“Le Petit Green Machine” stumbling into an election
commentary by Charles Adler.
Stephane Dion is making it impossible for Stephen Harper to keep the Tory guns holstered. The politics of the man who I think of as “Le Petit Green Machine” is baffling all the pros. Push the rewind button. It was only two weeks ago that Dion’s Liberal Natural Resources critic, Mark Holland waved a red flag at Alberta’s resource sector and the provincial government, all in the name of the sacred cause de jour, climate change. Holland indicated that if the Energy industry didn’t curtail its plans for the oil sands, a federal government under Liberal management would act unilaterally to arrest any further exploration of the oil sands. Holland later danced on the op ed pages to say he didn’t say what he did say. He tried to hide in Peter Lougheed’s treehouse, indicating that the Liberal agenda was simpy an echo of the former Alberta premier’s most recent sentiments. I am but a lowly journalist. It would take an army of archeologists to excavate the ruins of every Lougheed statement ever made to discover a single sound bite where Lougheed is calling on the Federal marshall to ride into Calgary and say, “Hand over the six shooters, boys. You’re done.”
While Mark Holland could be forgiven by some for being a rookie who simply didn’t know when to shut the pie hole, his boss is supposed to be a professional pol. That begs the question, “Why was Stephane Dion talking out loud about rolling Canada’s anti terror legislation back to the pre 911 era?” Credit some Liberals for trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this file. Dion received rhetorical blowback from Irwin Kotler the justice minister who introduced the legislation, Ann McLellan, the public safety minister and Bob Rae who was hired by the government that Dion served, to do an autopsy of the Air India terror plot and make recommendations. Dion has chosen to plant his feet in ideological cement on this issue. Perhaps he believes in sustainable development for Al Qaeda.
The Dion gang has also attacked the Conservative strategy to get tougher judges on the Canadian bench, antagonizing every victims right group in the nation. They feel the most appropriate metaphor for justice under the Liberals was a “get out of jail free” card. The Liberals say they aren’t opposed to tough judges. They just don’t want any with close ties to Conservatives. Problems is Liberals over the years appointed plenty of Judges who not only leaned Liberal, but raised money for the party. The mother’s milk of politics is money, and Liberals are nothing if not sourcream on this one.
No chronicling of recent bungle in the jungle would be complete without including the name Denis Coderre. Yes he is the man who spoke last year at a pro Hizbollah rally in Quebec. Perhaps that is why Dion has chosen him to be the Liberal defence critic. Coderre this week launched a scathing attack on the country’s chief of defence staff, Rick Hillier. The general had the good sense to comment on the obvious. In a speech, Hillier referred to the many years of defence cuts as the decade of darkness. Denis Coderre, got up in the House of Commons and accused the general of being a political prop of the Conservative government.
Question: Which of the above plays sound like those of a political team that can win back the hearts of Canadian voters? It will take a team of wild horses to prevent Stephen Harper from green lighting the next election.
Just watch the PM in Question period. Every day he goes up against the Liberals, he knows that he is punching below his weight division, punching the opposition leader’s lights out and eventually punching Dion’s ticket back to a unversity campus in Montreal.
When discussing politics with Liberals away from the tv cameras and radio microphones, it’s hard not sense the frustration they have with the new leader. They knew that Paul Martin looked like a three dollar bill when he declared every single issue his top priority. Similarly they know that Stephane Dion cleaving to the Kyoto nipple makes him look like a one trick baby. None of the Liberals are complaining about Dion’s linguistic challenge. It’s his political tool kit , all hammers and no screw drivers.
Stephen Harper has a choice. He can continue to observe Stephane Dion giving the Tories their daily grub, the way the way the old lady in front of the cathedral feeds the pigeons. Or Harper can say to his caucus, “Our bellies are full. It’s time to plunder.”
See also: this smackdown, at Officially Screwed.
The blowhard (Adler) hits the nail squarely on the head. Very entertaining read, btw.
As if to illustrate Charles Adler’s thesis, right on cue we get the following, from Canadian Press, via Canoe News at 2pm on Feb 18:
————-
“Mr. Harper is sending on the TV’s in Quebec very negative ads about me, and making people mixed up, ” said Dion, while attending a news conference about a new commuter program in Richmond Hill, Ont.
