This is a very telling quote from the National Post online:

Steve Woodhead:  NP’s Julie Smythe just let us know this interesting fact about those protestors: “I checked it out. A bit amusing. Pro-Harper people are mostly Tory staffers trying to pretend they are just a spontaneous gathering of outraged citizens.

Sounds incredibly close to Republican strategies from the 2000 election in the states. You remember, when they shut down the recount in Florida and stole the election from Gore, giving us 8 years of George W. Bush?

This was no freelance operation. The Strike Force — an offshoot of the Republican National Committee⁸⁵ — was part of a team of more than 1,500 volunteers from Texas who were deployed to battleground states, usually in teams of ten. Their leader was Pat Oxford⁸⁶, a Houston lawyer who managed Bush’s legal defense team in 2000 in Florida⁸⁷, where he warmly praised the efforts of a mob that stormed the Miami-Dade County election offices and halted the recount. It was later revealed that those involved in the “Brooks Brothers Riot” were not angry Floridians but paid GOP staffers, many of them flown in from out of state⁸⁸. Photos of the protest show that one of the “rioters” was Joel Kaplan, who has just taken the place of Karl Rove at the White House, where he now directs the president’s policy operations⁸⁹.

The Conservatives and their supporters have no qualms about using all methods and tricks at their disposal to gain power or create the illusion of support. While the official party always, strangely, includes the words “legal” before methods, in their statements, their online supporters sound more and more like squadristi day by day.

Find out their names and everywhere they go, have the lads, pull a nylon stocking over their heads and put them in the hospital. Give them a time out to reflect.

Why would they go this far? Not because the Conservative Party itself sanctions it, but because the Conservatives are actively using the rhetoric of division and hatred to rile up their ranks against the coalition. Similar to how the Republicans gave rally after rally in October trying to beat Obama by using the entire bag of dog whistles. Note, the Republicans were not directly responsible for any of the rhetoric or actions of their supporters, but they did absolutely nothing to discourage it.

This is American-style Karl Rove politics invading our Canadian Westminister system with full force in the hopes of stemming the losses from Harper’s acting like he has a majority. He doesn’t want to be another Joe Clark, so he’s opening up his entire bag of tricks and throwing anything out there that has the slightest chance of keeping power in his hands, and in the hands of the Conservative Party.

As I have been for the last week, I am encouraging people to actually go out there, write letters to the editor, phone in to your local radio show, talk to your family and friends and let them know what is really going on. I do not encourage the coalition parties to send out astroturf protests or organize said protests and hide the fact they are not spontaneous. I do know that unless each and everyone one of us works our hardest every day to get the truth out there about the coalition, Harper and his politics of fear, uncertainity and division will win the day in Canada.

Just as they did 8 years ago in the United States, and we all remember how well that turned out.

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The progressive blogosphere has lit right up with blogs celebrating the fact that Harper has backed down. But!  Very few blogs are asking why. That is by far the most important part of this whole fiasco, and if progressives ignore the reasons why he backed down, none of these potential gains will be realized.

Simply put, he backed down because he saw that his plan was uniting the progressives, not dividing them.

For the last two elections, his strategy was based on two components: Divide the progressive vote and win by virtue of not having any ideological competition, and keep people unenthusiastic about politics.

Dividing the electorate is simple enough. First, regularly emphasize specific points on which the existing progressive parties differ. Second, ensure the lack of a progressive leader who commands respect and presents a viable alternative. Discourage any political enthusiasm amongst the electorate so you can win just by running as a plain vanilla candidate (a “blue sweater” candidate). Essentially, don’t give the progressives any kind of political bone to gnaw on.

Keeping progressives (and the electorate in general) unenthusiastic is a standard Conservative technique. Progressives didn’t get enthusiastic about the great successes during the last Liberal minority. I was shocked at how little was made of the NDP/Liberal public transit investment which is already bearing fruit in many cities across Canada. Regardless, short of the debate fiasco, there was not a high level of enthusiasm for anyone during the last election, which severely depressed turnout.

Why? Because Harper knows that if there is going to be enthusiasm for an election, it will be enthusiasm for pragmatic progressive policies that actually help Canadians. Not ideological stauchness and an obsesssion for power at all costs.

