the debates.
Oh yeah, but about Dion...
Dion... where is that alpha dog persona that you should be projecting to voters? I think your a nice guy and all, but I don't think the average Canadian wants to read between the lines like me, and be able to not mistake your 'nice guy persona' for meekness.
Dion has been fiddling too long and soon it will be too late to figure out that he has to define himself in the minds of Canadians because Harper's attack ads WILL actually, after a time, ingrain themselves in the minds of general populous who give politics no more than an afterthought. Just like the way the separatists defined Dion in Quebec. "Dion!" they said, "Dion, we don't like you!" or "We don't know who you are!"
All probably a failing of both. A bigger picture perhaps of "We don't like you because we don't know to like you and were told to hate you."
Seriously, as for politics, most people only get motivated when tragedy hits home. You can have a person drink a small amount of poison each day and they can be happy for the next 20 years regardless, until their body starts for fall apart at which point it's 'bloody murder'!
And so Harper can put out a manual of 200 pages on how to screw our democratic process, and no big outcry from the public. Not while meek Dion holds back his alpha dog persona and lets the media, (who are also too scared to do anything) pretend to cover concerns. A media which will point something out and then stand well-the-hell back to see if anybody actually thinks such important issues really matter anyway. That's because if it's unflattering to the Conservatives, well, then it's just a "Liberal Media" right? Better not go too strongly with a story.
Think about it. We wouldn't have known about Mulroney if the guy wasn't so dumb as to not keep his BS mouth quiet and his history forgotten while the Harperites tried to sell him off as another Ronald Reagan of Canada. I mean, sworn testimony now proved false would mean he was lying, and if you are that crooked receiving dirty money under the table, well then just take the environmental award for acid rain, and then shut the hell up!
So while Harper would have made a Mulroney-like scandal on the Liberals his reason for living, and would have whined about as though no other issue mattered for the next couple of years, I'm sure Dion will fizzle at this opportunity which incorporates the ugly side of politics, and try to stand more for issues by which the average Canadian who doesn't think past their own personal bubble of life will have no attention level to really care. They will however watch the TV and the attack ads and think, hm... "that Dion is no leader".
But that is just how coma of our society works.