“The same people that are voting federally Liberal, they vote provincially Liberal…and that’s what will happen and will work to see the Liberal party winning.”
Dion said that if Stephen Harper had even a “minimum of decency,” he would withdraw the ads during the provincial election.
“If Mr. Harper is a man of honour, he would change his mind, he would apologize,” said Dion. “This is what he would say if he was a proud prime minister of Canada.”
——————
A NEW DEVELOPMENT here, surely! CP is quoting Dion verbatim, instead of cleaning up his grammar as usual.
Steffi is not ready to lead a party let alone the Country.
To say the Conservative “attack ads” in Quebec are confusing people is hilarious.
It looks rather like the Liberals under Dion are playing into the hands of Terrorists and potential Terrorists with his stubborn stance on the Terror Bill which many of his Party want to retain, in agreement with the Harper Conservatives.
There is a covert message in his actions that he would prefer a Separatist win in Quebec for very
personal and obvious reasons. If Charest wins, it’s a better deal for Canada, of course and the Federal Conservatives.
One of my friends and co-workers (who is a pretty strict environmentalist) brought up the upcomming election and asked me what I thought … I simply said the Liberals didn’t stand a chance
They are led by a person who can not speak english, has painted them into a political corner, and has no control over what his party says. If nothing changes before an election is called, the liberals are going to lose most of their “moderate” supporters to the conservatives by shifting left, they are going to bleed support to the Green party by trying to make the environment a key issue, and they will lose left-of center support to the NDP because Stephan Dion will not be able to defend himself against the (eventual) attacks from Steven Harper and Jack Layton.
CBCpravda always has the translation for Borat Dion. the actual speech is unintelligable.
Everyone knows that John Charest(birth name) is a Tory on loan.
Dion really is a train wreck. Watching question period, half the Liberal seats are empty, they really hate being in opposition. Dion better start muzzling his MP’s, they are running around making outrageous statement’s and the media can only save their butts for so long until the public wakes up.
I think Dion is baffling everyone – possibly because he’s not a politician, not a leader of a country – but a leftist academic.
He’s used to the classroom, where you live in a world built entirely around words, images, ideas. You never, ever, venture into the real world and attempt to transform these abstract words into actions. Your thoughts remain purely ‘of and in the mind’.
And that’s how Dion behaves.
He treats the Liberal MPs as if they were his students in an undergrad class; he divides them into ‘discussion groups (committees)’; he sets them themes to discuss amongst themselves. But, he marks the papers.
His ideas remain purely verbal; they are not meant to be translated into actions. So, he’ll state his commitment to the environment – which he defines as the ‘lovely woods and lakes of Quebec’, but has no plans, no practical actions, for moving outside of the words into actions. Oh, other than washing his clothes in cold water.
He has no plans, no policies, just ‘talk, talk’ and insisting that people acknowledge him as The Leader (aka the Teacher/Professor).
I’d bet the Liberals want an election asap – how else are they going to get rid of him?
He talks in
By the way, speaking of Dion’s being upset over the CPC ads in Quebec – and referring to a ‘minimum of decency’ – where was Dion’s decency when, as soon as he was chosen leader, he moved into name-calling Harper, calling Harper a ‘control-freak’, a ‘far-right’, and talking about Harper’s weight…etc. Where’s the decency in that? Should Dion apologize?
The question period shorts at Officially Screwed shows real preparedness by the Conservatives … reading their replies to attacks … names, dates, etc … everything in place.
It’s like the Conservatives wait at the lib salt licks for them. It’s not fair.
“CP is quoting Dion verbatim, instead of cleaning up his grammar as usual”
It’s about time.
“Mr. Harper is sending on the TV’s in Quebec very negative ads about me, and making people mixed up”
Forget about how confusing it is for Canada to be officially bilingual. This guy wants us to be officially trilingual. English, French and Dionglish.
ET : I’d bet the Liberals want an election asap – how else are they going to get rid of him?
… urgent call to Don Corleone!
Adler is too kind and glosses over some of the more unseemly ideologue bone-headedness that Dijon shows…he is obviously a slave to idealism and utopian mythis and makes bad decisind based in ideological idealism and NOT the dictates of reality.
Certainly a bad/dangerous leader and a potential disaster as a PM…get the ash can ready for this Libran cast off.