In the last two days, Harper has shown exactly what he wants to do a with a majority. For the first time since Harper came to power, the progressives realized that by remaining divided they will sit in permanent opposition not because Canadians don’t want them, but because Harper is willing to legislate it.

Don’t stop the momentum just because he backed down on this. Bring down this government, form a coalition, and get that power junkie out of here.

Together, we can.

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Edit: It’s on.

Edit(1): Check.

CAPRU had a day skip, but is back yet again with your fun supply of Canadian punditry.

Rick Bell:

When you see Tories doling out more than a half-million bucks for a fancy quad ski lift at an Edmonton bunny hill and the cash is a must, because rich kids from the capital city’s southwest shouldn’t have to wait in line to tumble down what passes for a slope, you know what appears as grey matter under the legislature dome is unplugged from the best of planet Earth’s brainwaves.

Yes, the $600,000 is cash from VLT gamblers but it’s still coin the province gets and can spend as it sees fit.

And it is a small amount but it is a sign of something bigger. The provincial poobahs will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the rude reality of the current financial calamity.

You see, most of today’s elected Tories are Conservatives of convenience. They’re Tories because that’s how you get elected. It’s just a brand.

Rebecca Walberg: Harper was too much economics and not enough culture war. In these times of economic turmoil and strife, we clearly need more culture war and social division. Harper lost not due to his complete lack of a plan for the clear economic troubles Ontario and Quebec are having or his lack of charisma. No, the only thing that kept Harper and crew from getting that majority was not taking a clear stance on the issues that matter during a recession; abortion and gay marriage.

The Toronto Star:

Dion has accurately diagnosed a major cause of the malaise: a moribund fundraising apparatus dramatically outpaced by the Conservative and NDP machines. Lacking a deep campaign war chest, the Liberals were unable to fend off a negative advertising onslaught that framed him as a geeky, goofy, professorial politician.

“I want to protect the next leader against that,” Dion vowed.

By announcing his departure, Dion signalled the end of a noble experiment in Canadian politics where a principled politician could concentrate on ideas and policies, rather than imagery and advertising. But his formidable intellectual credentials, his political courage during the national unity debates, and his impressive commitment to saving the environment and fighting poverty failed to impress voters.

Paula Arab:

I’ll say it even though it’s unpopular: homeless people have rights, too. We forget that, because those already down on their knees aren’t likely to get up and defend themselves, or remind us they’re part of the human race.

And anyone who says it for them risks a public stoning, being dismissed as a bleeding-heart communist, or told to take in the homeless themselves.

Look at the backlash after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross upheld the rights of homeless to protect themselves from the elements, when forced to sleep outdoors.

…

Sleeping in a public park is a last resort, when all other options fail. And everyone facing that kind of dire situation has every right to try and cover themselves from the wind, rain and cold.

If they don’t, they risk freezing or catching a life-threatening illness like pneumonia.

Bob Hepburn is taking bets on who the next Liberal leader will be. His top bet? Former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna.

Naheed Nenshi:

Almost lost in the discussion has been one very smart strategy: Obama focused hard on the almost-forgotten state of Iowa, a state that had voted Democratic in three elections, but which John Kerry lost.

Not only did Obama win a surprisingly large victory in the Iowa caucuses, he moved the state into the Democrat camp. With Iowa in his pocket, he can afford to lose the traditional battlegrounds of Ohio and Florida, as long as he picks up votes in places like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

So, what’s the Liberals’ Iowa?

If we assume that they can defend their pockets of strength in Toronto, Montreal, and Atlantic Canada, where else do they concentrate their efforts, long before the next election, to build their starting position? Manitoba? Urban mothers? Established suburbs in mid-sized cities?

What is clear is that they need to rebuild a coalition. It’s impossible to win an election when you start by writing off one-third of all the seats.

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The infamous CAPRU returns with another late-night edition.

Greg Weston: The Liberals are screwed. Not only was the last election the worst electoral performance in their history, but they are heading very rapidly towards bankruptcy because their few remaining supporters are not likely to open their wallets to the Liberals until they sort themselves out.

Jack Knox: There is a serious problem with homeless people camping out in the parks of Victoria. It’s the fact that there are so many people are being forced to camp out in the parks of Victoria in the first place. City Hall needs to solve the problem, not the symptoms.

