That being said, I cannot say that I'm a great fan of Andrew Scheer the newly-minted Saccharin-sweetened leader of the federal Conservatives.
Although presenting as a kinder, gentler, less dogmatic and more accommodating leader than his predecessor Stephen Harper, his act rings hollow with me as the reality of his ascension to power and his quest to achieve electoral victory in the next election reeks of the same fetid politics of backroom deals with enemies, underhanded and unethical practices that plague modern-day politicians, who sell body and soul for political success.
Scheer won the leadership essentially by having the Quebec milk lobby sign up thousands as newly-created Conservatives in the run-up to the leadership convention. This for the implicit promise of Scheer's support for maintenance of the supply management system that keeps the price of dairy products absurdly high while keeping cheaper American products out of Canada.
The dairy cartel was frightened by Scheer's main competitor for the leadership, the free-trade champion Maxime Bernier, who was on record calling for the gradual abolishment of the practice of supply management, a fancy phrase for a cartel.
As it turns out the vote was exceeding close with a point-based voting system giving Scheer the narrowest of victory of 17,221 points (51%) versus Maxime Bernier 16,578 (49%). It is estimated that 3,000 of these points were courtesy of the phoney Conservatives recruited by the Scheer forces, which means that had these fake Conservatives not voted, Bernier would have won comfortably.
It was a modern take on the old stuff-the-ballot-box cheat.
Now there are some ostriches in the Conservative party that maintain that Scheer didn't organize the fake Conservative manoeuvre but Scheer more or less admitted to the subterfuge in a speech less than a week after his victory.
His blasé and humorous reference to what was a despicable act of cheating rubbed me the wrong way and soured me on the man who is in the end, just another cheap politician."Scheer appeared at the Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner — Canada's version of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, just with infinitely less media attention and viral moments — in Gatineau, Que. on Saturday night to roast both politicians and members of the media.
Scheer said he was a little bit annoyed at something he had seen mentioned about him in the news: that he was "beholden" to a certain segment of the Conservative party.
"I can tell you I made deals with nobody," Scheer told the audience.
"I certainly do not owe my leadership victory to anybody in the Conservative.." he added, before stopping to pick up a milk carton under his podium and taking a swig. Link
This last week saw Scheer trolling for votes amongst disheartened Quebec separatist voters who hitherto supported the Bloc Quebecois.
"Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer rallied his troops in Quebec on Sunday, promising them there would be more former Bloc Quebecois members joining their ranks. In a speech at a party meeting in Saint-Hyacinthe, he told some 400 supporters there would be more new members like Michel Gauthier, the former Bloc Quebecois leader who announced Saturday he was now a card-carrying Conservative party member."It seems that the idea of separatist support for the Conservatives is gaining momentum even in the most strident separatist circles where pragmatism within those circles seems to be coalescing around the Conservatives as the Bloc melts down. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the sitting members of the breakaway Bloc Quebecois caucus bolt to the Conservatives where Scheer stands to welcome them with open arms.
And that makes me uncomfortable because Scheer is promising these potential nationalist/separatists a bag full of goodies in a more de-centralized Canada where Quebec will be offered even more powers at the expense of Ottawa.
I don't like Andrew Scheer, but I loathe Justin Trudeau and his cadre of Liberal drunken-spenders even more.
Sadly Andrew Scheer is in my view nothing more than the lesser of two evils, and so I'll be voting Conservative with one hand dropping my vote into the ballot box while my other hand is holding my nose.
Mr. Sauga weighing in: Hi Phil! Sadly, cheap politicians, to quote your words, are a dime-a-dozen, even a penny...heck, they practically grow on trees! It is too bad and so sad we end up with politicians who do nothing but swallow their pride, their altruism and themselves whole with clocklike regularity.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! You've proven the late Winston Churchill right when he said democracy is the worst form of politics...except for all the rest. One woman I met decades ago described the ideal politician as the benevolent dictator. Considering dictators over history include the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jung Un (along with his father and grandfather), Emperors Nero and Caligula, I don't think such an animal exists, or if one started this way, he or she soon was corrupted into tyranny. So much for the ideal!
Unless some miraculous politician comes along before the next federal election (pigs will fly first!), democracy is fast devolving into voting for whoever you dislike least. Trump is doing a wonderful job of dividing America's citizenry at a more rapid pace than it was heading since the turn of the millennium.
When it comes down to Justin "Gorgeous" Trudeau, it's like father, like son. He has developed his father's arrogance, and propensity to spend money like a drunken sailor on leave on those nearest and dearest to him. Now the arrogant SOB is going to needlessly spend money on an "independent investigation" re the degree of force in Israel to stave off what would have otherwise become out of control rioting. Like the probability of death, taxes and the next eclipse occurring (100%), the findings will show it's Israel's, only Israel's and nothing but Israel's fault. Like father (who pranced around on his motorcycle wearing a Prussian helmet in his youth), like son.
If plagiarism was a crime like it is in institutions of higher learning, Sheer would spend the rest of his life in jail. Mulroney did exactly the same thing Sheer is doing...keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. Getting in bed with opponents and lobbyists is normal in "democratic" politics. Mulroney had cabinet ministers like Lucien Bouchard and Marcel Masse. Both were blatant separatists, but Mulroney got majorities like no other Conservative politician in Quebec since Diefenbaker. He courted separatists and others that were not compatible politicians and made sure to cater to their principles. Sheer's strategy was a carbon copy, so voting for the candidate we dislike least is now standard in elections, save for first or second-time voters who subsequently join the disillusioned common herd.