Dion stating, “making people mixed up” is a perfect example of the contempt that the socialist elites hold for the individual.
He doesn’t believe that the citizenry at large are capable of understanding things on their own so he must shield them from the “complex files”.
ET said: “I think Dion is baffling everyone – possibly because he’s not a politician, not a leader of a country – but a leftist academic.
He’s used to the classroom, where you live in a world built entirely around words, images, ideas. You never, ever, venture into the real world and attempt to transform these abstract words into actions. Your thoughts remain purely ‘of and in the mind’.
And that’s how Dion behaves.”
AMEN!! Crystal clearity on Dijon’s (ahem) problem.
ET: You are bang on! Dion is a Leftist Academic.
Still think the funniest statement he’s made to date is about the Conservative ads confusing people. How?
What people?
I don’t think we’re going to know if “ our bellies are full” until after the results of the Quebec election are in.
To my way of thinking the Harper majority hinges on fiscal imbalance, which in turn hinges on several shoes to drop in the following order:
We’ll see the fiscal imbalance set out in Flaherty’s Budget to be tabled March 20th. Hopefully the budget won’t be so emotionally clouded up with Kyoto targets and funding that we can’t see the really important issues impacting the survival of the country, which the fiscal imbalance measures will address.
Quebecers will hopefully read into the Budget a new Federal agenda that gives them more de-decentralization ability to become “maitre chez nous”. They will then cast their votes on March 26th to hopefully put enough Charest seats plus the more right wing ADQ seats into the Quebec Assembly to significantly displace the PQ.
If that happens, then Harper will have successfully de-coupled the century long hold by the Liberal party that they are the only safe place to park your vote to keep Quebec content.
At this point Harper will be able to take environmental action that recognizes the different ecologies of Canada such as the impact of fossil fuels on the environment versus Quebec’s Hydro. Again the fiscal imbalance will address these realities and as Canadians start to grasp the idea that Canada will be in much better hands with Harper than Dion, we’ll see a Federal election called and hopefully a Conservative majority will be possible.
I don’t think we’re going to know if “ our bellies are full” until after the results of the Quebec election are in.
To my way of thinking the Harper majority hinges on fiscal imbalance, which in turn hinges on several shoes to drop in the following order:
We’ll see the fiscal imbalance set out in Flaherty’s Budget to be tabled March 20th. Hopefully the budget won’t be so emotionally clouded up with Kyoto targets and funding that we can’t see the really important issues impacting the survival of the country, which the fiscal imbalance measures will address.
Quebecers will hopefully read into the Budget a new Federal agenda that gives them more de-decentralization ability to become “maitre chez nous”. They will then cast their votes on March 26th to hopefully put enough Charest seats plus the more right wing ADQ seats into the Quebec Assembly to significantly displace the PQ.
If that happens, then Harper will have successfully de-coupled the century long hold by the Liberal party that they are the only safe place to park your vote to keep Quebec content.
At this point Harper will be able to take environmental action that recognizes the different ecologies of Canada such as the impact of fossil fuels on the environment versus Quebec’s Hydro. Again the fiscal imbalance will address these realities and as Canadians start to grasp the idea that Canada will be in much better hands with Harper than Dion, we’ll see a Federal election called and hopefully a Conservative majority will be possible.
the citizenry at large “are”– “is”
Dang, Dionglish is contagious!
I think I’m going to dump my stock portfolio just before the federal budget. If Flaherty produces a budge with the full expenditures necessary to meet Kyoto emissions targets we are going to get slaughtered on Bay Street. Then we’ll see what the voters think of the Liberal/Bloc/NDP law.
ET says about Professor Dion that he “has no plans, no practical actions, for moving outside of the words into actions….no policies, just ‘talk, talk…”
I couldn’t agree more and couldn’t help noting that this Liberal trait (aka ethical deficit personality disorder) is common to the Liberal leaders of the recent past: no plans, no policies, no actions…
The NO-THING PARTY: The NTP.
I wish Harper would ground every airplane shut down every power generator take every transport off the highway and stop every train in this lieberal utopia for 3 days. That would meet our beloved Kyoto/scam phoney targets, then give out phone numbers/fax/ adresses to every jackass that supports this envirowhacko money theft scheme. Have the public look straight at the liars and thieves ask them why they believe the big lie, global warming. Just watch Kookie?suzuki and Jose along with the little green fairy run for cover.
