— Musings —10.14.2013 06:56 AM
In today’s Hill Times: Not the real thing
So, Parliament returns. My hunch? Thirty-odd million Canadians won’t notice.
The government that is led by Stephen Harper, and a few neatly-barbered, young Conservatives in PMO, is adrift—truly, officially and indisputably so. If they have a message, anymore, no one knows what it is. They—who used to have so much communications discipline—now have much of the latter, but not so much of the former.
The new top guy in the PMO comms shop—who, by all accounts, is decent and smart—is unlikely to improve upon this sad state of affairs. As any comms veteran knows, millions of dollars of advertising and press releases couldn’t improve the taste of New Coke. They could try and fool people, but everyone still thought it tasted lousy. They wanted Old Coke back.
Stephen Harper faces a similar dilemma. After nearly a decade in government, many of the big things he wanted to do—scrap the long gun registry, reduce the GST, eliminate corporate and union donations to political parties—have all been done. What to do now? What to say?
After the Throne Speech, ministers and MPs will be dragooned into service, and fan out across the country, singing the praises of their party, their government, and its Shiny New Vision. But it won’t work—because (as above) communications cannot obscure cold, hard realities.
Said cold, hard reality is this: the Harper government has lost its way. No one in the real world (i.e. South of the Queensway) knows what they are doing, anymore. There is a custodial feel to the whole enterprise, and no sense of direction anymore.
Governments defeat themselves, goes the maxim, and we are reminded of it every time we turn on the boob tube, these days. What’s hurting the Conservative brand isn’t the Senate scandal (Canadians always thought an unelected Senate was a scandal), or some other scandal (Rob Ford, if he has shown us anything, has shown us that scandals are irrelevant to most regular folks). It’s not that stuff.
What’s hurting them is the near-total absence of key messages. What’s hurting them is the lack of a mission statement. What’s hurting them is that Harper seems to be wholly disengaged—and even bored—by the job he once coveted so much.
That’s one of the principal reasons why Canadians have cottoned on to Justin Trudeau. Whatever you think of the man, or his father, or his absence of policy (or whatever), you know this much: he seems to have a pulse. He’s vibrant. He’s optimistic, and he says so. He’s ALIVE.
Stephen Harper’s Conservatives ain’t dead yet, not by a long shot. But they seem to slipping into a mass collective coma of sorts. They’re excited by the MP’s pension, to be sure, but not much else.
Heed the lesson of New Coke, Conservative Throne Speech writers: you can dress it up in all kinds of communications finery. You can call it shiny and new.
But, at the end of the day, if the underlying product still tastes crappy, nobody will buy it.
Ok so politically speaking I hope nobody is going to try the Mark Antony speech, because it just does not apply with Harper there are no redeeming qualities that will cause the troops to rally. It is what it is, any hope of redemption should fade as each day passes as we march forward to election day. There will be no co-opting of wars or the troops, the Rubicon having been crossed and against them they have repelled Harpers waves of sarcasm, marginalization, devaluation and intimidation and some have been sacrificed temporarily to disenfranchisement on that river shore. But the mighty mass that awaits to charge into the breach which is the next election, and those keen citizens who await their emancipation within the walls of each city, especially among them those who won and earned their citizenship through service and the indignities that they have borne will bring Freedom, Liberty, Common sense and nobility back to the floor of that citizens forum. So unlike a leader Harper without regard for those who have sacrificed so much has indeed gone a bridge too far, he has indeed met the enemy and found himself lacking by comparison, soon he will find out the depth and breadth of that chosen enemy. It is every Canadian who has been witness to trespass and unjust dispute who has suffered loss from his callous actions and every offence will be repaid in kind with interest due when they topple this would be king from his throne. Is it too soon for hyperbole? Should we not celebrate with fearless roar and indignation towards the man so many have suffered? Yes but we should and will proceed lightly on foot, through narrow way and barbed wire fences unrelenting to the traps set within, they are like paper to our knives, let arrows fly and willing man rally to the breach, onward ever onward lifting our brother and sister from despair. And let that good man, the son of another, cry out with us for it is his fate too, to lead us forth to victory so we may rally round and lift him on high for some time. If only in hope to retrieve what was thought lost, to lift the spirit within this cold country, to relive a sense of history if not the golden past a future hopeful and bright that may surpass even that.
