BTW, here's another good election 'toon that hadn't yet made it to FR:
Posted on 01/24/2006 12:32:41 PM PST by Squawk 8888
Call it the revenge of the hockey Moms and Dads.
The font of all Canadian wisdom, as everyone knows, is the local rink. Parents huddled on cold benches, clutching cups of coffee, swapping stories about their kids, shaking their heads about those dummies up in Ottawa. Being Canadian.
Back in November, while watching my daughter play at a hockey rink in Toronto, I posted something to my Web log using my BlackBerry. On it, I suggested that the election was going to be about hockey Moms and Dads versus the elites. With Stephen Harper championing the former, and a Westmount millionaire named Paul Martin personifying the latter.
Was I right? Well, I can now reveal that -- right after I posted that observation -- I received e-mails from two senior guys in the Tory war room. They told me that's exactly what they hoped to do.
And so they did. With every photo op (particularly the one showing the Tory leader taking his kids to an Ottawa hockey rink), with every positive statement (Harper stressing his middle-class roots), with every critical statement (the continual references to Martin's millions, and his decision to fly his ships under foreign flags), the Tory campaign was all about the revenge of hockey Moms and Dads.
It wasn't about Left versus Right. It wasn't about Urban versus Rural. It wasn't about East versus West. It was about Tim Hortons versus Starbucks.
Stephen Harper won because he told the story people want to hear. We federal Liberals had lost touch -- with Canadians, with each other -- and we deserved to lose. If you'll forgive the obvious metaphor, we deserved some time in the penalty box, and now we're going to get it.
Harper's whole campaign was about what political types call "retail" -- street-level, pocketbook stuff, aimed at regular folks. His advertising campaign was deliberately downmarket, too: especially the famous coffee shop ad, complete with ordinary folk shaking their heads about Liberal perfidy. It wasn't fancy, but it did the trick. The Tory leader proudly left the glossy, rich-looking Madison Avenue bafflegab to the Liberals.
The aforementioned photo of the PM-elect taking his kids to a rink in the family van was, to me, the beginning of the end for Martin. Canadian parents saw that photo and murmured: "That's me. He knows my life." At around the same time, they started to suspect Paul Martin has never struggled to balance mortgage payments and the hydro bill. Ever.
But what about the Liberals? Why did the hockey Moms and Dads reject Martin after once rewarding the Liberals with three back-to-back majorities?
Besides beer and popcorn? Besides RCMP criminal investigations? Besides comparing people to animals? Besides offering us no policy whatsoever? Besides looking tired and old? Besides the attack ad that defamed the military, while our soldiers are risking their lives for the rest of us in Afghanistan?
Those things were important, to be sure, but I believe the main impetus for change came mid-campaign, over the holidays. Families gathered at the end of December, and they came to a collective decision: We want change, and if Stephen Harper is the only way to achieve that, so be it. Pass the cranberries.
Canadians also saw what those Liberals who'd worked in the Jean Chretien years had seen, when Martin was minister of finance. Many of us who worked for Chretien -- with the exception of three senior men in the leader's office, all of whom now regret their miscalculation, or should -- regarded Martin as irredeemably weak, and willing to say anything, absolutely anything, to please whomever walked through his doorway.
In any event, none of that matters now. Paul Martin is on his way out, and Harper will be around for quite a few years to come. Should we be anxious about that? I don't think so. I don't fear Stephen Harper, and neither should you. This is the greatest country in the world, and I believe -- I know -- he wants to make it better, just like the rest of us do.
Let's give Harper his chance. If nothing else, it'll give us all something to talk about at the rink this weekend, won't it?
His message: don't fear Harper, reverse engineer him.
This Chretienite should be treated like the DLC's Clinton: watch out.
Stephen Harper won because he told the story people want to hear.
Nah, this lefty still doesn't get it. She thinks Harper won only because he is the better bull$hiter. NO, it couldn't be that people are fed up with stupid liberal policies and positions like gay marriage, welfare handouts and anti-family stances.
"The Libs ran an ad claiming that Stephen Harper wanted to send armed soldiers into the streets of our cities. It backfired big time, becoming the most-parodied campaign ad ever."
Now I've got to find the parodies...
Did any of them involve black helicopters?
Interesting. The writer makes his points, with no reference to America, Iraq, evil right wingers, or any of the normal villains of the left.
Here's one link:
http://noodlesoup.wordpress.com/2006/01/11/liberal-ad-parodies/
And coming from the most rabid and effective attack dog strategist the Liberals have had in recent memory it's huge. When Kinsella turned a few weeks ago you could sense the shift up here.
The sun was shining in Toronto this morning when folks were going to work. It's the nicest January weather I can remember. It's raining now, but this morning mattered in the big picture.
Good point.
This is really like Sid Blumenthal or James Carville saying "let's give Geo. W. Bush a chance" right after the 2000 election.
Powerfull stuff, no doubt!
Albertans are backward as Yankee Texans.
There are Yankees and there are Texans, there aint no such thing as a Yankee Texan. Glad to see Martin out of the picture.
I doubt it.
They may keep it from plunging deeper into socialism and communism, but they aren't likely to reverse much of what has been done.
Cutting entitlements is very difficult and the Tories don't have close to the number of seats needed to do it.
I think there's a decent chance that Canada can start doing things for the good of canada rather than the liberal party using government funds to buy power any way they could.
It's a step in the right direction, but Canada is still the same country it was before the election.
Ping.
You mean the voters didn't throw a temper tantrum? It wasn't the year of the Angry White Male?
"We didn't make this up."
"There are Yankees and there are Texans..."
GWB = Born in CT.
Language barrier strike again ;-)
Outside the USA the term "yankee" applies to all Americans, not just New Englanders.
And here's the breakdown of Toronto media:
Globe readers think they run the country.
Star readers know they run the country.
Post readers actually run the country.
Sun readers don't care who runs the country as long as she has big knockers.
Nice point about W. He could have grown up like Al Gore, spoiled, elitist, holier-than -thou, but he didn't. Quite a testament to GHWB And Barbara.
Canada will always be to the left of the US, no matter what. But the current Liberal government was out in "Looney Left" land. At least with Harper, Canada's policy won't be "we are against whatever the US is for."
Good one! Gotta love the SunShine girls. :-)
Perfect line!
Thanks for the ping, fanfan, I have not been able to freep or surf much recently--very busy with election news here in the Pontiac.
I went out to Buckingham a week ago last Sunday to see Harper and Cannon. The crowd was on fire, it was amazing. I got to shake Harper's hand! :)
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