Tom Brodbeck: Safe Injection Sites don’t work, don’t listen to all of the “science” and “facts. These random scientists don’t believe they work and neither do the politicians who are ideologically opposed to it, so clearly they are useless. Also, global warming is a myth, evolution is false and the Earth is actually flat. Since I don’t believe in those and neither does this random scientist, they are clearly false. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is part of the conspiracy.

Lorne Gunter manages to incorporate most myths that global warming skeptics trot out to desperately protect their position into his entirely disjointed and confusing editorial. For explanations as to why these are conspiracty theories, see Grist’s How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic.

Toronto Star: Ontarians want to be environmental. However, they also want to keep their acreages and cottages, and don’t want any of those big wind power generators popping up anywhere.

Rachel Sa:

I felt dirty after voting last Tuesday.

I’ve voted in every election since I was eligible, casting my ballot in each of Canada’s last four general elections. Now, after 10 years of suffrage, I’m wondering: Will I ever get to mark my ballot for the person or party I really want?

Thanks to our antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system, I’m sure I wasn’t the only Canadian who held her nose and voted for a candidate I don’t support just to ensure the candidate I really don’t support didn’t get a seat.

Steven A. Sovran:

In Mr. Skinner’s column, he admonishes readers about the “hidden costs” of a single-payer health care system as per the Canadian model. He writes that in comparison with the U.S., Canadian health care is in fact cheaper, but only as a result of having fewer advanced technologies, fewer surgeries and fewer medical resources.

Startling statistics presented in the article assert that for the 55 per cent more per capita spent on health care, Americans are certainly getting their money’s worth — 327 per cent more MRI units, 183 per cent more CT scanners and 100 per cent more surgeries. These statistics are striking and undeniable.

Interestingly, however, not a single mention is made about patient’s health outcomes.

Does all this investment in technology, equipment, and physical space change the health of people?

Ian Shanley: Dion didn’t lose this election; Canadian democracy lost it, with a paltry 59.1% of registered voters even bothering to show up at the polls.

Michael Geist: Canadian political parties needs to join the rest of us in the 21st century if they want anyone to vote for them.

This low-risk, low reward approach does little to inspire the public, instead seeking to solidify existing support.

It also leaves millions of Canadians on the sidelines as they see little reason to become political engaged or active. Indeed, by the measure of voter turnout, virtually all the parties were losers with more than a million lost votes combined for the Conservatives, Liberals, and New Democrats (each party received fewer votes in 2008 than they did in 2006).

In fact, it may only serve to propagate the perception of superior care in the public eye.

Ian Robinson: Canadians overwhelmingly voted against the environment in the election. Just ignore the  62% of voters who supported environmental parties!  We clearly should ignore all of this enviromentalism stuff since more Conservatives won seats.

Trevor Harrison:

I interviewed Stephen Harper many years ago. He was thirty-one years old and already the Reform Party’s policy advisor. I don’t remember a lot about the interview. What I do remember, however, is his telling me that, politically, a party did not want (note: “want,” not “need”) the support of a lot of voters, not even a plurality — this would mean too many debts to pay later on — but merely enough to gain power.

This argument — he had a fancy name for it, which I have long forgotten — was already being practiced elsewhere. In Britain, Maggie Thatcher’s Conservatives had narrow-casted its support to concentrate on voters in the English south. In the United States, the Reagan Republicans were already sorting out their cadre of hard-core voters from everyone else, a practice (often today referred to as “retail politics”) that later (under Karl Rove) became even more elaborate. Ontario’s Harris Conservatives — many of whom, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, are part of Harper’s cabinet — adopted the same tactics of divide and rule in the 1990s.

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Steven Harper is leaving open the possibility of deficit spending during his next government. You know, just in case massive tax cuts don’t work and he needs to do more massive tax cuts.

But we all know he’s not really worried because as far as Harper is concerned:

The fundamentals of our economy are strong (Stephen Harper)

It’s hard to solve a problem you don’t really think exists.

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edit: Does anyone remember the last prime minister who left an opening for deficit spending even though he promised to “rein it in”?

A Conservative Prime Minister

Lots of interesting punditry after the french language debates.

Ipsos did a poll after the debate and reached the conclusion that Harper was devastatingly bad, while Dion and Duceppe did pretty good.

