Comments on: Oban and Dalwhinnie square off over Harper

By: Tobermory

Tobermory — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:46:43 +0000

Quebec votes tribally – end of story; they may as well be Kikuyu. Mulroney succeeded (temporarily)only because he was from Quebec, spoke Québeçois French and pandered more profoundly than any ‘federalist’ before or since to francomaniacal obsessions about their destiny ‘as a people’. His failure to close that infamous deal with TROC saw him sandbagged by Bouchard’s formation of the Bloc. And so here we are. The Liberal brand is temporarily sullied in Quebec which is partly why Dion made no headway despite his tribal affiliation. Harper should hope Rae or Iggy steps up as neither will have traction in Quebec (nor much outside downtown TO), making the grinding of the Liberal party to dust that much easier.

By: Arran Gold

Arran Gold — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:27:50 +0000

Glendronach nails it with “… Harper always plays the long game.” Absolutely correct, and he is going to grind the Liberals down with his strategy.

By: FredR

FredR — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:15:27 +0000

Paraphrased – correct me if I’m wrong – the focus of Oban’s argument boils down to the following:

“How dare Mr. Harper not beat the Liberals into a pulp this election and allow them time to rebuild, but instead punish them by forcing them to simultaneously 1) find a new leader 2) fend off lawsuits, and 3) prepare for an election that could come anytime within the next 4 years.

Oh, and by the way, Stephen Harper is scary and Canadians will never trust him. Vote Liberal.”

By: Glendronach

Glendronach — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:42:15 +0000

Oban,

Follow the money. Thanks to their slippage of 850,000 votes, the Liberals will now face a shortfall of $1.7M from Elections Canada. The number of individual donors to the Liberal Party is a fraction of those who donate to the Tories, meaning the Grits will be more hopelessly addicted to taxpayer-subsidized dosh.

And this all fits into the plan shared by Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan: the ongoing relentless destruction of the Liberal Party as a natural governing force. As their campaign resources dwindle, the Grits will see Harper drain the swamp of excessive taxation to prevent the return of delusional social engineering.

So I concur with Dalwhinnie that your prognostications for the next election are no better than artful baiting. But it is important to understand that Harper always plays the long game. Thus far he is winning.

By: gimbol

gimbol — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:08:21 +0000

Isn’t telling that when the liberal trolls start advising conservatives that we need to replace Harper my gut impulse is that the damage to the liberal party is more than they are letting on.

I’m also of the feeling that Carole Jamieson is up to her old tricks again.

Harper won, get over it.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:46:34 +0000

How is winning a strong minority equivalent to losing? He’s improved the CPC standings in 3 consecutive elections in a row. That latter two he won. That’s pretty good in my books!

Let’s be honest, take Quebec out of the picture and Harper would already have a majority. Let’s face it, so long as the Bloc wins 50 seats, the Tories can’t win a majority. But neither can the Liberals.