Dion is like a whiny ‘Nerdlinger’, it would be nice to get rid of him, then again, the media aren’t obligated to fawn all over him all the boring time, nor are Canadians obligated to listen to Nerdlinger – so they don’t.
I think we may be looking at this Kyoto bill of the liberals in the wrong light.
We should be looking at this a a strong vote of confidence in the Stephen Harper government.
It’s high praise, in fact.
The liberals are saying that while they were incapable of producing anything productive on the environment in eight years with majority governments they are confident that Stephen Harper and minority government can meet the Kyoto protocols in a mere 60 days.
Next week, world peace.
The week after, the RoughRiders win the Superbowl.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…….
PMSH can make the leafs win the cup….now you have my attention
Dion, he ask me for job, be prime minister, I tell him no. Dion he say the peeples know not he good fellow, I tell him No. Dion say Alberta gots too much easy money, I tell him no. I tell Dion go away be smart bother me no more, he tell me no. I tell Dion fat man run country, he not need to have job, he tell me no.
I vote make him go away, he still tell me no.
Stan you are a beauty!!! I’m still laughing from the Adler Smackdown by Offially Screwed that Adler sent me after I sent him a not of praise for a really well written article “Le Petit Greenie”.
An then I come here, read the comments and there near the end is Stan’s “It’s a bird, it’s a plane. It’s…
What a great day!!
Pat
Just surfed into a replay of QP – even Oliver was forced to say that dion is off to a rocky start, or something to that effect.(it broke his heart say it) I think we can assume, discounted for bias, that the alleged insiders figure dion is blowing chunks…
Stan:
You mustn’t be from Saskatchewan! Our Riders name is spelled “Roughriders” The way you spelled it is the Ottawa version without a space between the H and the second R. That is much too close to Ottawa, if you catch my drift.
Craggy Oliver was off to a rough start messing up the name of the Dipper.
As always the issue of the day was “the apology” not something important like commiting Canada to a 31% cut in “grin ‘ouse gazzes” with a 10% population rise.
Craggy always has that Pi$$ed off look but his questions are bush league at best.
The Tories might soon deeply regret having run these ads in Quebec. When I saw them last week, I had the exact same reaction as Dion.
The Conservatives are running ads in the MIDDLE OF A FREAKING PROVINCIAL ELECTION that remind Quebec voters of the Liberal sponsorship scandal, in which some provincial Liberals were involved too.
Nice way to help the separatists, Steve-o!
help les separatists all you want Stephen.
FREE THE WEST!!!!
The ADQ and the Liberals will marginalize the PQ.
The Action democratique du Quebec said in a statement Sunday that “Quebecers have had enough of Liberal immobility and Pequiste utopianism. They want things to change in Quebec.”
Recent surveys have put the Liberals neck and neck with the Parti Quebecois for the first time in several years while the ADQ’s popularity has risen as the Parti Quebecois’s has fallen.
Yeah, I hope so too, nomdenet.
But that’s still no excuse for the federal governing party to be running ads that fuel separatist sentiments during a provincial election campaign.
This has mondo potential to backfire on the federal Tories, big time.
Oh, and memo to Charles Adler: Next time before hyperventilating about Mark Holland again, you might wanna try something new — reading. Try Googling “capital cost allowance,” “oil,” and “Peter Lougheed” (or even “Preston Manning”) sometime — your blather then might come across as semi-informed.
I guess I should admit I’m a Roughrider fan, I was just trying to hide the fact.
Hey, if you think being a Roughrider fan is so easy, you try it.
“..it’s not FAIR..mon dieu Isabell, ques qui s’pas ici”
Never sen a school boy to do a leaders job, I guess. I guess “it’s not easy to make priorities” either eh?
BB: What a maroon!
Tonite I checked, Kinsellas hasn’t touched the Liberal corpse all week.
Can’t say I blame him, lest he get some guck on hisself!
I hope there’s an election sooner than later. If the Liberals are allowed a year before the next election there’s a good chance they might read the writing on the wall and use that time to choose a new leader from among the fifty or sixty Liberal MPs who would make better leaders than Mr. Dion, and of course during the convention the leaderless Liberals would once again become a repository for the Canadian sanctimony that flows like effluent from the MSM.
