Oh Canada, Oh Harper
So it's started in Canada. Not so long after being sworn in as Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has gagged his cabinet. No more talking about what government is doing or wants to do. No more discussions of plans with the media - and with the voting public.
It's step one in the Karl Rove governing playbook. The less they know, the more opportunity you have to install the grossly unpopular laws of the radical right. Harper denied being a "stealth candidate" with a hidden agenda during the recent campaign. And his first rule as Prime Minister is to hide everything.
After all, if you want to dismantle the social safety net and undermine universal health care, the best place to do it from is the back room. What is it, after all, that he doesn't want his ministers saying?
Okay, sure, his Foreign Minister is Peter MacKay, one of the dumbest and most treacherous waterheads in Canadian politics. MacKay was the guy who was voted in as PC party leader - and then promptly sold the party out to the radical rightist Western Alliance party. Thanks, Pete.
MacKay immediately made his irreversible boneheadedness clear when he made some off-the-cuff hopeful statements about Canadian hostages in Iraq.
"MacKay told the Canadian Press he was hopeful after seeing a recent videotape showing the four human rights workers, including the two Canadians."
But, hey Pete: you're Foreign Affairs Minister now, not just a Nova Scotia dope-of-the-day politician. When you say things like that, people think you know something. Hopefully the gaffe was enough to prove that Pete never knows anything.
And with a cabinet rife with Alliance party extremist rejects, it's crucial for Harper to shut them up before they start talking about what his real agenda is. Because they're proud of it, and they will talk, if you let them.
Stockwell Day, former Alliance Leader and all-around yabo, is now Minister of Public Safety. His agenda probably reads like Mussolini's 1934 to-do list. "9:00 - round up undesirables. 10:00 - get quotes on barbed wire by the mile. 10:45 - facial."
But you'll never hear that from Day, as his pronouncements must now go through the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day announced today that he will "make stuff safer."
And maybe that's the difference that will save Canada. A new study shows that Canadians are not very scared of terrorists. The American Junta has ridden the fear wave to all of their post-2000 electoral "success." But that won't work for Harper - yet.
The study was done by the federal government in the wake of the 7-7 attacks in London. But they're the perfect fodder for these Conservatives. The results kick off the conversation they want to have - the more you talk about what you need to fear, the more it's on your mind and the more you fear it.
And that's the next step in the playbook - generate fear. He won't need an actual attack. Just the threat of one. I'm sure HSD Secretary Michael Chertoff can oblige with some urgent alerts about border security. The key will be to get Canadian cities locked down and scared.
Will Canadians be as guided by their basest instincts as Americans have been?
Stay tuned.
It's step one in the Karl Rove governing playbook. The less they know, the more opportunity you have to install the grossly unpopular laws of the radical right. Harper denied being a "stealth candidate" with a hidden agenda during the recent campaign. And his first rule as Prime Minister is to hide everything.
After all, if you want to dismantle the social safety net and undermine universal health care, the best place to do it from is the back room. What is it, after all, that he doesn't want his ministers saying?
Okay, sure, his Foreign Minister is Peter MacKay, one of the dumbest and most treacherous waterheads in Canadian politics. MacKay was the guy who was voted in as PC party leader - and then promptly sold the party out to the radical rightist Western Alliance party. Thanks, Pete.
MacKay immediately made his irreversible boneheadedness clear when he made some off-the-cuff hopeful statements about Canadian hostages in Iraq.
"MacKay told the Canadian Press he was hopeful after seeing a recent videotape showing the four human rights workers, including the two Canadians."
But, hey Pete: you're Foreign Affairs Minister now, not just a Nova Scotia dope-of-the-day politician. When you say things like that, people think you know something. Hopefully the gaffe was enough to prove that Pete never knows anything.
And with a cabinet rife with Alliance party extremist rejects, it's crucial for Harper to shut them up before they start talking about what his real agenda is. Because they're proud of it, and they will talk, if you let them.
Stockwell Day, former Alliance Leader and all-around yabo, is now Minister of Public Safety. His agenda probably reads like Mussolini's 1934 to-do list. "9:00 - round up undesirables. 10:00 - get quotes on barbed wire by the mile. 10:45 - facial."
But you'll never hear that from Day, as his pronouncements must now go through the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day announced today that he will "make stuff safer."
And maybe that's the difference that will save Canada. A new study shows that Canadians are not very scared of terrorists. The American Junta has ridden the fear wave to all of their post-2000 electoral "success." But that won't work for Harper - yet.
The study was done by the federal government in the wake of the 7-7 attacks in London. But they're the perfect fodder for these Conservatives. The results kick off the conversation they want to have - the more you talk about what you need to fear, the more it's on your mind and the more you fear it.
And that's the next step in the playbook - generate fear. He won't need an actual attack. Just the threat of one. I'm sure HSD Secretary Michael Chertoff can oblige with some urgent alerts about border security. The key will be to get Canadian cities locked down and scared.
Will Canadians be as guided by their basest instincts as Americans have been?
Stay tuned.
posted by fiduciary at 9:13 AM
2 Comments:
I know. I just dropped anmother entry on it. It's more Johnny Damon than any of the other Pats defections. Sad.
You just gotta love Harper's latest fashion edict for Ottawa (those cute little colour-coordinated "HarperMuzzles" so many Tories will be wearing for next few months). There is absolutely no truth to the rumour that the only permissible colour for the HarperMuzzles is blue. I have it on good authority that any primary colour will do, in fact, some expect Tory ministers to have a different colour for each day of the week! Now, that's being cutting edge!
But fear not, political discourse inside and outside the House will still find a way to bypass the HarperMuzzles and wander over the rest of the Harper New Tories agenda.
Then the true discussions will start on exactly what sort of Canada Harper wants to have.
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