When you are a one-man show, believe you are the smartest guy in the room and think politics and power trump good governance you don’t see or choose to ignore wise and sage advice from experts who can help you.
Harper is so isolated in his own intellectualism that he has become blind to sound advice from other smart people, especially those he considers to be outsiders or his intellectual inferiors.
He has chosen to ignore the Open Letter published October 6th from more than 230 of his fellow-economists on a “… economically coherent action on climate change.”
The economists note the fact that there is remarkable agreement amongst them on “…this key point – the best climate change policy is to put a price on carbon.” Harper is still a climate change denier in his heart.
No way can he accept this reality because he would have to admit Dion is right.
Given Harper's approach to rigid command and control governing - what are the chances of that ever happening?
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Liberal Ads Top YouTube
CBC’s Ormiston Online notes the Liberal Attack Ads on Harper have taken over YouTube as the Top 5 Videos. This is modern campaigning at its best and an effective counter attack on Harper's political tactics on Dion for more than two years.
Harper spent millions of tax subsidized dollars for expensive television ads attack ads on Dion in an old-school approach to Bush-league politics. He bullied and manipulated the public perception of Dion but in ways that were not authentic. Harper misaligned the messages with the reality that Canadians have come to know about Dion the person. It is backfiring on Harper now in spades.
You can buy a short term change of perception with multi-millions of dollars on attack ads but you can’t change long term values and beliefs with such political tactics.
Harper is only holding on to his core Conservative voting base now because he has offended our core values and dismissed the concerns of Canadians have. Harper has been especially indifferent about the personal impacts of the global financial crisis.
Now he is using more money on even more expensive televised attack ads. This time it is an attempt to frighten Canadians, highlighting women, by telling his typical misleading half truths about Dion.
The country knows now that Dion is going to reduce taxes for Canadians on their hard earned incomes, investments and enterprises. By making polluters pay we are all encouraged to become part of the solution. We can avoid the personal and corporate costs of pollution by changing our behaviours and helping to solve the climate change crisis as well as the economic crisis. Harper ignores all these truths in this desperate last ditch advertising effort to save his campaign from disaster.
Harper is the one who is fear mongering and inducing panic with this kind of inaccurate and cynical attack ad. Harper IS the Risk to our democracy and is offensive to our values as Canadians, particularly when he persists in this kind of Bush/Cheney Republican politics.
Stop Harper! Vote Liberal!
Harper spent millions of tax subsidized dollars for expensive television ads attack ads on Dion in an old-school approach to Bush-league politics. He bullied and manipulated the public perception of Dion but in ways that were not authentic. Harper misaligned the messages with the reality that Canadians have come to know about Dion the person. It is backfiring on Harper now in spades.
You can buy a short term change of perception with multi-millions of dollars on attack ads but you can’t change long term values and beliefs with such political tactics.
Harper is only holding on to his core Conservative voting base now because he has offended our core values and dismissed the concerns of Canadians have. Harper has been especially indifferent about the personal impacts of the global financial crisis.
Now he is using more money on even more expensive televised attack ads. This time it is an attempt to frighten Canadians, highlighting women, by telling his typical misleading half truths about Dion.
The country knows now that Dion is going to reduce taxes for Canadians on their hard earned incomes, investments and enterprises. By making polluters pay we are all encouraged to become part of the solution. We can avoid the personal and corporate costs of pollution by changing our behaviours and helping to solve the climate change crisis as well as the economic crisis. Harper ignores all these truths in this desperate last ditch advertising effort to save his campaign from disaster.
Harper is the one who is fear mongering and inducing panic with this kind of inaccurate and cynical attack ad. Harper IS the Risk to our democracy and is offensive to our values as Canadians, particularly when he persists in this kind of Bush/Cheney Republican politics.
Stop Harper! Vote Liberal!
The Election Trends Are Changing in the Home Stretch
Harris Decima and EKOS rolling polling results up to yesterday showed some interesting and shifting trends. The Cons have been humbled and Harper has been accurately framed by his own words and deeds as cold callous and uncaring about the anguish of ordinary Canadians.
That said the Conservatives slide has seemed to stabilize. If that sustains, Harper is likely to form government again unless Harper blows it even more in the next 5 days. Campaigns matter and anything can happen.
The demographic shifts and regional volatility is where the interesting changes are occurring. The sample sizes in the regions and provinces are very small and very unreliable in each poll. If you can believe the polls, which is not a given, the Cons look like they have regained their solid in B.C. and stealing soft NDP support.
In Quebec the Cons have dropped 10 points and flirting for 4th place with the NDP. Here the Cons failure is most dramatic. After promising Quebec per capita spending of about $94o, pandering language about fiscal imbalance and “Quebec nation” has been rejected. Quebec has seen Harper for who he is. His “dissing” of artists and demeaning culture and putting children jail for life has shown Harper does not share the same values as Quebecers. The released costs of the Afghan war twice as high as Harper said it would be will be another big blow to Harper’s support in Quebec.
Ontario and Atlantic Canada is a sprint to what will be a photo-finish because the support is all so
close.
