Monday, November 28, 2005

And So An Election Begins

The Liberal minority government has fallen. This comes as no surprise.

Paul Martin signalled a few bits of the Liberal election strategy. It appears that it will be a nasty campaign, with leaders attacking each other on nearly personal grounds. Martin did signal running on party record of accomplishments. If Martin can focus things on the last 18 months of accomplishments, that might not be a bad thing - I wouldn't recommend leaning on the Chretien era record, though.

From Stephen Harper's speech to the Conservative Caucus. In referring to improving the lot of Canadians: "Under a Conservative Government we will tell them they will be better off". The subtle nuances of this one sentence are fascinating:

"So, you won't actually improve my lot?"
"You'll tell me I'm going to be better off - after you do what???"

Like the computer in the game "Paranoia" the CPC wants us to believe that we are going to be "happy" under their rule.

In many respects, this election is Harper's to win or lose. Can he (and his party) convey a coherent vision for Canada, or will some wingnut start musing out loud once again.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apparently I wasn't the only one who twigged on the comment made by Harper about telling me that I will be better off. Great, typical neo-con arrogant attitude towards the general population, they seem to feel that we aren't smart enough to understand when we are "better off" so they have to "tell us" that we are now better off. Do we really want a group that thinks like that anywhere near the seat of power ? I for one don't !

SB

Anonymous said...

Federally? You might NOT want a group like that anywhere near the seat of power... but do you really have a choice?

Besides, aren't we all good little citizens who simply go along with what the authority figure tells us to think or tells us to believe? Oops! We're not supposed to be smart enough to notice things like that...

Besides, I'm just waiting for my "Daily Dose of Ethics"TM to be delivered by the divinely inspired CCC... Another group more than willing to tell me what to think, how to act, and what to believe... Bah!

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