It wasn’t me, it was the one armed man…

"It wasn't me, it was the one armed man!"

Ignatieff seems to have called off the hounds and may stop constantly threatening an election.  He also has dumped Ian Davey for a former Chretien aid, Peter Donolo.

It may be nothing more than an attempt to shift blame for the prolonged incomprehensible election brinkmanship onto the “strategy guy” (also responsible for Coderre’s resignation), but I am going to award the Liberals a point for backtracking on this one.  It is a normal course of action.

Dreadfully little of that these days.

Get your dirty logo off my money…

 

Taxpayer money, Conservative logo.

 

This is sickening.  If you want to put your logo on a donation, take it from your party coffers or have your supporters donate on your behalf.  I don’t want any of these parties taking credit for taxpayers revenues.  Considering the appalling record of the party at recognizing and responding to the recession, taking credit for the spending it never wanted to provide is exceptionally insulting.

Take this branding effort and consider the finding by the Globe that Conservative ridings received 38% more stimulus funding and the suggestion seems fairly clear.

 

 

Conservative, the “C” stands for…

Baird engages in inspiring dialogue

John Baird did his rounds as the comedian in Harper’s absence.  He made jabs at the Toronto-Quebec rift in the Liberal party that even had Duceppe hiding a smirk, evidently.

Much of this was to take attention away from other shenanigans.

And here are those shenanigans, according to an article on the Canadian Press, Tories mum over vanishing Harper photos.

Despite adamant government claims to the contrary, dozens of photos of Prime Minister Stephen Harper have vanished from the taxpayer-funded website that promotes the Conservative economic plan.

The photos disappeared after The Canadian Press questioned the government about complaints of partisanship in federal advertising, including a website plastered with Harper photos.

“We have not removed any pictures of the PM,” a Privy Council Office spokeswoman insisted late Monday.

A spokesman for the prime minister made the same assertion.

After being presented with a cached image of the www.actionplan.gc.ca site from last week which featured over 40 photos of Harper, the government did not respond to further inquiries on the matter Tuesday.

I find this more disconcerting than the political power struggles in, well, a political party, such as Coderre’s resignation as the Liberal head of Quebec affairs.

Denis Coderre awaits, but cannot evade, his fate

Coderre’s surprise announcement puts him at odd with his party, likely any of his party-uber-alles supporters, certainly his leader, and may have been an act of pride, or, albeit almost unimaginable in the current political atmosphere, one of sincerity, recognizing that he could not function in the circles of the party’s current management elite.  Coderre will wear the good or the ill that befalls him in the next election.  The Conservatives, in their choice to deny and evade answering for their actions, sacrifice integrity in doing so.

“Whatever we can get away with” is the mantra of the criminal, it is pathetic to see it in Ottawa.

Not with a bang…

The expectation of election has been upon us for some time now, and out of the media had come (and fled) the assertion that an election was inevitable this week.  This seemed all but certain from the television and radio press in the final days before the resumption of parliament.  Of course, with the unlikely pairing of the Bloc and the Conservatives, parliament will chug along for some time yet.  The NDP have pitched in as well, supporting the conservatives on unemployment insurance reform, heretofore a Liberal demand.

Not too long ago, the Conservatives railed against the Liberals for agreeing to form a coalition with the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois, and now they govern with the support of the NDP and the Bloc.  Not too long ago, the NDP slammed the Liberals for supporting (or abstaining from voting on) the Conservatives agenda.  Now the most salient and key plank in their platform is a borrowed Liberal demand, and they actively vote for the Conservative agenda.  The Liberals keep threatening a non confidence motion, a move that Canadians on the whole will likely not be supportive of.

The Conservatives continue the new-style politics of unleashing legislation on television, not in Parliament, and controlling the spin, leaving opposition playing catch-up.  For example, look no farther than Harper’s most recent visit to New Brunswick to provide his update on stimulus spending.  New Brunswick gets too few visitors not on their way to Nova Scotia but this is hardly a professional way to conduct parliament.

It’s getting to be all too much of a circus and it is a pathetic way to treat the Canadian public.  A recent quote in the Globe and Mail from a former Harper advisor illustrates the level of respect for the intellect of the Canadian public endemic to these people:

“It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to be plausible…”

Tom Flanagan, University of Calgary Political Scientist, former Harper adviser.

Politics is, at present, about nothing more than the survival and growth of the party seats, at any cost, including the truth.

We’re not paying these people for theatre, we’re paying them to run the country.  Since their acting is transparent to all but the most fawning of the party sycophants, perhaps they could try consensus and concession for a change.  Let us judge their capabilities and have an election in due time.  We’re Canadian, we’ll reward those who act in a manner we see as congruent with our values.  Right now, there isn’t much to choose from.

If my theory is correct, then all the parties might stand to lose seats in Quebec, where Duceppe is willing to work for and support legislation on a case by case basis for the ridings his party represents.

What a concept.