Excellent piece by Joel Johanessen -- this IS a nation of legless stories. What we need to understand is that Mr. Harper can't do a thing about it; it's up to the rest of us to hammer through that wall.

Good to see that JJ, for one more, is pissed and holding a large hammer. For years now reasonable Canadians have been noting the lib/left-friendly media's absolutely unaccountable wall of silence on Maurice Strong, on oil-for-food, on the ilk of Louise Arbour, on the UN's behaviours in general, on the gooning of Francois Beaudoin, etc etc etc.

It's become clear that the entitled bureaucracy that continues to half-rule Canada has a far-underestimated, deeply-embedded propaganda division whose public face can be seen in, among others, Keith Boag and Paul Hunter. Their "story" is always the same: There is criticism of the Conservatives, and the proof is in the expressions of other like-minded lib-proxy reporters, and in "ooh, whady'a know, looky-that" polls, and in the opinions of various NGO remnant hangers-on, and bureaucrats, and in Lib-friendly GTA "experts" in general.

The entire "national narrative" about Mr. Harper and the Conservatives is a colossal, anti-democratic fraud that reinforces itself with each utterance. It's not illegal, in the usual sense; there is nothing resembling a professional standards body for journalism, as there is for most other professions. It's merely immoral, fraudulent, anti-democratic, and it's human proponents are about as sideways as a human being can get, like a half-criminal commercial realtor playing with a nation's democratic principles instead of a property.

Mr. Harper is simply not going to get reasonable coverage from the largest swath of the MSM, but he has has own ace up his sleeve: Canadians appreciate(d) that he is a leader. Hopefully in that regard the native fishery poll might be a bit of an object lesson to Mr. Harper. Kate wrote a few days ago words to the effect that trying to please your enemies will not make them into your friends; well, the evidence that this is true is already in: Mr. Harper's well-intentioned decision to work within the traditional power apparatus, and to supplicate the purported beliefs of indoctrinated Canadians has actually COST him the support of many recent converts to conservatism, and, in terms of media, this approach has been treated as a sign of weakness by those opportunistic remora in the embedded government, who are now gaining momentum at the expense of Mr. Harper's core support.

The attitude of the embedded government's propaganda arm towards the Conservatives will continue to be "You can't, by DEFINITION, be reasonable, or do a good job; that's OUR gig."

It's instructive to remember that when Mr. Harper performed what conventional wisdom at the time would suggest was an act of political suicide, by "taking sides" in the dispute between Hezbollah and Israel, his ratings went up over the next months, and that recently, when he arguably attempted to appropriate the Liberals' traditional territory, and to please many provinces, not only did his numbers go down, but he was excoriated to an even greater degree by those he set out to please.

At this point there's not much doubt that if Mr. Harper punched out Paul Hunter, say, or Keith Boag, or more realistically, pointedly called them out at a press conference, and made them answer questions based on his own inside knowledge of the workings and connections within the CBC, his coverage couldn't possibly get any worse.

If he went against the fabled grain by announcing that there must be rule of law in Caledonia, the hysterics of the press corp and the prurient left would suddenly be widely and accurately understood by Canadians as being at cross-purposes with our country's well-being.

Ultimately Mr. Harper's power doesn't lie in the press, or in the OPG, or in the bureaucrats, but in Canadian voters who understand that we need a leader, and that Mr. Harper has real promise to be one of our great ones.

Achhh, anyhoo, proudtobecanadian just went straight into my bookmarks.

Imagine a private corporation that is under new management after some buyout or takeover or something like that. Now imagine low or mid-level employees of that corporation pulling a stunt like that, trying to undermine their new management team. How long would they keep their jobs?

Do us all a big favor PM Harper, and purge these parasites. We won't miss them, guarantee it. Poll us on the matter, you'll see.

I can only second EBD's comments with the hope that it will open Harper's eyes to the fact that his government advisors are deliebrately misleading him leftwards.

He can pursue a rightward course and the public will support him, despite onion poles.

Definition: Onion Pole - a Fake opinion poll

What the politicians have to do: find the paper and the paper trail. If there is anything that stinks, those responsible should escorted out of the building.
Of course nothing like this will happen due to the no fault policy, so those that are responsible for this stab in the back attempt are not at fault. If anybody is at fault, it obviously is Harper. Who else could it be?

It's hard to win against an entrenched bureaucracy: look at the current travails of Paul Wolfowitz for confirmation.

Speaking of that, here's a joke of the type that used to keep us plain citizens sane:

Q: What got Paul Wolfowitz investigated by the World Bank for bringing his girlfriend in?

A: Contrary to accepted procedure, he checked her qualifications first.

Excellent comments, EBD. I agree, Harper has to stick to 'being himself'. But I'm not sure that he can do this in all areas. Yes, his stance at the francophone conference brought him rewards, but his disdain for, eg. Kyotoism hasn't gotten him anywhere. You don't overturn a brainwashed population in a year.

"Delta-Richmond East MP John Cummins said bureaucrats were striving to get a particular answer to prove to the prime minister he was out of touch with the Canadian public. The results show those efforts backfired, the longtime MP said."

