55 Replies to “SWTE: The American Anti-American Attack Ad”

  1. Gosh darn, Kate, that was one of the best articles on the subject I’ve ever read.
    I couldn’t agree more and the personal attack on the U.S. president was something I didn’t focus on.
    However, I was thinking about it tonight. I just came back from my neighbourhood Starbucks and am about to write some letters to the editor on a similar topic that you just wrote about.
    If you will allow me to add in my own small way to your great points, here is it’s content:
    MORE THAN RENEWAL
    The Liberal Party’s privileged elites have become over the years a party of soulless central planning apparatchiks, and that is precisely why they are becoming dangerous.
    Not just to our Democracy, which there is reason to believe they are a serious threat to given their actions in Quebec Adscam, in alleged BC Liberal candidate David Oliver bribery, allegedly intimidating a journalist (John Duffy vs. Mike Duffy), and alleged attempted seniors group (CARP – Canadian Association of Retired Persons) suppression over the Income Trust scandal and RCMP/SEC investigations, and their culture of entitlement… but in a more profound and disturbing sense.
    Scare-mongering the peaceful Canadian people with the outrageous thought of the Canadian Forces taking to the street in a U.S. funded military dictatorship.
    A dictatorship, which has somehow eluded the United States (despite numerous internal and external challenges for 230 years) as they are the longest running Democracy in the world and, despite their faults, have brought freedom to more people, often fighting alongside Canadians who were doing likewise, than any country in the history of the world.
    Our forces in the field are STILL fighting alongside American soldiers – at the order of Paul Martin – in pursuit of our mutual goals toward the aim of personal freedom (and dare I say women’s rights) to this day. I mean that literally counting the two Canadian soldiers who were wounded (along with a Canadian diplomat who was killed) in Afghanistan today, January 15th, 2006 and were medevaced in a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter.
    And what other helicopter would they have been airlifted in, exactly, considering the Liberal Party’s disgraceful neglect of and, I would argue because of those ads, contempt of our Canadian Forces?
    Can it be true that when our Forces are deployed in what he has described as a combat area, Paul Martin insults them all, and damages our relationship with our neigbour whom we are fighting alongside?
    Yes.
    Fortunately, the U.S. MEDEVAC helicopter still flew to the rescue of their ally – Canada.

  2. Kate you are dead on. The Demos continue to marginalize themselves. They continue to live in a haze of pot smoke from the 60’s thinking that it’s the source of all the answers. (All we are saying is give peace a chance) Talk about reality based and progressyve. Orwell was right about the hijacking of language. They mimic the totalitarina tactics more and more each day without ever realizing it. But the funny thing is they aren’t in power in the US and won’t be for a long time.
    The sad thing is, they ARE in power in Canuckistan and still could be for a long time. This may be the last opportunity for Canada before it becomes nothing more than an annex of France. I think everyone would agree that change can be a good thing. So URGE your friends, neighbors, co-workers and everyone you meet to”vote for a change.”

  4. “it’s the Liberals who seem to be scripting their campaign from an American playbook – a Democratic playbook.”
    Like with like. Deranged with deranged.

  5. A topic for another time perhaps, but with American politics having such a strong influence on the Canadian scene (you’d think that someone truly opposed to the ‘Americanization’ of Canada would just ignore the U.S. for the most part), are we heading down a road where our own country is ‘divided’ essentially into blue and red provinces. If that’s the case, will we resign ourselves to effectively joining the U.S., since our politics is beginning to feel the same as theirs (for the record, I’m not saying that as an anti-American statement, just to recognize one possible destination on the road our leaders are taking us).
    How many of us can closely identify with one or the other of the major U.S. parties? I’m saying this because I generally follow U.S. politics much more closely than Canadian (except during our elections). The blogs have helped me to get re-interested in Canadian politics, but I went through a ‘desert’ of about 10 years where I didn’t see much point in caring (this desert corresponded to the rise of the NDP in Saskatchewan, when I still lived there; and to the rise of the federal Liberals).

  6. Taken as a body of work, your articles on the Roundtable have been just about some of the best political writing that I have read. Your fludity and ability to structure a coherent whole in the limited space is really professional. And, you know I good hook when you write one as well.
    If you haven’t already received one or two offers for regular writing that were nearly too good to turn down that might change after the election. I do, however, sense a bit of quiet, and well deserved, satisfaction in what you have achieved on your own. Truly a case of blooming where you are planted.