I’d love to see a Conservative majority — in my lifetime I have never seen a leader more deserving of one than Mr. Harper — and I understand the urge to wait until poll numbers suggest a majority before calling an election. But airing out Dion to the Canadian public posthaste would amount to a rebranding of the Liberals that would pay dividends for years to come.
It’s just too good to pass up. There’s a right time to bring in the harvest, and there’s no doubt Stephane Dion is ripened to perfection.
frank,
Please explain to me exactly how calling the biggest crooks in Canada “the biggest crooks in Canada” fuels separatist sentiments.
Is everyone just supposed to ignore the truth? Is that what binds the country … ignorance and denial?
what is Canaduh?
I think it was Mulroney who called it a “100 mile wide swath of land along the American border held together by bribes”. but for the life of me I cant find the quote.
Maybe at the next (coming soon) leadership convention for the liberals, the delegates will pay more attention to the candidates than to the free booze and red condoms.
The debates will be interesting, with all of them knowing they might be on candid camera.
frank,
The factual ads are just to remind the people with short memories. The Liberals want everybody to forget that there is still $40 Million of stolen taxpayers dollars missing!
Do you not think the Liberals would do the same thing if the shoe was on the other foot?
cal…I think it was the the economist magazine who published that quote, not Mulroney
By the way, Frank, Quebec is not in the middle of a provincial election…it hasn’t been called yet. Speculation is that it will be called on March 26th. So, using your own words, paraphrased:
“Next time before hyperventilating about the QUEBEC ELECTION again, you might wanna try something new — reading. Try Googling.”
duh!
Cal2:
“I think it was Mulroney who called it a “100 mile wide swath of land along the American border held together by bribes”
>> Well the chin would know about bribes…ask Glen Keeley about the contractor kick-back scheme the Muldoom PCs had…in those days the cost of getting a fat Fed contract was 8%-10% kick-back to the PCPC slush fund…I think they even used the same restaurants and paper envelopes as the Libranos…obviously after the revelations of Gomery the Libranos upped that to a flat 12 points on a major sponsorship payola kick-back.
Bribery is the way Ottawa does business….Quebec knows this well…and so do the Libranos
Eeyore: By the way, Frank, Quebec is not in the middle of a provincial election…it hasn’t been called yet. Speculation is that it will be called on March 26th.
Actually, it’s going to start shortly, Charest has confirmed that he’s calling an election the day after he presents a budget this week. The vote will be March 26th.
3w.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070219.wxquebec19/BNStory/National/home
Whoops, thanks for correcting, Andrew! Still, I was MOSTLY right…I get part marks for that, don’t I?
When you think about Brian Mulroney’s connections to Paul Desmarais and Power Corp, is it any wonder that the Conservatives were involved in contractor kick-back schemes, much like the Librano$.
I had lightbulb moment this morning, while I was listing Paul Desmarais’ long reach among Canadian politicos, especially Libs and one Conservative, Brian Mulroney. I made the comment “and look what happened to the Conservatives” and then wondered, “Did Mulroney purposely do the Conservatives in?”
I have no idea if this thought of mine is totally far-fetched and ridiculous, but Trudeau-Mulroney-Chretien-Martin-Dion-Strong, and you’ve gotta ask, “who doesn’t fit in with this bunch–or does he fit in, in ways I’ve never thought of?” I
t’s during Mulroney’s watch that the Conservatives tanked. Hmmm…
As Revnant Dream says, Just my opinion.
Bribes and the 100 mile swath.
I have the book “On the take” , if one page of it is true then BM should get jail time. At least they got a thrashing in the following election.Brian and the PCs at the time were the same as the liberals – running the country at the intersection of Bay Street and Sussex drive.
by the way , the 100 mile wide swath disappears along with the bribes just about where Kenora is.
at that point the country gets wider and the bribes get thinner.
dion and saint david suzuki..it’s way too easy to get those two wound up ’til their already overly inflated melons appear to be about ready to explode…should start a Major Meltdown Pool on those two…
been around the block “THANKYOU” I have been barking about Brian Baloney and his Power Corp connection for years and get the line “Impossible cause he was a Conservative” I often wonder where Desmarias and his gang fit into the Air Bus clown act.