It comes as no surprise that Harper is all hot and bothered about jumping into the quagmire that is the Middle East. He wanted to commit Canada to invading Iraq back when Shrub and his gang of morons were gearing up to invade in 2003.
Canadians should be more than a little skeptical of the motives involved here. Harper has been itching for an open war for some time, and whether it is in the Middle East or Ukraine doesn't really matter to him. The goal is a shooting war. Something he can use for maximum photo-op glamorization of himself.
With his party tanking in the polls at home, he's looking for an adversary that he can demonize and make as scary as possible. Conservative governments seem to feed on fear, and Harper is no exception to this. An adversary like ISIS is ideal from a propaganda point of view. They are obviously well armed, very well funded and violent. Harper can, and no doubt will, create all kinds of false bogeymen related to ISIS. Expect to hear lots of "terrorist plot foiled" headlines in the coming months. ISIS is the new al Qaeda.
Harper's personal popularity has been tanking as the public finally takes note of a legislative agenda that is at odds with the day to day values of Canadians, a series of corruption scandals involving star senate appointees, and continued efforts to discredit the entirety of our institutions of government so that he can justify consolidating more and more power in his own hands.
There is much speculation about when the next election will be held. Harper's "fixed election dates law" says Oct 19, 2015; but there are many other scenarios. Harper could call a snap election this winter, hoping that his core voters will come out and vote while others stay at home warming themselves in front of the fire.
Or he could hang on into 2016 when this parliament expires under the constitution. At that point in time, he could try appealing to the house for an extension. In which case, expect the propaganda around ISIS and terrorism in general to ramp up dramatically over the next months as Harper tries to whip things into a frenzy of fear.
The last probability is for Harper to step aside in the Spring of next year, and have the CPC go through a leadership race during the summer months, and ride that into a fall election, with a "renewed" CPC headed up by the likes of Jason Kenney.
Either way, I suspect strongly that Harper's desire to jump into war in the Middle East has more to do with the upcoming election. If he has to put Canada's military men and women in harm's way, that doesn't bother him one little bit. It's just one more photo-op.
Canadians should be more than a little skeptical of the motives involved here. Harper has been itching for an open war for some time, and whether it is in the Middle East or Ukraine doesn't really matter to him. The goal is a shooting war. Something he can use for maximum photo-op glamorization of himself.
With his party tanking in the polls at home, he's looking for an adversary that he can demonize and make as scary as possible. Conservative governments seem to feed on fear, and Harper is no exception to this. An adversary like ISIS is ideal from a propaganda point of view. They are obviously well armed, very well funded and violent. Harper can, and no doubt will, create all kinds of false bogeymen related to ISIS. Expect to hear lots of "terrorist plot foiled" headlines in the coming months. ISIS is the new al Qaeda.
Harper's personal popularity has been tanking as the public finally takes note of a legislative agenda that is at odds with the day to day values of Canadians, a series of corruption scandals involving star senate appointees, and continued efforts to discredit the entirety of our institutions of government so that he can justify consolidating more and more power in his own hands.
There is much speculation about when the next election will be held. Harper's "fixed election dates law" says Oct 19, 2015; but there are many other scenarios. Harper could call a snap election this winter, hoping that his core voters will come out and vote while others stay at home warming themselves in front of the fire.
Or he could hang on into 2016 when this parliament expires under the constitution. At that point in time, he could try appealing to the house for an extension. In which case, expect the propaganda around ISIS and terrorism in general to ramp up dramatically over the next months as Harper tries to whip things into a frenzy of fear.
The last probability is for Harper to step aside in the Spring of next year, and have the CPC go through a leadership race during the summer months, and ride that into a fall election, with a "renewed" CPC headed up by the likes of Jason Kenney.
Either way, I suspect strongly that Harper's desire to jump into war in the Middle East has more to do with the upcoming election. If he has to put Canada's military men and women in harm's way, that doesn't bother him one little bit. It's just one more photo-op.
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