The Winner…

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion emerges as the clear winner of Wednesday’s debate with 40% of Canadian voters who viewed the French language debate saying he won, compared with 24% who feel that Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe won, 16% who feel that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper emerged victorious, 11% who feel that NDP Leader Jack Layton won, and just 1% who feel Green Leader Elizabeth May won.

…

Impressions of the Leaders…

Subtracting worsened impressions from improved impressions, opinions of Stephane Dion improved (net +56) the most as a result of the debate, while Jack Layton (net +48) also fared well. Gilles Duceppe (net +30) also had a solid performance, according to those who watched the debate, as did Elizabeth May (net +18). Opinions of Stephen Harper plummeted (net -39) among those who viewed the debate.

Don Martin begs to differ with Ipsos and personally thinks that everyone was plain vanilla at the debate. In a nutshell — Duceppe was decent,  Harper did little to impress anyone, Dion was “underwhelming”, Layton attacked Harper well, and May was “fearless and fiesty.”

Most revealing quote of the debate,

Stephen Harper: “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

Haroon Siddiqui: Harper has stood up for Australian Conservatives, American Republicans, British Right-Wingers and even Canadian Conservatives. Yet, he has never stood up for the majority of Canadians. Ie. the other 60%+ of the population who don’t support the Cons.

Jeffery Simpson discusses politicians who left Canadian politics this year, and the many more who won’t leave office for a very very long time.

The Time Colonist reminds Layton of the dangers of being too cocky as resurgent NDP leader. As Ed Broadbent learned sadly, it’s important to save the optimism for after the election.

Andy Imlach talks about the plague of “silent calls” and what England is doing to stop them. Silent Calls are calls from telemarketers who aren’t staffed well enough. Ie. when you answer the phone you get a silent line until the telemarketer decides to give you the time of day and talk to you. I hate these calls with a passion and hope that they are made illegal.

Dr. Carol Kinsey Gorman provides a helpful list of gestures which can imply someone is lying, uncomfortable, completely freaking out or otherwise trying to hide an emotion. This is an incredibly useful resource for the two debates tonight.

Paula Simons: Democracy in Sherwood Park, Alberta costs $220 a head.

William Watson believes that having all of our national party leaders properly briefed and working together on the ensuing financial crisis is “one of the dumber suggestions in what has not been the most edifying period in the history of public policy.” Clearly, rule by one party, one leader is a smarter move.

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I’ve been having some very enthusiastic conversations with friends and relatives, from Canada and beyond.  They range in ideology from anarchists to socialists to neo-liberals to social conservatives to authoritarians, and regardless of our dynamic views there’s always one thing we can all agree on. The political discourse in this country has stagnated such that it seems that all of the leaders of every party are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to charisma or new effective ideas to deal with 21st century problems. Discussions about leaders generally revert to statements of “I don’t like so-and-so, but he’s at least better than the other ones.” Surprisingly, this even includes hardcore Conservatives who have voted that way for a majority of their adult life. Even these partisans look down upon Harper and his ilk, but vote for them because they view the current Conservative party position to be the closest out of all of the parties to their own. That is, they would vote for them, if they felt the need or were forced to vote in the first place.

Ironically, usually when we discuss I am able to point out how the Conservative Party’s “conservative” image, and the Conservatives’ actions are completely separate entities, in a fashion similar to the Liberal’s “liberal” image during the 90s. The biggest difference is that they seem not to be that familiar with newstories which show the Conservative Party’s blatantly unconservative behaviour:

1. A current affidavit alledging criminal behaviour with regards to election law in Canada. This includes former party members acknowledging this behaviour.
   

   … the Conservative Party of Canada deliberately violated federal elections law by spending about $1.1 million over its national limit on media advertising and deliberately filed misleading statements in its official returns.

2. A major national security failure from leaving classified NATO documents in an unsecure location, the apartment of an ex-girlfriend who just happened to have a history with the Hell’s Angels. I’m not the only one shocked that they claim to take national security seriously be are incredibly irresponsible with classified documents. Even our NATO allies are worried about working with us now.
   

   It has to be acknowledged that the incident itself was injurious to the national interest by tarnishing Canada’s good reputation within NATO circles for safeguarding classified information

3. While this one is not as well sourced, considering all of the secrecy that the Harper gang maintains, I wouldn’t be surprised if their “fiscal conservatism” is more similar to Ontario’s Harris government’s fiscal responsibility.

