— Musings —04.22.2025 06:50 AM
Campaign notebook: my last day in Canada
Here.
— Musings —04.22.2025 06:50 AM
Here.
Warren,
You’re as charitable as the late Holy Father. Byrne is incapable of running a good campaign. It was her job to see the pivot coming from ten planets away and she blew it. Ex-lovers make bad campaign managers. This campaign is way out of her league and it shows. Pierre kept her on, so he gets to wear it if we lose.
Byrne is tied to that trumpy base/grassroots that are the problem – she whoops them up and joins in with their lunacy – can’t pivot from that. If they want to win then Byrne and Poilievre have to go and bring in Kory what’s his name that ran Doug Fords campaign.
“Kory what’s his name”. Precisely.
Martin,
Not in a million years. Those people have burned themselves as far as the federal party is concerned. That’s now a fact of life.
I’m not unhappy about it but I am still quite surprised that Byrne didn’t see this coming. Especially with the way Ford won his majority, the blueprint was spelled right out.
Also very surprised that no one in the Conservative brain trust besides Tenycke DID seem to see it.
Ronald, I thought Pierre’s political instincts were pretty good.
Did he get things wrong, of colossal proportions.
He and his party are headed for a shellacking, and election night is going to be grim.
I’m in the DR right now, and I have no plans for tracking the results on the 28th.
On the morning of the 29th, I’ll go to the Elections Canada website for the final score, then proceed to turn off my tablet.
It feels likes it’s going to be a super long flight home.
Douglas,
I will be more candid than I should: Byrne ran his leadership campaign so it was almost a given that she would run this one. And then there’s the obvious elephant in the room: even if Byrne left, there was no one else in Ottawa prepared to replace her during this campaign. So, essentially, Pierre was boxed in.
Douglas,
We seem to be losing, but we haven’t lost yet. I’m sticking with that until election night.
Ronald,
The people in the know say the Conservatives will get thumped on the 28th.
I’m perplexed because:
a) Carney played the pro-choice card on Monday. Never a good sign for the Liberals.
b) Carney was unnecessarily harsh in his condemnation of the Conservatives’ economic platform. Why be so harsh if you have an insurmountable lead?
c) Telford-crafted story ran in the Globe that had absolutely no substance to it. Unnamed sources from the Ford camp. No indication of the sample size of the Nepean riding poll.
d) Trump coming to the rescue of the Liberals again. Why?
And so I ponder.
Douglas,
Excellent points. Hope all of this is an indication of something most pundits are missing. But definitely not you.
Musical recommendation while you are over there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSvEwnYI2Lc&t
Maybe too much like pop but I like it.
“The Tory rank and file, nowadays, always like politicians who voters dislike. They have an unerring instinct for bad choices. They are angry and resentful and paranoid, and they always want someone who embodies their anger and resentment and paranoia.”
Warren, I’m pretty sure wealthy conservatives during much of the 20th century would have said the same thing about the labour movement. Now that the working class has shifted rightward, these same accusations come from the left.
How come it’s never anger and resentment when left-wing parties want to shift money from people who work to people who don’t work (even if able bodied)?
I certainly agree with what you say about Tory rank and file and picking leaders. They have made some lousy choices, and there does seem to be this tendency to pick either uncharismatic zeroes or trollish assholes for leaders.
Like how about picking someone likeable and charismatic who doesn’t automatically turn off Y& alienate vast swaths of the electorate from the get go? Just a thought.
Doc,
We could have done that last time…but you know who didn’t pass the Harper test. End of story.
Oh, please. Yes, you have made your views on Pierre quite clear. You really need to lick your wounds when you lose a leadership fight. Paging that ass Ed Fast.Not helpful. To be fair, no doubt you hear all about Pierre on a daily basis from your social and professional “circles”(probably from Toronto but I digress).
And on picking a leader, “they” would include “you” just for the record. Perhaps “they” should come up with a leader that has whatever characteristics appeals to your “circles”(as horrifying a prospect that sounds like it would be) and, at the same time can WIN a leadership fight. Because, pro-tip, that is what you need to do in the general.
And speaking of “assholes'”(your word not mine), your “circles” have never liked Pierre. Likely a little too uppity and from “away”. The sort of guy that should be serving you meals at your gentlemen’s clubs(remember when Clinton said that about Obama!). You literally admitted it when you said Carney finally gave them “permission” to abandon Pierre even though the binary choice was 4 more years of something even worse than Trudeau(they did the same thing in 2015 for crying out loud-we should listen to them, why?).
And I agree that no one should be exempt from criticism but when you start it off with “I told you so” and you arm chair quarterback like Kory “what’s his name” is doing, I just hear blah blah blah after it.
The problem is that your base is brainwashed and radicalized so they picked a leader who reflects their sentiment – unfortunately nobody else in Canada can stand him.
Nobody? That is just factually wrong. He will likely get a larger percentage of the vote than Harper did in 2011 and maybe even more than Mulroney in 1988. So, please explain. And a brainwashed, radicalized base? Here is your base out in the wild. They actually think that raising their elbows will help deal with Trump. I think, perhaps, you may want to sit that one out.
https://x.com/QuickDickMcDick/status/1914021992245891252
Oh, and just for the record, my policy has always been that if you are going to call someone an asshole, you do it to their face and you sign your name to it. That’s how most folks behave out here in flyover country.