Posted on 01/14/2006 12:26:22 AM PST by goldstategop
The Canadian electorate, characteristically one of the most docile in the democratic world, suddenly seemed to have awakened from their sleep last week and decided that they had had enough.
A poll, highly credible because it was conducted for the left-leaning Globe and Mail, showed a startling 10-percentage-point leap in electoral support for the Conservative Party. It was enough to assure them a minority government in the general election Jan. 23, with the bare possibility of a full majority.
Moreover, the response to the poll of the Liberal Party and its leader, Prime Minister Paul Martin, was so strident that one Globe and Mail columnist speculated that Martin had lost his mind.
The poll showed that the Tory support had risen from the high 20s to 39 percent, while Liberal support had dropped from the low 30s to 27 percent and the socialist NDP from the high teens to 16 percent. These results portended 152 seats for the Tories in the 308-seat House of Commons, three below the 155 necessary for a majority. There would be 74 for the Liberals, 60 for the separatist Bloc Quebecois, and 21 for the NDP.
A series of Liberal attack ads, released in response to the swing, backfired calamitously. They portrayed the stolid and terminally serene Conservative leader Stephen Harper that people knew, as the clandestine agent of U.S. President George W. Bush, being furtively financed by sinister right-wing Republicans and concealing a secret Hitlerian agenda that he was about to loose upon innocent and vulnerable Canadians.
One ad, withheld from television but appearing on the Liberal website, showed heavily armed soldiers on downtown Canadian street corners, a reference to Harper's pledge to restore the viability of the Canadian armed forces.
Another ad cited a column in the Washington Times that had said: "Canada may elect the most pro-American leader in the Western world." But Harper had already written the Times in response: "While I certainly consider myself to be a friend of the United States, I'm afraid this greatly oversimplifies my position."
Said another: Harper "refuses to reveal his donors. What do you suppose he's hiding? We do know he's very popular with right-wingers in the U.S. They have money. Maybe they helped." The Tories replied by releasing a list of all their donors of more than $200. None was American.
The ads were, in other words, so bizarre that even Canadians couldn't bring themselves to believe them.
The following day, Martin made things much worse. In a televised debate, he took it upon himself to announce a hitherto undisclosed Liberal policy. A Liberal government, he said, would remove the so-called "notwithstanding clause" from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The clause, which empowers Parliament to overrule the Supreme Court, was inserted in the Charter to assure that elected representatives, not unelected judges, hold the final voice in determining Canadian law. Without the clause, the Charter would not have been adopted. Supporters of judge-made law have so stigmatized the idea of actually using it, however, that it has never been exercised by Parliament, and almost never by provincial legislatures other than Quebec's.
Martin, emulating the line taken by the ads, speculated that the invidious Harper secretly plans to use the clause to abolish gay marriage and take away abortion rights.
Again, the device backfired, in part because too many people know that the Charter can't be amended without the consent of the provinces; in part because only right-wingers care much about the issue, and they want the clause sustained and employed; but mostly because such an announcement was plainly the act of a desperate man.
"Has Martin lost it?" asked the headline on a column by Anthony Westell in the Globe and Mail, and the text made it clear he wasn't talking about the election but the man's mental stability. His colleague columnist Margaret Wente (who opposed Harper in the last election) seemed to have changed sides.
"The louder and more blustery Mr. Martin gets," she wrote, "the calmer and more reasonable Mr. Harper is by comparison. The more Mr. Martin freelances wacky new ideas and makes things up on the fly, the more Mr. Harper sticks to his moderate, voter-friendly message. The more Mr. Martin makes him look like a Hitler, the more Mr. Harper looks like a Hockey Dad."
In short, the Tory campaign has succeeded. But Canada's Conservatives have a tragic record of losing elections when people say dumb things in the last week. So the fight isn't over.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Oh, Canada! Looks like our friends in the Great White North are poised to make history--here's hoping the Tories can win it.
Blue?
CNN and the alphabet networks changed the colors of the American political parties back in 96.
American political parties have never really been associated with colors as in other countries(conservatives blue in Canada and the UK, Liberals red in Canada, Labour red in the UK etc.etc).
American political parties have been associated with animals, Pubbies the elephant, democrats the donkey.
Republicans SHOULD be blue.
Democrats are socialists. Communists are socialists' cousins. Communists are red.
China is red. The Soviet Union was red. Red is the color of the left. Even now - the flags of communist Vietnam and China are red.
I think Republicans should make a point of self-defining Republicans as blue. Just take it back.
Never mind the liberal networks - all that's needed to change things, is for Fox News to agree to the deal.
TAKE BACK THE BLUE.
The formerly silent majority of decent Canadians look like they have had enough!
ADSCAM: Click the picture-
Go to "comments," go to "last," and work back for the latest links, quotes, quips, charts, and other useful information about the upcoming Canadian elections.
Remember, the sitting "Grits" government ( Liberal, what else? ) clings to power after refusing to step down- they lost a "no confidence" vote.
The Canadian Blogs have led the way investigating, exposing, talking about, and keeping before the public the "scandal a day" nature of Canada's corrupt, incestuous, nepotic ruling class.
You really need to read all of it to see how bad 13 years of "liberal" government can be.
Read it all, get sick, get mad- and if you are Canadian, go vote.
Be sure to visit our Sister Site, Free Dominion:
I agree. I even made the observation in 96 about the colors of red and blue as red=commies, and the media using that as a way to get Americans to vote for Dems by the innuendo of color psychology. I thought that Repubs were blue when Reagan was elected.
It may not seem like much, but journalists are worse than lawyers nowadays. I wouldn't put anything past them, they get more courageous as they get more outrageous.
The networks used to show the incumbent presidential party in blue and the challenger in red. In 2000 and the aftermath, they seem to have seized on the chance to use red for the Republicans. I think part of this is their belief that the colors became associated in the minds of what they consider mindless viewers.
Whether there is any nefarious intent in the color selection, I cannot tell.
At very least, there was unquestionably, collaboration.
Thanks, backhoe!
Instead of focusing on changing the color designations back, define them. Begin a campaign of calling the Democrats the "Blue Blood Democrats" smear them with the silver spoon. Call the Conservatives, "Red Blood Republicans", and wrap them in God, Country and the Flag. Not only will it P the Dims off, it would stick. How hard would it be to paint Teddy K and some of the others as do nothings?
With the MSM, no matter how evil I think their motivation is, it's often worse than I imagined.
Take a look at those detailed regional numbers from SES, based on a five-day roll. The Tories now lead the Liberals in every region of the country. Not only that, but in every part of every region: in Ontario, they lead in Southwestern Ontario, in Northern and Eastern Ontario, even in the Greater Toronto Area. Thanks again..
Rather be dead than red....
Why are Fire Engines Red?
One plus One is Two
2 Plus 2 is Four
Four times three is 12
12 inches make a ruler
A famous Ruler was Queen Elizabeth
The Queen Elizabeth sails the Ocean
The Ocean has Fish
Fish have fins
The Finns fought the Russians
The Russians are red
So fire engines are red because they are always rushin'
From my childhood - couldn't resist.
You're likely going to see a very similar map of Canada on January 24th. The GTA will be so red that it will seem crazy, but most other areas will be blue (or teal) with some red and orange pockets.
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