"[T]he ideal politician as the benevolent dictator. . . . I don't think such an animal exists, or if one started this way, he or she soon was corrupted into tyranny."
DeleteLook up the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore.
As I often say whenever I have voted over the past 30 years or so its almost invariably the same three choices: horrible, bad, less bad. Of course I opt for less bad rather than abstain as I still believe all citizens must exercise their right to vote no matter what. But the three candidates we have before us for 2019 are the worst I have ever seen in my life..Justin Trudeau I absolutely loathe also, Scheer-who?, and a Turban wearing guy who has ties with extremists.
ReplyDeleteThe NDP and the Conservatives could not have picked worse choices as leaders..I mean no matter what Trudeau does he is guaranteed another majority and he knows it. Hence we will see more of Trudeau strutting around like a peacock as he is Gods gift to humanity.
I have rarely been so dissapointed in Canadians as how they have gone gaga over such a lightweight fluffball as Trudeau..where 90 percent of the adult population is more qualified to be Prime Minister than this lightweight. His prime focus is getting some good photos out on instagram and facebook and apologizing to every special interest group in the country and throwing money at everything with no concern whatsoever for the debt which again long after he is gone will be like a noose around average Canadians neck. But this falls squarely on the shoulders of Canadians..notably the millenials who prefer glitz over substance, image over depth, entitlement over sacrifice. The millenials will stuck holding the bad though in 20 years trying to pay off the billions and billions of money in debt Trudeau will have added.
Scheer is a politician nobody has heard of and of which no one knows anything about..he looks as boring as mud and offers little real change. I wonder sometimes if he was let to win because the Conservatives knew no one would beat Trudeau in 2019 so they let a nobody like Scheer take the fall.
And then there is the NDP who have self destructed by electing a turban wearing dude that many Canadians will not connect too notably here in Quebec where by the way the NDP had made a huge breakthrough int he past few elections. But no instead the NDP members decided that this was the best way to go..back to finishing way behind in third place for the next 20 years.
Then there is the Green Party whom I voted for quite a few times given I could not stomach any of the three main parties. They had some interesting ideas but they have turned into leftist environmental kooks with a leader who seems to have anger management issues.
So in the end Trudeau likely has another cake walk coming up in 2019 because he can spend our money freely on all sorts of goodies to make us feel good. But then sometime in the next 5 years TSWHTF and we will have debt issues coming to the forefront again..by then Trudeau will be gone just like his father and we will all wonder how we could have been so stupid letting this guy dupe us for so many years..
Mr. Sauga to complicated: Sounds as if you're over age 50 considering you seriously do your patriotic duty and vote. I'm in the same demographic, and I too vote because my late mother MSRIP always talked about the pogroms and other persecution my grandparents endured time after time after time in Czarist then Communist Russia. Millennials likely don't know the hell their ascendants endured and are spoiled brats who more often than not abstain from voting due to apathy. Little do they know that electoral complacency will eventually lead to the "democracy" they deserve, i.e., what their ascendants went through just a few generations ago.
DeleteLife will not be enviable for them as they could look forward to increasing educational inflation where you'll need three degrees to drive a cab or pump gas. For the unskilled, look out for a life of poverty as eventually killer deficits will ensure there will be no money for adequate social programs, and automation will eliminate most unskilled labour demands.
Three decades ago I could see the return of the Dark Ages what with layoffs for workers 20, 30 and 40 years with the same employer, and back then job jumping still had a negative stigma. The stigma may have lifted, but the keeping up one's skills is getting increasingly difficult, expensive, and energy consuming.
Early on in Trudeau's mandate, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said upcoming generations could look forward to temporary work and lots of job churning. What does he care, he's a wealthy man and he'll never see hardship. If the kids want to vote for these yutzes, they'll get what they deserve later...BIG-TIME!
Guess whom pretty boy doesn't apologize to.
DeleteWhether anyone wants to admit it or not, Harper should not be ignored or underestimated in the least. He's clearly planning something here, and it's doubtful he's going to make the mistakes that cost him the seat Peacock Trudeau now holds. It won't matter if Scheer or someone else becomes the next PM; Harper is planning to pull the thread on Trudeau, get him to lapse and posture and make with the chin music until he slips, at which point Harper's researchers will record the words in secret and have them played back sometime in the federal campaign, in the very areas where the swing votes are.
ReplyDeleteIn the next campaign, Trudeau is not going to have the cakewalk people think he will, because there is going to be a new wave of first-time voters, and many of those who did vote for his party are now out in the real world. In fact, he can expect to lose quite a few seats (definitely not in the 514) and just squeak out a majority.
Scheer had to fight through about a dozen ballots for the party reins. Trudeau simply announced and, against only a handful, ended up with more than three of all four votes cast on the very first ballot. He might have forgotten that; Harper has not.
Mr. Sauga here: In response Mel, You're right about how Sheer skated around the landmines, but what has he done. Maybe silence is golden until the right moment, and you have Lisa Raitt and others doing his dirty work, but a leader should take ownership of his position, and all he does is come on with his smiley dimples and talk sugar and rainbows. I don't see Harper doing too much as he's making far more money now than he ever did as PM (save the pension he'll get later), so I don't know what's in it for Harper at this point.
DeleteRural Quebec voters are and have always been very conservative. Think Texas without the guns and in French.
ReplyDelete