On CTV's Mike Duffy Live I'm watching western separatist Conservative mouthpiece Ezra Levant go on about the latest candidate to be punted for saying bad things in the present or past. Ezra is, by the way, volunteering in the Conservative Party election war room. Maybe he's not being paid because he'll be easy to dismiss when he invariably makes another bone-headed move. He's been there, done that.
After all, what's an election without half a dozen of these fire-resignations. This time its a Liberal being dumped for comments he made in the 1990's. Dion made the right decision to reject the nomination by the way. Ezra seems to be a bit confused about this but he does have a tendency to flirt with crossing the line between what is acceptable and what is not.
What's really funny is why the Conservative Party keeps trotting out Levant. You'd think on a news day where Harper is in Quebec misleadingly tying an environmental tax to - oh my - national unity, that they'd have locked up avowed separatists like Ezra Levant! He, like many (but certainly not all) of his ilk from the Reeeeform and Canadian Alliance days are unabashed separatists.
Yes, that's right - he was keen to see Quebec separate and if they didn't, he'd be happy with getting the west to split. That sort of thinking fits right in with the folks who still support Stephen Harper's firewall notions. Harper today didn't do himself any favours by trying to tie carbon taxes to national unity as it gave Dion a perfect opportunity to flash his credentials as captain Canada.
I'm not really going out of my way to pick on the Conservatives. I actually like some of them. Levant certainly isn't one of them. Neither is Harper to no surprise of readers here.
Perhaps some of their nuttier operatives can shut their mouths for a few minutes so we can look elsewhere. As I'm an equal opportunity critic next up is a dig at the dippers.
Surreal scene shows Harper frozen with fear in field, Conservative staff have police push reporters back
Picture Stephen Harper standing out in a field during his latest photo op (one assumes its right field not left field) while some media and their cameras were trying to get closer to Harper to have him address the latest Conservative bird-brained gaffe.
[Conservative staff had the] RCMP to pull us away, to push us away so that we couldn't ask the Prime Minister any questions.” Bob Fife, CTV journalist
What gaffe? No less than insulting the family of the dead. Ryan Sparrow, the party's communications director, has since been suspended for attacking, via an email sent to the media, the motives of a father of a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan.
No, I'm not making this up.
Its times like these where the Harper war room shows the true colours of Harper H.Q. They consider anyone who doesn't share their particular fervour for all things Harper/Conservative as being something less than a true Canadian. Imagine insulting the integrity of a father who has lost his son to the Afghanistan war.
Conservatives suspend official over comments about dead soldier's father (Sept. 11 2008, CBC)
The Conservative campaign suspended a top official indefinitely on Thursday and ordered him to apologize personally for comments he made about the father of a soldier killed in the Afghanistan mission.
The interesting bit here is that Harper was too afraid to come out of right field and talk to the press and address this issue head on, so his team had the RCMP push reporters back. According to both CTV's Bob Fife as well as a CBC reporter at the scene, Harper's staff wouldn't allow press to approach Harper and in the end the Conservatives had RCMP create more space between Harper and the press.
One reporter rightly called it "unseemly".
Update: Here's a transcript (from the Closed Captioning feed) of CTV reporter Bob Fife and a news anchor.
Well we're going to try again before the rally. But -- anyway, for some reason they do not want the prime minister to comment on this controversy. And as i said, the political aides to the prime minister refusing to let us nearby. Ordering the R.C.M.P. To keep me and -- particularly me and the camera crew away from the prime minister. CTV reporter Robert Fife
True to his word, Premier Danny Williams is ratcheting up his ABC campaign... Anyone But Conservatives. While federal and provincial governments have their disagreements, outside of the PQ in Quebec I don't recall another time in recent memory when there has been so much open anger between a premier and the Prime Minister.
A majority government for Stephen Harper would be one of the most negative political events in Canadian history. Progressive Conservative Premier Danny Williams
What makes the story even more interesting is that, on the surface, both the Premier and Prime Minister are on the same political side as both are "conservatives". Yet despite the superficial similarity there are profound differences. The Conservative Party of Canada that Stephen Harper leads is nothing like any current provincial Progressive Conservative party nor is it like the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada when it was sold down the river by Peter "I am not the merger candidate" MacKay. The CPC under Harper's leadership is much farther to the right in profound ways.
It would be instructive for Premier Williams to expand on this difference.
Harper dangerous even with another minority government: Williams (Sept. 10 2008, CBC)
ABC campaign having effect, Conservatives admit - The Conservatives held three of Newfoundland and Labrador's seven seats when Parliament was dissolved this week. However, two veteran MPs — Norm Doyle and Loyola Hearn — are retiring, and local Conservative organizers have admitted Williams's "anything but Conservative" campaign has made it difficult to attract candidates in the province.
Williams has garnered the support of all but one member of his 44-member Progressive Conservative caucus to campaign against Conservative candidates in the federal election.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is a true "progressive conservative", a rare breed these days. I recommend reading the entire speech by Premier Williams to St. John’s Board of Trade, September 10, 2008. Its interesting in its entirety and is not all about Harper. A few selected extracts:
And make no mistake – you won’t hear Stephen Harper admit he may win a majority government because he is terrified that people might stop and actually start to think about the consequences.
Well, I beg you all today. Stop. Think. And decide if that is what this country deserves? When we vote, I would rather that we stand on the solid ground of principles than on the shaky ground of broken promises. If you believe the country deserves better, you know what to do. It is as easy as ABC.
Elsewhere:
May export anti-Conservative campaign to other provinces: Williams (Sept. 11, CBC)
Election surprise: Danny Williams and a backlash against frat-boy ads (Sept. 10, The Georgia Straight)