Well Harper's tack on this issue tel;s me he's as isolated as Citoyen Dijon...seems like he's never set foot on the Island straights salmon fishing and obviously never run a charter out of Ucluelet or Campbell River...these fishing towns are now civil war zones with sport charter and commercisal fishermen aligned against mercinary first nations "unionists" who are commercially fishing their waters under the guise of native fishing rights.

Mr. Harper should visit some of the seaside first nations reserves and see the fleets of commercial trawlers and seiners docked in their harbours....when a federal resourse like renewable fisheries is at stake it seems like raw injustice to make one group of commercial fishermen exempt from the laws of conservasion and commerce.

Personally, when first nations can show me evidence of their traditional fishing using 60 ton trawlers I may buy their argument about traditional fishing rights.

This is just another hot button politically correct issue Harper's advisors have told him to walk away from rather than resolving...like the firearms registry, tax reform and partial birth abortion.

Keep listening to your "advisors" Mr. Harper and they will "advise" you right out of government.

Real people want real leadership...show some.

Conservative thought gaining traction in the public, by a massive margin. Who'd have thought?

I've been saying it ever since the budget: it's time to act conservative, not just talk about it. There is appetite for strong conservative policy in Canada.

mark peters it has for a long time but if you don't control MSM's it's hard to get the word out.

On issues like the death penalty for olson or immigration the public have views far different than presented.

I mean christians make up 80% of this countries population how often do you hear the opposite.

Why do they keep lying are 'they' hoping it will become true?
-----------------------------------------

I'd like the 22,600 they spent for partisan purposes to come out of their pension fund.

Exactly the point that the civil service like the Media live in their own cocoon. Their grasp of public sentiment is tenuous at best and as for reality, well they tend to create their own as the situation demands! This example of a blatant attempt to create a false consensus is only a microcosmic example of how they view the public.
To the MSM and the civil service moguls the public is just material to be molded and manipulated and all too often they are able to do so. And worst of all they feel it is their right to be doing so.

Leaders should feel free to point this out and in the case of these public employees to take punitive measures!

The Americans have it right. When new administration comes in first order of business is replace all senior bureaucrats with people friendly to new administration. It's unfortunate Harper didn't or couldn't do the same as it's obvious backstabbing, self serving mandarins who kept low profile for a time are now flexing their muscle with objective of sabotaging the PM. It's time for Harper to take the gloves off and let these parasites know who runs the show.

EBD said:
"The entire "national narrative" about Mr. Harper and the Conservatives is a colossal, anti-democratic fraud that reinforces itself with each utterance. It's not illegal, in the usual sense; there is nothing resembling a professional standards body for journalism, as there is for most other professions. It's merely immoral, fraudulent, anti-democratic, and it's human proponents are about as sideways as a human being can get, like a half-criminal commercial realtor playing with a nation's democratic principles instead of a property. "

Crystal clarity...great post EB.

Harper can't waste the angst and energy Manning did in trying to placate the snobs of the opinion engineering Canadian media.

Go to the people for guidence...even the media misses that constiuency.

Our 4th estate pontifs have preached to us relentlessly, for so long, with such an intense one-way dialogue that they fail to hear us shouting back that they do not represent our views or values as Canadians.

Canada's media only represent the tiny kingdom of cloistered 4th estate plutocrats who think the media's purpose is to socially engineer concensus for the single party state.

Harper has to realize he fights them as the partizan forces of the single party state and not pull his punches any less then he does in addressing the opposition in the house. When his messaging is deliberately misrepresented or twisted by the propagandists of the 4th estate engineers he should be calling them to account as he does their bretheren in the opposition.

I've seen him take a few swings at media bias/hubris but not enough.

And yes...when Harper acts like a conservative and displays true alternative policy and leadership, his polling goes up.

I'm at a loss to understand why he would ever listen to "professional progressives" as advisors.

Harper better smarten up, fire these slime stabbing him in the back and start acting like the conservative he claims to be or I wont vote for him agaain. I wont vote any of the others but I wont vote for someone who leans left. More and more it looks like its time to go south.

therein lies the problem for conservatives everywhere. our contempt for government is followed by our career choices. Leftards work for government unions, conservatives do not.

In order for us to change government, we need to change the people in it. It isn't enough to change the politicians. We need to infiltrate the public service from the top down and rid our nation of leaky lefties.

Agreed, Warwick - and again, EBD, great post.

But, the civil service, like academia, hires clones of itself. It is extremely difficult to get into these two vast power blocs of the left, because the power-of-hiring is self-controlled.

There is no accountability for hiring, promoting or 'anointing'; the standards in place are readily transformed into superficialities.

I saw many hiring processes in academia - and almost invariably, the 'best person' in terms of research and teaching qualities was not chosen.

Instead, the 'best fit within our department' was chosen. The 'best fit' was someone who wouldn't upset the current hierarchy; who was not a better teacher, a better researcher, and who would kowtow to the hierarchy. The hierarchy was controlled, almost invariably, by the socialist left. The pattern of domination in the department was far more important than the knowledge capacity of the department.

The format in the civil service can't be any different. And remember, with their union, there is very little accountability or firing.