  8. http://www.theinfozone.net is reporting on Joe Commuzzi, the Liberal MP from northern Ontario. Commuzzi is talking about how he will work with a Conservative government.
    Damn fine article on the Liberal ad, SDA rocks!
    Angry, SDA, Coyne are must see stops on the blog path.
    Tired.

  9. Once again Kate, your observation is profound.
    What is truly astounding is that I have not heard or read one journalist in mainstream media who even comes close to recognizing what is in play with the Liberals “made in America” attack ads and how it can further damage Martin himself in the eyes of our friends the Americans.
    I suspect they will regret the ” a Harper win will make Bush smile” phrase.
    To Martin’s dismay the polls indicate the American bashing ads are not resonating with Canadians this time.

  11. Great observation, Kate. The similarities between Martin’s Libs and the US loony left are staggering. You can take this to the next level by showing how Dean, Gore, Kerry, et.al. take their inspiration from Michael Moore’s idealized view of gun-free, health care-free (I mean, free health care) Liberal Canada. You can also show how Martin’s crew has followed the Gore-Dean Dems’ strategy of condescending demagoguery down the path of utter political destruction.
    So, how is it we get more insight and better writing from your postings at the Roundtable, than we get from all the paid journalists at our billion-dollar mother corp?

  13. You are grasping at straws Ti-Guy. They won’t keep you afloat. The most corrupt government in the western world is about to die. How many planeloads of Liberals will head to parts unknown on Tueasday morning?

  14. I gotta agree with NCF TO. Onya Kate! 😉 As we do depend so much on the US for the very lifeblood of our economy, it is folly to bite the hand that feeds you, when it doesn’t require biting. However, it should be a wake-up call to Canada, and Canadians. Putting that many eggs in one basket is insane! We really should be spreading our economy around the world more than we have. Softwood lumber is a great start. Instead of playing into the lumber lobby’s hands and closing our mills, shipping raw logs to US mills where they get the lumber AND the jobs, market our wood elsewhere. There aren’t enough sawlogs available in the US to sustain the mills there. Not only wood, other commodities apply as well. Tying our economy to one country is insane. There are 300 million people in the US, there are about 5 billion people here on earth. The US is a great ally, but we really ought not to forget the 2 or 3 invasion attempts over the last 200 yrs.The Eagle will swallow the Beaver if it is allowed to.

  15. Just watched the CTV news here in Manitoba. They’re poll, which I imagine was done over the weekend, has the Conservative ahead of the Liberals by 13 points, nation wide.
    Conservatives…40%
    Liberal………27%
    NDP………….16%

  16. Kate, your commentary is the class of the Election Roundtable. Concise, cutting, on point and beautifully written. I’m going to miss it once the election is over.
    Once again, thanks for what you are doing.

  18. Thanks to your blogs, the CBC must be discovering the shock of intelligent balanced coverage, more importantly so are their readers.

  19. Tories have a new anti Jack Layton ad. Saw it tonight in Vancouver.
    It does not appear on the Conservative website.
    Humorous. Had a good laugh over it.
    enough

  20. Let me jump on the ‘that was brilliant bandwagon’ as well Kate. I hope it draws many many people to sda and makes them regular visitors.
    I am a 41 yr old health care professional who heard of blogs and bloggings starting with this election and I discovered it via two sources; the MSM and Scott Feschuk’s blog on the LPC website. Now I smile every time I think of that sweet irony.
    From their, my enquiring mind discovered many interesting places and my world became a little bigger. I’ve had a few ‘born again’ moments in my life, the most profound being the birth of my first child. While nowhere near that profound, discovering the world of political blogging that you and many others represent has been one of these moments.
    It occurs to me that the LPC seems to have discovered the profound implications of blogging during this election as well. I do not think they fully understood it and have grossly underestimated it’s relevance.
    I hold out in evidence the seemingly deliberate dumbing-down of Scott Feschuk’s blog over the last few days. I think they are trying to now taint people’s first foray’s into your world by showing blogs to be infantile and irrelevant. They are trying to attack you by painting you as dumb-by-association. They are trying to lower the bar on blogs by making them ‘even bloggier’ and hopefully for the rest of the election, you will be less effective.
    I think they are too late the party (again) and underestimate the intelligence of the people who populate your world. As an aside, if they are responsible for the fake email, they underestimate all of your techincal savvy as well.
    I thank you for raising the bar, through your work at the Election Roundtable, while others are lowering it. And thank you for being part of giving me a ‘born again’ moment. Those are few and far between in this life.

  21. Brilliant commentary Kate. I heard that ad on the radio a few days ago and found it extremely insulting and divisive. By the way, that guy in the picture with that impacted look – didn’t he invent the internet or something?