If Harper was in majority territory strategic voting would be important. It will still be a factor in close and key ridings and I will post on that later. The polls note the Liberals will be the largest beneficiaries of strategic vote switchers – if that happens. The Greens are the most likely to switch Liberal for strategic purposes. About 60% of Undecided voters are still up for grabs as strategic voters but only a third of them are saying they would vote mostly to stop a Con majority.
Harris Decima shows the NDP national support is showing slippage but they are still healthy except in Quebec…no surprise! In Ontario they are growing but the Liberals are ahead of the Cons and that is the real story.
The big shift that may make al the difference is the female voter. They are leaving the NDP and moving to the Liberals. The Liberals have more female support than Harper for the first time since the election call. When it comes to urban female support the Liberals have really taking off moving up 10 points in a week taking it away from Harper and Layton.
I’m thinking there will be some serious strategic voting with soft Greens going Liberal and NDP soft female support doing the same thing on a constituency basis, not nationally. Quebec voters are the only ones who had a larger advanced poll than in 2004 and they are going to bury Harper on Tuesday. Ontario and Atlantic Canada may shift to a larger Liberal vote if they realize that Danny Williams and Bill Casey is right and they have been screwed around on the Atlantic Accord by Harper.
Right now Harper’s death-mo decline in popularity has stopped but who knows where it goes. Dion has gotten into the game and the advent of Martin joining his team can only serve him well in gaining the confidence of Canadians in these turbulent times.
That said the Conservatives slide has seemed to stabilize. If that sustains, Harper is likely to form government again unless Harper blows it even more in the next 5 days. Campaigns matter and anything can happen.
The demographic shifts and regional volatility is where the interesting changes are occurring. The sample sizes in the regions and provinces are very small and very unreliable in each poll. If you can believe the polls, which is not a given, the Cons look like they have regained their solid in B.C. and stealing soft NDP support.
In Quebec the Cons have dropped 10 points and flirting for 4th place with the NDP. Here the Cons failure is most dramatic. After promising Quebec per capita spending of about $94o, pandering language about fiscal imbalance and “Quebec nation” has been rejected. Quebec has seen Harper for who he is. His “dissing” of artists and demeaning culture and putting children jail for life has shown Harper does not share the same values as Quebecers. The released costs of the Afghan war twice as high as Harper said it would be will be another big blow to Harper’s support in Quebec.
Ontario and Atlantic Canada is a sprint to what will be a photo-finish because the support is all so
close.
If Harper was in majority territory strategic voting would be important. It will still be a factor in close and key ridings and I will post on that later. The polls note the Liberals will be the largest beneficiaries of strategic vote switchers – if that happens. The Greens are the most likely to switch Liberal for strategic purposes. About 60% of Undecided voters are still up for grabs as strategic voters but only a third of them are saying they would vote mostly to stop a Con majority.
Harris Decima shows the NDP national support is showing slippage but they are still healthy except in Quebec…no surprise! In Ontario they are growing but the Liberals are ahead of the Cons and that is the real story.
The big shift that may make al the difference is the female voter. They are leaving the NDP and moving to the Liberals. The Liberals have more female support than Harper for the first time since the election call. When it comes to urban female support the Liberals have really taking off moving up 10 points in a week taking it away from Harper and Layton.
I’m thinking there will be some serious strategic voting with soft Greens going Liberal and NDP soft female support doing the same thing on a constituency basis, not nationally. Quebec voters are the only ones who had a larger advanced poll than in 2004 and they are going to bury Harper on Tuesday. Ontario and Atlantic Canada may shift to a larger Liberal vote if they realize that Danny Williams and Bill Casey is right and they have been screwed around on the Atlantic Accord by Harper.
Right now Harper’s death-mo decline in popularity has stopped but who knows where it goes. Dion has gotten into the game and the advent of Martin joining his team can only serve him well in gaining the confidence of Canadians in these turbulent times.
May Disses Duffy After the Debates
Thanks to Daveberta the clip where Elizabeth May rips Mike Duffy a new one.
It is high time this happened. The misinformation, false framing and infotainment feeding frenzy that we see in "authoratiative media" these days has to be called.
We need journalism to return to its roots. With the free for all anonymous riddled blogosphere we need authoritative journalism more than ever. Please MSM get back to honouring the basic principles of ethical journalism as a hallmark of news and commentary. Democracy needs it and citiznes should demand it.
Good for Lizzie May. She took a axe and gave Mike Duffy 40 whacks. Good for her. I hope this is not the last time she calls out shoddy professional journalism.
I am voting Liberal and sending the Greens a cheque.
It is high time this happened. The misinformation, false framing and infotainment feeding frenzy that we see in "authoratiative media" these days has to be called.
We need journalism to return to its roots. With the free for all anonymous riddled blogosphere we need authoritative journalism more than ever. Please MSM get back to honouring the basic principles of ethical journalism as a hallmark of news and commentary. Democracy needs it and citiznes should demand it.
Good for Lizzie May. She took a axe and gave Mike Duffy 40 whacks. Good for her. I hope this is not the last time she calls out shoddy professional journalism.
I am voting Liberal and sending the Greens a cheque.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
What's Missing From Harper's Late and Light Election Platform?