What happens in academia, is that a particular perspective becomes dominant, due primarily to the aggressive domination of one individual. This becomes the intellectual perspective of the department - and it is almost impossible for a dissenting view to emerge. No dissenters are hired; the graduate students allowed are faithful devotees.

In Canada, with its small population, these individuals sit on the research funding agencies. The fact that in Canada, there are no private research funding agencies - because we have not permitted the development of a wealthy investor class - means that research funds come only from the gov't. And our small ingrown researchers, control the funds! So- they perpetuate this intellectual closure, funding only harmless, non-competing views.

The Ottawa civil service is similar; a small, isolated community, focused on its perspective - the Liberal view of Trudeau - and maintaining that ideology by its control of hiring, promotions, etc.

I agree that Harper has to 'be himself'; be Conservative. But, he has a majority in the House and the Senate whose agenda is to prevent this. The House Liberals, NDP, Bloc have only one agenda - winning power. They have no interest in the well-being of Canadians.

The Senate Liberals have only one interest; maintaining their power. They have no interest in the well-being of Canadians. Consider how they have held on to that one small Motion, of three paragraphs, asking to reduce Senate terms from 'life' to 8 years. They've now had it over a year. One year. And the Liberals in the Senate refuse to pass it. I wonder why.

Fire the entire staff of the Ministry of fisheries.
Is their mission statement the sustainable development of our fisheries or the surrender of our natural resources to the race they prefer?

WTF, is it fish, or Indians, they are to manage.
This is happening in every single neighbourhood in Canada that butts up against a reserve.

Ontario's Owen Sound harbour is a heartbeat away from being decimated by native fishing pigs that are too lazy to collect their own nets before ice up.
The habour is almost entirely stocked with salmon donated, raised and cared for by volunteers in privately operated hatcheries by sport fishermen alone!
The native commercial fishermen have depleted all the outer harbour areas and now want the salmon raised by anglers.
There is not a northern community in Ontario that does'nt have horror stories of the local dump getting a midnight pickup load of stinking walleye that the natives were too "busy" to clean.
Or an unmarked net left to drift for a half year killing thousands of fish.
Or how about the eastern Ontario native convicted of knowingly selling mercury contaminated walleye to the "white people" only, in his community.

Priminister Steve needs to fire his leftard advisors and stand up and say "One Law For All". Every sport fisherman, and hunter, logger, lobsterman, commercial fisherman, miner, lodge owner, bush pilot, convenience store owner will instantly know what he is talking about.

Don't be such a wuss. Canada has been firing wusses lately.

I found it interesting that the poll showed 76% of 1000 respondents obviously the media didn't like the results otherwise they would have trupeted that 76% of respondents to the poll said no. As it is, 76% of 1000 people seems a little shaky.

Greg Weston's column in the Toronto Sun was on how he felt that the Harper government was way over the top in persecuting Jeff Monaghan. Monaghan was handcuffed, arrested, questioned and released without charges last week in the course of an RCMP investigation around an Environment Canada draft report that was faxed to various media outlets last month. Greg was incensed that his favourite target of Harper would come down so hard on this poor, misguided soul who was only doing what he thought was right.

I wrote Weston paralleling him doing a similar thing.

"Hopefully one day I will see "Greg Weston fired by the Sun for sending a story he thought should have been published to the Toronto Star. He will be prosecuted for breach of his signed confidentiality agreement said the Sun management. Mr. Weston stated "I hate the Conservative Party and Harper so much that I felt the public must see this story today."

Dave Hand
Toronto

His response.

Wow. Are you having a bad day or what? No need to respond.
Cheers/gpw

Guess its okay to take shots at someone but firing back is not allowed.

hmmmm, socialists, indians, billions of dollars, breaucrats, there is nowhere to go with this thought.

david hand - I sent Greg Weston a letter for that vicious column against Harper, where he described their draft legislation on Clean Air as 'Tory Propaganda' etc. Then, there was his definition of the Harper Government as a 'police state'.

And I asked him why he wasn't concerned that a clerk betrayed the oath of office and the public trust, and took it upon himself to prevent a fair and reasoned debate about the environment in the House.

I asked him why he was supporting the notion that each and any civil servant could judge for himself the value of official documents and could take it upon himself to leak them to various activist groups.

No reply.

ET, he probably got tons of critical e-mails on his attack on Harper and gave up answering them. Harper pissed him off when he wouldn't kowtow to the press gallery and jump through their hoops. Weston seems to never miss taking a shot at Harper and blames him for everything as Eric Margolis does with Bush. Always amuses me to see how far I can get into their columns before before the inevitable slur is made. Most of the time I just ignore their crap, gets tedious. Eric always answers my e-mails though his responses don't always answer my question.

Excellent post EBD. You said what needs to be said in few words and great claity. Thank-you very much.
You are correct Warwick - the s(n)ival service is CPC's Trojen Horse. They must be culled for anything postive to happen in this country.
Good points ET. I would doubt that Waston understood your letter. He is a feather brain - you can see the feathers extending out the back of his head - does he dye those feathers? Only his hairdooer knows for sure!