  22. I was just watching CTV News and saw that the Liberals, after being accused of so much graft and corruption, are demanding the Conservatives pull the ad that quotes Keith Martin and several other prominent Liberals as being ashamed of the �Soldiers with guns� advert.
    The Liberals are charging that the Conservatives have…..wait for it� broken copyright laws!
    The shame! The shame!

  23. CORRECTION:
    It’s always disappointing when facts get in the way of a good argument. However, truth is more important so I will state that I misread the initial CBC story when I wrote my post, �MORE THAN RENEWAL�, the first one that appears in this column.
    In addition to our envoy to Afghanistan who was killed, three Canadian soldiers were wounded and not two. Of the three, two are in critical condition and one in serious condition.
    Let everyone regardless of our politics pray for the health and wellbeing of these 3-Canadian (military and humanitarian) heroes: Private William Salikin of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Corporal Jeffrey Bailey of 1 Combat Engineer Regiment, and Master Corporal Paul Franklin of 1 Field Ambulance and their families and thank them for their service.
    Let us also give thanks to Glyn Berry, a senior diplomat and envoy to Afghanistan who was working as the political director of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan, for his personal hard work and for making the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom and wellbeing of the people of that country – as well as working to stabilize it for the security and peace of ours. Mr. Berry is the first Foreign Affairs diplomat to die overseas in the service of Canada.
    Also, in my haste to write about the events and the important work our Forces are doing in Afghanistan and how I believe the Canadian Forces have been misused by the Liberal Party’s election campaign, I misread �would be airlifted to a U.S. military hospital� in the article:
    http://www.cbc.ca/story/w …
    � to mean they had been airlifted by a U.S. Blackhawk MEDEVAC helicopter since, due to cancellation of the EH101 helicopter project and inability to find a replacement in time coupled with Afghanistan’s high-altitude flying conditions, the Canadian Forces owns no similar equipment for this mission.
    For those of you who are interested in providing the best possible equipment for our men and women in harm�s way, it may surprise you to know that CASR, the Canadian American Strategic Review, a Canadian think tank, asked in October, 2005:
    �Canada is a rich country. Why are we the only nation that is sending its infantry into this combat zone with no transport helicopters to supply them? No helicopter to evacuate the wounded, or those who become trapped in a lethal situation?
    � due in part to a decision made by the Mulroney government to sell our Chinook helicopters to the Netherlands. It should also be noted that the Chretien government cancelled the EH101 replacement helicopter Mulroney had planned incurring a penalty of $500,000,000 without purchasing a single helicopter.
    If you would like to learn more about this, you can go to:
    http://www.sfu.ca/casr/ft …
    and
    http://www.aviationtoday. …
    I apologize for misstating the facts.

  24. Right on target again, Kate. Brief and direct, honest and true, always articulate. You are a truly great journalist.

  25. Here is a fictional news story posted at voy.com reporting the “death” of a left liberal commenter. The dear departed has not posted for the last 3 days; prior posts from Nola were vociferously, rabidly left liberal.
    RIP: Nola Winterbotham (Buried At Public Expense) >>
    January 15, 2006
    Old spinster found frozen in cabin dead 2 days
    By: Alvin Farquarson – Reporter
    Nola Winterbotham, 69 years of age, was found today in her outlying cabin frozen to death. The oil tank supplying her space heater was empty and believed to have been dried out for at least 3 days according to local oil dealer Joe Watson.
    Ms Winterbotham was purchasing heating fuel on a COD basis and it is believed she ran out of money and was hoping that the heat spell would carry her over. It didn’t.
    Curiously enough, her electricity was intact and when they found her corpse, her laptop computer was still operating but in the sleep mode. The computer was disconnected when they determined that she was deceased.
    Ms Nola Winterbotham was known as somewhat of a recluse living in a small one room cabin on the outskirts of Cochrane on a 3 acre woodlot that she owned, but was heavily in arrears on property taxes.
    The body was sent to the Norris Funeral Home where it will be held until burial at city expense. No next of kin was determined. >>
    http://www.voy.com/178771/119984.html

  26. Hey Ti-Guy,
    I found the article you referenced interesting. It used the word omitted several times. Policy ideas had been omitted. Unless they can show me a draft that had those items in prior to being sent to the economist, I’d be more likely to believe the other policy ideas were added after that analysis.
    Did you notice that Paul Martin had omitted his plan to scrap the notwithstanding clause from the policy document he had printed and distributed?
    Why did he omit that if it is the first thing he is going to do if re-elected?