So the Harper Campaign Platform, such as it is, has finally been made public. It is very intentional that Harper released his “platform” late so Canadians only a week to review it. He did not want to even release a platform because it would make him accountable for promises. Harper doesn't like to be made to accountable to Canadians.
Those ordinary Canadians who had to vote in advanced polls did not have a chance to read the Conservative platform. Those advanced poll voters must have felt cheated by Harper's indifference and not even trying to inform them of his vision for the country before they had to vote.
Harper has released a very shallow and superficial policy document. It is mostly pictures in the sweater vest mode and very little policy substance. It suffers from a lack of insight and shows a serious insensitivity to the plight of Canadians trying to face of the current economic calamity.
Harper tries to reassure anxious Canadians by preaching about sound fundamentals that comes of as a hollow and misleading. Harper thinks there are no holes in the hull of Canada’s fiscal ship of state. Unfortunately Harper is oblivious to the consequences of the global fiscal tsunami that will swamp us anyway.
Harper persistent Do Nothing "solution" will not reassure Canadians he is up to the job of serving the citizens of the entire nation in the position of Prime Minister. Harper does not seem to have an answer to the crisis and comes of as waffling with a haughty and superior attitude.
He does not seem to care about the impact of the crisis on ordinary Canadians and is in denial that anything of significance is happening. Obama in the debate last night nailed it when he said the world is facing the most devastating economic crisis since the collapse of 1929 that resulted in the Great Depression. Harper is fiddling and tinkering with minutia and marginal efforts to respond.
The Harper campaign platform is deficient in so many other ways. We live in turbulent complex times where governments have to engage on a wide range of concerns. To show just how shallow and superficial the Harper Conservative election platform is, consider that these words WERE NOT IN THE PLATFORM DOCUMENT
CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL WARMING; POVERTY; EQUALITY; CHARTER OF RIGHTS; CHILDCARE SPACES, STUDENT, UNIVERSITIES, KELOWNA ACCORD; WAIT TIMES; MEDICARE; DIPLOMACY; DARFUR; PENSION; ATLANTIC ACCORD; MULTICULTURALISM; GREEN; PROSPERITY –
and CONSERVATIVE TEAM.
Harper is still a one-man-band political team. He is still convinced that he is the only one he needs to consult with on any Conservative policy. He believes that he alone knows what is "best" for Canada. He has shown us he is not a statesman. He is a bully. He is not aligned with Canadian values and has shown nothing but contempt and indifference to our current concerns and our hopes and aspirations as citizens and as a county.
Harper's warm and fuzzy sweater is unravelling and it is showing us that the same old mean spirited , callous and uncaring Conservative candidate is underneath.
Stop Harper. Vote your Canadian values.
Those ordinary Canadians who had to vote in advanced polls did not have a chance to read the Conservative platform. Those advanced poll voters must have felt cheated by Harper's indifference and not even trying to inform them of his vision for the country before they had to vote.
Harper has released a very shallow and superficial policy document. It is mostly pictures in the sweater vest mode and very little policy substance. It suffers from a lack of insight and shows a serious insensitivity to the plight of Canadians trying to face of the current economic calamity.
Harper tries to reassure anxious Canadians by preaching about sound fundamentals that comes of as a hollow and misleading. Harper thinks there are no holes in the hull of Canada’s fiscal ship of state. Unfortunately Harper is oblivious to the consequences of the global fiscal tsunami that will swamp us anyway.
Harper persistent Do Nothing "solution" will not reassure Canadians he is up to the job of serving the citizens of the entire nation in the position of Prime Minister. Harper does not seem to have an answer to the crisis and comes of as waffling with a haughty and superior attitude.
He does not seem to care about the impact of the crisis on ordinary Canadians and is in denial that anything of significance is happening. Obama in the debate last night nailed it when he said the world is facing the most devastating economic crisis since the collapse of 1929 that resulted in the Great Depression. Harper is fiddling and tinkering with minutia and marginal efforts to respond.
The Harper campaign platform is deficient in so many other ways. We live in turbulent complex times where governments have to engage on a wide range of concerns. To show just how shallow and superficial the Harper Conservative election platform is, consider that these words WERE NOT IN THE PLATFORM DOCUMENT
CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL WARMING; POVERTY; EQUALITY; CHARTER OF RIGHTS; CHILDCARE SPACES, STUDENT, UNIVERSITIES, KELOWNA ACCORD; WAIT TIMES; MEDICARE; DIPLOMACY; DARFUR; PENSION; ATLANTIC ACCORD; MULTICULTURALISM; GREEN; PROSPERITY –
and CONSERVATIVE TEAM.
Harper is still a one-man-band political team. He is still convinced that he is the only one he needs to consult with on any Conservative policy. He believes that he alone knows what is "best" for Canada. He has shown us he is not a statesman. He is a bully. He is not aligned with Canadian values and has shown nothing but contempt and indifference to our current concerns and our hopes and aspirations as citizens and as a county.
Harper's warm and fuzzy sweater is unravelling and it is showing us that the same old mean spirited , callous and uncaring Conservative candidate is underneath.
Stop Harper. Vote your Canadian values.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)