Its going to be either Mulchair or Trudeau, my money is on Trudeau but both their fathers were good men.
Gaspar, confirm your real identity in the emails I sent to you or you will be blocked.
Let me guess, you’re a drama teacher just like Justin.
.. good analysis .. timely .. useful analogies too.. ie ‘Coke’ – taste – message ..
So called ‘conservatives’ branded cattle n wallowing hogs – dimly perceiving Canadian citizens as idiot ‘customers’ for the Harper snake oil – that trashing the environment = good government and jobs .. and those sellout elected MP’s somehow buying into.. that the pompousness and splendor of a ‘Throne Speech’ can wipe the mouth and arse clean of their despicably secretive, entitled, runaway, deceitful & incompetent government.
Has the new regressive party/government/sub-prime minister and his pimping PMO truly lost their way.. or truly did they never have a way.. a shred of morality, a sense of DUTY .. a concept of stewardship, responsibility..
Uh .. a vague sense of Canada ?? Context, history, progress, truth, pride, glowing hearts are just way over their heads?
I think 99% of the writhing harpocritical political scumbag mass of the Harper Party is devolving backwards before our very eyes.. retreating, receding, leaching into the tar sands.. to suck at the sweet green economic tailings ponds & graze on the carbon methane morass of temporary seasonal job hordes, economic mythology and their vaunted faux family values emanating there..
Or perhaps they see it as the Rapture Departure Terminal ..
and think we plan to join them there … in 2015 ??
My girlfriend thought it was a stupid analogy. The universe balances out.
And she was right.
in this though you were right “So, Parliament returns. My hunch? Thirty-odd million Canadians won’t notice.” There’s the opposition’s problem and will be almost to the day until an election is called.
That and the tendency, among Liberals especially, to rely on their old bromides and expect the country is just going to naturally come back to them.
This is paticularly evident on websites like this where they gather to reinforce each other,when only Liberals venture here for the most part, instead of actually getting out and doing the hard grinding grassroots work it takes to win a majority government.
Like Bill Engvall says, ‘here’s your sign’.
Gaspar,
Des propos semblable a ceux de Joe Clark concernant Paul Martin…
Warren,
The last war was successfully fought twice using the same tactics by the commanding general. They are of the view that the third time will be the charm. Unless Harper suddenly perceives the cold and harsh light of political reality, he will be in for a political thumping. In his place, I would already be making plans for a return to private life…
But Harper is who he is and apparently would prefer to go out with all political guns firing.
Stephen, as Kenny Rogers would say: know when to fold ’em.
Gaspar,
Most people know as Ontario goeth, goeth the federal election. Tom has less than zip of a chance in Ontario. That means it’s Stephen vs. Justin for most of the provincial marbles. Let’s see if I’ve got this straight — which one again is the tired incumbent and which is the fresh-faced demonstrable change-agent. Like you said Gaspar, it’s no contest. Slam dunk ahead!
Suspect a Hudak victory hurts Harper, and a Wynne or Horwath victory helps him.
Ontarians split their tickets.
Yep. And the provincial is coming first. Government falls in April for May vote, or March for April. But I can’t see this going into Junee. It’s over.
The alternation works best for Horwath. Her line will be: “The Liberals have been there too long. Hudak’s party is too extreme. And you need someone to fight Harper, if need be. I can do that. I will do that.”
Warren,
What if, just if Horwath is the new Danielle Smith — with strong numbers going into the vote but reluctant supporters in the ballot box? Could happen. Wasn’t McGuinty a partial beneficiary of same in past elections?
You wrote: “After nearly a decade in government, many of the big things he wanted to do—scrap the long gun registry, reduce the GST, eliminate corporate and union donations to political parties—have all been done. What to do now? What to say?” Note: all these “big things” are dismantling not building. Dont’ forget his 2006 election promise NEVER to tax income trusts then he taxed them!
