The Culture War continues...

Before I begin, it's quite sad to hear the loss of Colonel Geoff Parker in Afghanistan.  Not a day goes by where I don't stop to think about our troops over there.  They HAVE made a difference and their bravery, courage, and honour will live in eternity. God Bless Our Troops.

The Culture War

Liberal support is down to 25.1% in the latest Frank Graves Ekos poll.  Yeah, yeah, I know. It's Ekos. If the Liberals took Frank's advice on the culture war, then it looks like they need new advice. I still question Ekos polls, especially with the Green Party consistently above 11%, when every other poll doesn't have them so high.  As well, interesting how Frank released this 'unbiased' poll just when the CBC ombudsman said Frank and the CBC weren't biased. Hmmm...

And even if the Liberals didn't take any advice, then the culture war still continues.. The Quebec Assembly sure as hell ensured it endured with their 109-0 vote on demanding the Prime Minister take a stand on abortion.   The PMO responds:

“The Prime Minister has consistently said throughout his political career, before we formed the government and even after, that our government will not initiate or support legislation that reopens the debate on abortion,” said Dimitri Soudas.

So there.

Iggy and the Grits

And in his dull non-specific speech to Liberal supporters at $500 plate dinner in Toronto, Michael Ignateff thinks that the Tories are the ones who started this culture war.  (And if they did, so what, you'd lose anyway.)  Jeffrey Simpson of the Global and Mail has some comments on Ignatieff's "Tired rhetoric, and not much more" speech.

More on Iggy, even before the latest poll numbers, Michael Ignatieff says he's got work to do.  He's been saying that for a while now, hasn't he?  He thinks his rivals have "done a number on him".  Well, boo-frickin'-hoo, Iggy. That's politics.  And with you in dead last of likable leaders, yeah, you do have a lot of work to do.

Other stuff

On auditing MP's expenses.  Here's a solution, why not release the expenses that are over, say, $500?  I don't think every nickel needs to be scruitinized, that becomes a waste unto itself.  Oh, and does this apply to Senators as well?  I haven't heard a peep about that.

If an ex-MP gets caught, it's front page news and the opposition demand his wife gets booted from cabinet. Harper goes one further and boots her out of the caucus and as a candidate. Then she goes on CBC and cries crocodile tears while the Liberal Party president says she was mistreated.  BUT!  But if it's a sitting Liberal MP who gets caught, then barely a sound is made and he remains in caucus.  Double standard galore!

Prime Minister Harper fights the good fight

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and his army of cabinet ministers have been fighting THE GOOD FIGHT against the European global-socialist weenies on the proposed global bank tax.  In speaking to a group of students, he has also said that at the upcoming G8 and G20 summits in Canada, that the economy should be the focus, not "side shows". That's an obvious jab at Liberals.  He recently told United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that climate change would probably not be a high priority on the agenda either.

With the Greek government and economy in turmoil, raising major doubts about the Euro, this has had immediate effects on Canada's economy.  The Loonie and Canada stocks have taken a hit.

So to all you out there, Harper's right.  And to use the old Democrat adage, "It's the economy, stupid."


There's so much more going on, it's difficult to keep up, but I hope this post helps.

Marci Macdonald's book

Have a read of this review by Naomi Lakritz of the Calgary Herald on Marci Macdonald's crappy book "Armageddon Factor", which assumes every policy of the Harper gov't is based on Christian-fundy influence.  "Shrill nonsense" she says.  I agree, but let's go further and just say liberal bullshit nonsense.

The following bit from the article defines where I believe Canadians are at in their ideological beliefs and why this made-up "culture war" by Ekos pollster Frank Graves, the Liberal Party, the CBC, and others is already failing.

"Ordinary Canadians, regardless of faith, were equally outraged that their tax dollars had been frittered away on such garbage; and clearly, the government's response showed it was listening to public sentiment, not that its strings were being pulled by a small group of evangelicals."

Exactly.  Common sense is prevailin.

It's interesting, you know.  The Liberal Party used to defend these same common sense ideas as it's where the majority of Canadians were.  They've lost it and are scraping to get back by any means necessary.  Thing is, Canadians just don't believe their tripe anymore.  I'm not saying they believe everything from the Conservatives, it's just that the Liberals under Ignatieff have really lost the middle ground and it's going to take a bigger scandal that the Guergis-Jaffer affair and worrying about Ignatieff ,of all people, talking about torturing terrorists (a.k.a. 'Afghan detainee transfer issue').  

 

Nothing has stuck. In fact, it's only made the Liberals look like they are trying everything to scrape back and Canadians haven't seen anything in this Conservative government they could really vote against.  The economy is picking up, better than most countries in fact and Canada is asserting itself globally with good old common sense.

So back to the book.  I'm not going to read it, for obvious reasons.  But I ask you to take particular notice of the continued barrage of a made up culture war tactics by lefties in the opposition parties and the mainstream media, and then watch how much Canadians actually give a shit.

Begun, the Culture War, has

Where it all began... Kory Tenycke, former Conservative communications director vs. Ekos president Frank Graves himself...



I think you can easily say that Kory won that one.

Now, Ezra Levant, publisher, Western Standard vs. Paul Wells, journalist from Macleans and some Liberal weenie...



I'd say that Ezra won that one--especially when that Liberal weenie has to go back 13 years into the Reform Party days when Harper had already left the party. Good one weenie boy. And note how much both weenie boy and Paul Wells stumble and don't even look into the camera.

Iggy will divide the country

I recommend reading Ezra Levant's latest blog post on the Liberals receiving advice from Ekos pollster Frank Graves on invoking a culture war, and how that advice in congruency with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's position and support of the highly controversial NDP private members bill requiring all Supreme Court justices to be bilingual.

Even (former?) Ignatieff strategist, has commented that if this culture war is the new Liberal strategy, that they shouldn't talk about it publicly.

As the Globe and Mail reported:

In his advice, Mr. Graves could hardly have been more blunt. “I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don’t like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin.”

Nice. Real nice.  If Iggy and the Grits are taking this advice, which it appears they already are, then in my opinion, I think Canadians from coast to coast are really sick and tired of it.  I agree with Ezra here in that this culture war strategy will backfire, as Iggy himself, wanted to unite Canadians:

Michael Ignatieff: "A prime minister has one simple job: To keep the country together and not seek polarization...."

So why do you want to polarize then by taking polarizing advice from your own pollster?

Official bilingualism is one of those polarizing issues.
 What's my opinion on it?  It doesn't work and never has and is costing our country in wasted tax dollars, and in actually dividing the nation more than it unites us.  Why?  Anytime the government forces culture and language upon another culture, you get backlash, not only against the government, but against the other culture. Quebec separatists can then say, "See!  Canadians don't like bilingulism. They don't like French and they don't like Quebec."  That's the trap that legitimizes their political existence.

And it appears that Iggy and the Grits are falling into this trap. You watch, with this culture war, the
one the Liberals now appear to be using, they're going for the default federalist vote in Quebec, which also makes core Torontonians happy. It's an old strategy, one that worked for Trudeau and Chretien. But again, you'll recall, that it was under Trudeau (1980) and Chretien (1995) where the separatists got their referendum, reinvigorating the original Canadian culture war, the one between French and English, dividing the country... again.

If Ignatieff understood Canada, he'd know this. But maybe he actually does and doesn't care. If it gets him and the Liberals into power, then that's all that matters, damn the country.