Stubbed my toe on Lala’s PET statue this morning. Cosmic karma for laughing out loud at that Toronto Sun front page.

  

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• Justin Trudeau stepped in it yesterday…or did he?
• Here’s what the Liberal leader said:  And this is a quote, from Canadian Press: “We’re proposing a strong and real plan, one that invests in the middle class so that we can grow the economy not from the top down the way Mr. Harper wants to, but from the heart outwards.”
• Do you understand what that means? Well, don’t worry. I don’t either. Zoolander. 
• Various media are having a field day with it. The Sun is calling it Care Bear Economics, which is actually pretty funny.  “Whatever that means,” said the Post, in a headline. 
• Is it truly as bad as Scott Reid’s “beer and popcorn” remark? The Post says that one sank an entire election campaign, and I wouldn’t disagree. 
• I liked what Jeff Balingall said about it: Will we now measure our GDP in hugs?
• You? Was it a disaster? Funny? Weird? Decide!

  

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(Who I miss very, very much, by the way. I adored that man.)

Here’s what Senator Davey famously said: “If the other guy says, ‘You’re fat,’ don’t say, ‘I’m not.’ Say, ‘You’re ugly.'”

Which brings us to this photo of someone’s jacket, captured this morning in Saskatchewan and sent to me:

“I am ready.”

We see the same problem in this Liberal ad: they’re repeating the negative the Tories are disseminating about them.

Stop doing that, Team Trudeau.  Stop, stop, stop.  Stop leading with your chin.  Stop repeating the negative.  Stop staying within the other guy’s frame.

Start changing the channel, instead.

 

 

 

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Oshawa MP Colin Carrie is doing just that.  Quote (and from the Sun, no less):

TORONTO – Conservatives in Oshawa are hunting up donations with a “family friendly” fundraiser at a shooting range.

Oshawa MP Dr. Colin Carrie is the advertised special guest at The Long Range Target Shoot Fundraiser to be held Saturday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Orono Fish and Hunt Club.

“Join us for a family friendly day at the range including a demonstration by trained staff and the opportunity to safely discharge a wide variety of firearms,” the invitation says.

Images accompanying the invite show a long gun and a handgun.

Look, I’m no an anti-gun fanatic. I own at least one firearm, and I’ve got all the training and licensing to do so.

But inviting children to a fundraiser to shoot guns? Seriously?

I’ve heard from several Tories who are very, very unimpressed by this move by Oshawa Conservatives. And it is therefore no surprise that central campaign declined to defend it.

What are you thinking, Colin Carrie?

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Conservative ad. Note the now-ubiquitous tag line. 

 

Okay. Now, here’s a New Democrat ad. Note, too, the tag line.

   

“Just not ready,” and now “isn’t up to the job.”

The Cons and the Dips are buying their research from the same focus group firm. That, or there is unprecedented all-party agreement on Justin Trudeau’s biggest point of vulnerability. 

Either way, I can’t recall  seeing something like this before in Canadian politics: an attack line that works with voters on the Right and the Left. Can anyone else think of a precedent?

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• Where’s the NDP war room? As I tweeted to the universe yesterday, I’ve so far seen plenty of evidence that the CPC and the LPC are taking strips out the NDP’s hide and more – but not much evidence indicating return fire.  What gives? It’s not like they didn’t know a campaign was coming.  It’s not like they don’t have the dough.  So what’s the problem? They’d better fix it, and pronto – the somnambulist-style electioneering is having an effect.
• When “no neg” means “go neg”:  As I recall, and as I also tweeted, Justin Trudeau repeatedly and solemnly promised never to go neg in this campaign.  Fine.  Me and others thought that was a big mistake, but whatever.  Now, stuff like this is starting to seep out of the Liberal campaign.  Personally, I think those anti-NDP spots are pretty darn good – but aren’t they now doing, you know, what Trudeau said he wouldn’t do?
• When you can’t throw the candidate under the bus…: Throw a whole province under the bus!  Linda McQuaig’s nutty suggestion that we leave all that oil in the ground – and what are her campaign signs made of, anyway? – flatly contradicted what Angry Tom had been saying for two years.  Now, however, NDP campaign staff say the controversy fault isn’t McQuaig’s – it’s the fault of Albertans.  Great strategy there, Team Orange.
• The issue that isn’t: Remember how everyone was talking dope about dope, endlessly, two Summers ago? Remember how it was supposed to be a great big election issue? Well, er, it isn’t.
• I’m confused, as usual: Let’s do this logically.  (a) Kathleen Wynne said, if elected, she’d put together a new pension plan.  (b) She got elected, big time. (c) She started to put together a pension plan because she, you know, had a mandate from the people to do so.  So how’d it become an election issue, with Conservatives who don’t have a mandate to kill Wynne’s pension plan? Beats me.  Wynne’s only doing what she said she would do.  That kind of thing used to matter, to Conservatives.
• Finally – take that, Messrs. Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau! In Ottawa, at least, I kick your ass on social media!

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Serious question: where is the #ndp war room? #cpc and #lpc scoring on 'em, big time, but no return fire. What gives? #elxn42 #cdnpoli

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) August 11, 2015

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Here.  

 

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Be joyous! Also, give cash, using the handy PayPal button to the left!

 

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