What is the difference between Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program and Harper’s Income Trust tax? Trudeau never promised NOT to tax energy. Many people, especially seniors with pension investments, lost money because they trusted Harper’s pledge in 2006. If Harper was constructive and a builder instead of negative ideologue, Canada would have a pipeline to tidewater for oil sands production.
A Prime Minister should know how to bring people together for important national projects like when Lougheed (Alberta), Trudeau (Canada) and Davis (Ontario) invested with Imperial Oil to build Syncrude to launch world scale commercial development of the oil sands (when other major oil corporation executives earning multi-million dollar salaries wouldn’t take the risk). Keystone XL might be approved by now if there was constructive leadership at the national level instead of an unrelenting campaign to discredit key stakeholders such as environmental groups.
Harper’s not a builder. He’s a demolition expert. He’s not a leader.
Hint: smaller government. Get it now?
“Hatred-based election logic will fail miserably” – Well, there goers the Harpercon election strategy.
Gaspar, what’s the benefit of a “free trade” agreement (when Parliament doesn’t debate it and Canadians don’t know what’s in it) if we don’t have the infrastructure to transport raw materials to tide water for export? (“extremist parties”, as you call them, prefer to add value to raw materials in Canada before exporting in order to retain higher paying jobs for Canadians rather than Asians and Americans).
You wrote: “Hatred-based election logic will fail miserably because Canadians will be turned of by hate-filled spewing neurotics…”, pretty strong words, however, where have you been, in a cave? Harper’s Conservatives have perfected attack ads: Dion is not a leader and Ignatieff is just visiting. Not to forget the “in and out scheme” to exceed election spending limits to which they plead guilty and paid a fine of $50,000.00; robo calls; Dean Dal Mastro, Parliamentary Secretary to Harper is charged with four criminal offences related to election breaches; $90,000.00 from Harper’s Chief of Staff to Senator Duffy to stifle an inquiry into illegitimate expenses; and on, and on; Peter Penashue over spending in Labrador…. based on this record, anyone is more worthy and capable of leading the country.
The “Mission Statement”: Keep the hate filled Barbarians at the gate.
.. Alfred E Neuman could do more for Canada than the parasites that took over the Progressive Conservative brand..
Duping Peter Mackay does not qualify one to lead a country.. listening to Tom Flanagan either.. or making broken down hacks Minister of The Environment that you plan to attack.. or using doddering Bay Street creeps like Joe Oliver to pimp resource stripping & shipping to China
Inform yourself via source documents, of facts, actions, quotes, deficits, opaqueness and broken electoral promises.. as you come across as being ignorant of Harper et al deceit, incompetence & denial.
Consider coming back from the creepy toxic fantasy land of Stephen Harper & greasy fairy tale trolls – to the country of real Canadians and glowing hearts.. or maybe even better said.. just stay where you belong .. I’m OK with that
The Blue Kool-Aid is truly a potent brew, and very hallucinogenic…
Ya, but now you know that the Kinsella blog will be top of the list for the upcoming CON attack onslaught. And please don’t call our friend Gas-Bag.
I think the election has already begun and perhaps now we know that Harper will call an early one.
Heather,
Did you miss the big sovereignist rally in La Metropole on the weekend? 500 people turned out…there goes Canada.
Ask yourself Heather which English-Canada is likely to be more receptive to a Trudeau — Canada 1968 or Canada 2015.
.. delete our previous Salamander comment at your convenience Warren .. please
that Alfred E Neuman retort did not reply/connect/follow the Gaspar response to a previous Salamander comment
Don’t want it seeming to advise or criticize your lead
a politically savy electorate is a lot of work.
At least our government isn’t shut down like the one south of the border.
Lots of anger in the comments section of this post…
I think it’s insightful analysis and a thoughtful opinion. I think you’re right, but time will tell.
Even if the Harper Conservatives are merely custodians, they still seem well ahead of the wannabees, for now…