This is similar to the Republican corruption scandals in the states. In 2004, no matter how much corruption was apparent, they still did fairly well in the elections. This was simply because the Democrats didn’t offer anything inspirational or even really different than what the Republicans offered. In 2006, this changed drastically with the Democrats taking a far more solid stand on their issues and energizing their base greatly. While the last 2 years have been disappointing considering that the house and senate are both Democratic, they have been a lot better than the previous Republican dominated governments. Regardless of how much Obama may not be as “liberal/libertarian/socialist/etc” that people want him to be, he is an inspirational figure and he is having the effect of driving people to try to improve things for everyone.

In Canada, however, we are in a bit of a bind. Layton can be inspirational, but for some reason on a national level he comes across as incredibly wooden and overdriven by the socialist elements within his party. The activist base of the NDP seems reasonably strong, but not really directed towards actions which will increase the vote for the party in any significant manner.

Dion is a smart, reasonable man with some genuinely new ideas for how to solve 21st century problems. However, he (or his current party leadership) doesn’t seem to have the ability to inspire people enough to really turn that into something with productive momentum. He failed Canadians repeatedly during the last session of parliament by not bringing down the government on a plethora of bills which the Liberal party should have stood solidly against. This doesn’t exactly energize the Liberal activist base.

The Greens are a bit of a wild card. They have potential to burst onto the scene, but they need to get at least one seat in parliament so they can be in on the leadership debate. This will make them more legitimate in the eyes of low-information voters and might increase their parliamentary presence dramatically. Failing that, they need to energize the youth base in this country in a manner similar to how Obama did in the States. Young voters commonly end up being high-information voters and can have a strong effect in many ridings, especially ridings where they are taken for granted as not voting at all. Elizabeth May has done some good things, but she needs to figure out how to have a bigger public image than she currently has.

So, where are we stuck? Layton and Harper are busy fighting the political fight from the 20th century, and Dion is busy rejiggering his party but not maintaining a strong public image. He seemed like he was going to be able to break out last year when he started a larger online initiative, but those efforts have gone the wayside and he has clearly lost a strong portion of his online base. May seems mostly to be keeping her head low. However, I cannot even be sure of this since I have not seen any public statement/speech/etc from May for almost a year now. It would be really exciting if they won Guelph, but since no one is trying to energize the public, I would be shocked if that happened.

So, Canadian politics continues as it always has, stagnant. There are a bunch of high-information voters who blog about it, and donate money to their respective parties, but at the end of the day, no one else is energized about Canada, what we can do, and what our potential is.

We need a leader who will stand up, go from province to province, make a speech in every major city, and inspire Canadians to step up to the plate, inspire Canadians to go beyond themselves and help their communities and country, inspire Canadians to believe in more than just their next paycheque.

Inspire Canadians to turn the 21st century into our century of growth and renewal.

It’s our time.

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Image from Flickr

God, I’ve got a ton of goodies for my readers today.

• With China and India entering the oil market, there are 2 billion new customers wanting as much oil as Americans. Some economists are saying oil may hit $200 a barrel in 6 months. I’m guessing oil prices may end up having their own Moore’s Law soon. This surprises me though with the new oil finds off Brazil’s coast. (Update: Well, I’m guessing the top boys at OPEC aren’t complaining about this.)
• Harper will leave 24 Sussex when you pry the keys from his cold, asbestos coated, dead hands.
• Why is it that Apple Computers is the only company actually innovating? Meet the latest iPhone clone, just like the latest iPod clone.
• Buckdog gives a fantastic commentary on why Conservatives will never bend on drug reform.
• “New Labour” may have lost badly last week in their municipal elections, but it’s not because people trust the Conservative Party. It’s because the British don’t want what New Labour is selling (dumb, directionless, depressing). As Socialist Unity puts it, “the New Labour project is falling apart…”
• I guess states ending with an “a” also don’t count anymore.
• This is a pretty spiffy meme, too bad I cannot draw.
• An article about the “Paranoid Style in American Politics” from 1964 that still applies today. Well worth the read.
• The “web’s largest catalogue of books … made available to be free”
• Got money? Like to invest? Why not invest green?
• “This is what the Giegs said they feared even more than dying, what some call “death by intensive care.”” Hearing about life’s end.
• It’s always a good idea to bust a cycle.

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