UPDATE: May 21 - more MSM is now picking up on the story.
Just as been predicting, the Harper’s “Gnu Government” political pandering to Quebec and personal power agenda is pissing off the base and he is about to start paying the consequences. There are moves afoot to revitalize the Reform Party and it is coming out of Kingston Ontario. There are not many happy campers in Reform country in Alberta either from what I see and hear.
My guess Prime Minister Harper’s summer of discontent will spread by wafting on the July winds like the Mountain Pine Beetle. You know it is big and it is moving and it spells disaster, but you can’t be sure where it will land next. When it does land - look out – it will attach itself to all the grumpy old Reformers in the area, just like the Mountain Pine Beetle takes over all the old growth forest.
Harper has found he can engineer a bump in the polls enough to just flirt with risking an election but it only lasts for a week or so. He can’t sustain a 40% approval level and he will not risk an election if he can’t win a majority. Now he has seen his “Canada’s New Government” poll results showing declining popularity and his trust levels retracted to the point where the Cons are even a bit below the ill-defined and detested Liberals some days.
The citizenry is ornery and volatile and not in a mood to be trifled with these days. With the rise of the Reformers again the future looks even more dire for the Keystone Kons. The Greens are on the rise, the Bloc is bumbling and the ND’s need a progressive government that they can make deals with to feel they have a purpose or else they end up infighting amongst themselves. The Liberals are under funded and unfocused but those things can be fixed…at least they are no longer demoralized.
It looks like Harper is about to board up the House of Commons for the summer and hit the BBQ circuit with his wardrobe and makeup department in tow. I'm betting we will definitely not see him with a cowboy hat on backwards and the vest that was five sizes too small at this years Calgary Stampede.
If the Reform Party resurrects itself with a vengeance in Calgary by this July, we may not see Steve Harper at the Stampede at all this summer. He may end up spending more time commiserating with Dubya on the ranch in Crawford Texas instead. He may believe it would be a might friendlier down in Texas instead of the BBQ circuit in Alberta by then.
