At Home in Hespeler

Who said what again?

Back in 2007 I asked, would you stop driving for 12c a litre?

Elizabeth May thinks you would. I wonder. Hasn’t the price of gas gone up more than 12c a litre this year? What has it stopped you from doing?

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Sixty cents a litre is the starting point for serious reduction. This is just a smooth trick to get carbon taxes in play, they’ll adjust accordingly later. And we all know how hard it is to get governments to adjust down.

The Pembina Institute says British Columbia should increase its trendsetting carbon tax to $200 per tonne of CO2 emissions, equivalent to a 48-cent surcharge in the price of gasoline, if it’s serious about addressing climate change.

Carbon Tax, Economic Fundamentalism, Global Warming, Going... Going... Gone Nuts For The Environment British Columbia, Carbon Tax, Elizabeth May, John Baird, Stephane Dion

The party base understood in 2006 and Canadian citizens are understanding now. Ignatieff’s supporters didn’t do their homework. They didn’t read his books. They contented themselves with his ability to navigate the cocktail circuit.”
“Some of them are enraged today. I hear: ‘Why didn’t anyone tell us about him?'”
“We told you, loud and clear. You didn’t listen.’

and

 “But they (party members) didn’t accept the 26 per cent (of the popular vote in the last election). Now we’re at 23.”

It’s worth saying that it’s not that they didn’t try and read his books but, like me, they picked up The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, and slept like a baby for two weeks, unable to keep their poor weary eyes open for more than a page and a half of his pompous drivel.

 Then the front thrusts:

Ross Rebagliati, former Olympic snowboarder with the Clitonesque excuses, now running for the Liberal party in  Okanagan-Coquihalla BC, gives an interview to McLeans:

McL: …did the Liberals approach you, or did you approach them?
RR: They approached me. It came up over lunch and I thought about it for a few minutes, and by the end of the meal, I had decided to do it.

RR:… We’re sending our Canadian soldiers overseas to create a democracy in a foreign land, and a lot of them are paying the ultimate price. And we can’t even bring ourselves to vote here, when we have that right and privilege? To me, that’s unacceptable.
McL: Have you been a regular voter?
RR: No I haven’t.

McL: Are there other politicians you admire?
RR: Sure, Trudeau… he had a cool car and all the girls liked him.

McL: What will you be doing during the Olympics this February?
RR: I’ll be in both Whistler and Vancouver… but I don’t have a single ticket. But as far as I’m concerned I’m just going to flash my gold medal. (Note: he’s entitled to his entitlements).

McL: Are you in favour of legalization?
RR: I’m not really going to go there right now. I think the media obviously has a big opportunity to corner me as a one-issue guy, but I don’t want to be that guy.

McL:…What’s your campaign theme song going to be?
RR: I like the Bob Marley song Get Up, Stand Up.

When your star candidates are this good, what can go wrong?

Silly Liberals, Uncategorized Janine Krieber, Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, Parliament Pub, Ross Rebagliati, Stephane Dion, Warren Kinsella

I remember it like it was just last year, Jack Layton was telling every microphone within’ diaphram-shot that he wasn’t running to finish third place; he wasn’t even running for leader of the opposition. No in the 208 general election, Jack Layton was running for Stephen Harper’s job. He had the stuff, he was The Man: Prime Minister material.

But Prime Minister’s lead, Prime Minister’s make a decision and stand on that decision. Voting present, as Rudolph Guiliani put it, is not an option. That’s what Stéphane Dion’s Liberals did, and Jack derided him.

Yesterday, “the prime minister in waiting,” Jack Layton, and his caucus sat while Parliament’s confidence in the current government was being decided. For all his big talk the past number of years, when the decision was a tough one Layton’s NDP abstained: they voted present.

Jack Layton: Stéphane Dion in waiting.

Jack Layton Election 2008, Jack Layton, Liberals, NDP, Rudolph Guiliani, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper, voting present

The Conservative Party took a different tack against Michael Ignatieff than Stéphane Dion.With Dion, they attacked right away, not giving him a chance to get comfortable in his job and in the process, defined him before he could define himself.

With Michael Ignatieff, they seemed to be holding back, let Ignatieff define himself. When they finally released some negative ads yesterday, some of the Tory faithful said, at last. But the original strategy was, in my opinion, effective. The more Canadians see Ignatieff, the less they will like him. Let the Canadian people begin to have their doubts, save your response until an election, then release it all at once: a little shock and awe politics.  That’s what I thought they were doing, and that’s what I thought would be effective.

Then yesterday, the Conservatives released this ad:

Know what I got out of this ad: Tory Times are Tough Times. Who approved an ad that had the central message from The Liberals negative ads running right through the middle of it? And who puts out a negative attack ad accusing the other guy of using negative attack ads?

But even after those blunders, what is the main theme of this ad? Ignatieff wasn’t in Canada all those years. For some people, me included, that could be construed as a positive.  A little international man about town would be a nice change from the base provincialism that’s grinding the gears off so much in this country.  And it sure beats the professional politicians that are running the country into the ground now.

There’s a fair amount to dislike about Michael Ignatieff, very little substance to his politics among them.  There was not one of those reasons on display for this ad, and that’s why it’s simply not good enough.

h/t Gerry

Politicians acting badly attack ads, Canada, Conservative, Liberal, Michael Ignatieff, Stephane Dion, Tory Times are Tough Times