  27. Ti-Guy, the Conference Board reaffirmed their appraisal of the Conservative platform costing last night.
    I think they’re still waiting for the NDP and Liberals to submit theirs.

  28. And Now for Something Completely Important
    From today’s National Post:
    http://www.canada.com/nat …
    Master Corporal Paul Franklin of 1 Field Ambulance had his leg half blown off in combat yesterday… then tied a tourniquet around his leg and proceeded to provide medical aid and comfort to his fellow wounded soldiers as a trained medic.
    This is a degree of military heroism in the face of hostile enemy action, which is truly beyond normal and is commendable in the extreme. It is almost superhuman, but it wasn’t, he is a Canadian citizen who happens to be a dedicated medic and who loves his fellow soldiers.
    The shock must have been incredible… yet keeping his head, he provided lifesaving first aid to himself, then began helping his comrades in arms.
    This man is heroic in every sense of the word. Should he not be a candidate for the Victoria Cross (Canada)?
    Qualifications for the Canadian Victoria Cross, which since its creation in 1993 has never been awarded, include:
    “most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy”
    and continuing…
    “Canada does not officially have to declare war to give acknowledgement of the existence of a hostile force that fits the above description. This means that a Canadian serving as part of a peacekeeping operation is eligible to be awarded the VC if the servicemember fulfills the above criteria.”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/w …

  29. Insightful commentary on the poor judgement inherent in the Libs adopting the hate-America ethic of the foamy fringe as a mainstream ideal.
    Only a 5 year old mentality would buy into this type of insulting nationalist bigotry. Perhaps besides the prison vote the Libs had planned to lower the voting age to 5.

  30. This tidbit is from David Akin’s blog on the CTV website.
    “After an abbreviated week with Paul Martin’s Liberal campaign, I have rejoined Stephen Harper’s Conservative campaign. My colleague and Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife was here with Harper last week and the two of us will continue on with the Conservative leader straight through to election night in Calgary. Our Chief Political Correspondent Craig Oliver is also on board here with the Harper campaign for the next few days. He’ll be back in our main studios in Toronto, though, for election day.”
    You think CTV has called the election yet?

  32. READ STORY AT CANADAFREEPRESS AND TAKE NOTE OF LAST SENTENCE:
    Signals emerging after the arrest in Houston, suggest Strong’s Canadian privy councilors have mobilized Baca’s war rooms for use in upcoming NATO naval war games directed by the commander of the Canadian destroyer, HMCS Athabaskan.
    On Wednesday–a few days after Park’s arrest–HMCS Athabaskan left Halifax to serve as flagship for a six-nation NATO force under the command of Quebec Commodore, Denis Rouleau. For the next 12 months, Baca’s alleged war room commander in the Athabaskan will direct naval war game exercises–including possible simulated nuclear attacks on America–in the North Sea and North Atlantic.

  33. Jim Pankiw, Stockwell Day and Rob Anders are the kinds of people that support the conservatives, once publicly outed they join groups like Western Independence Party of Saskatchewan, people thought that the KKK left but they just changed their Name, wonder what they call themselves now?

  34. Scott Feschuk is the best part of the Liberal campaign.
    His blog is rather entertaining but it is his speechwriting that really makes me laugh. Can he take credit for this zinger?
    The fact is that same-sex marriage and a woman’s right to an abortion are the kind of Canadian values that built this country.
    Seems like Feschuk is still writing his Post-Morttem column in the NP. On the other hand, perhaps his speeches are rather good and the PM doesn’t stay on message. Either way it doesn’t matter, and I can still laugh.

  36. Hey Sam how’s the witch hunting going? Pretty slim pickings in Canada eh?
    I guess if demons don’t exist for the red Knights to slay, they must create them and tilt at windmills. 😉

  37. This blog is a finalist? Pfah!
    Kate, although I see your ego is being thoroughly stroked by your fellow egocasters here, it doesn’t take much to see how – like other CPC pawns – unhealthily limited your world view is. Tis one thing to work for honest good government with a conservative sense; tis another thing to blindly support insidious neo-fascism.
    Any Canadian who cozies up to the U.S. suffers from penis envy. Believe this: Canada doesn’t exist to Americans, except as a resource storage locker. A Conservative government will pursue the downfall of our nation as much as the Bloc – Harper doesn’t need to state his eagerness for Canada to become a U.S. territory for it to be made more clear.
    Neither does Kate.

  38. So, which country are you cozying up to canpatriot, the PRC? After Peter Foster’s article in the National, I’d be doing some sniffing about the corporate-liberal world if I were you and form some better ideas on where the lifting of the NWC is one of PMPM’s first priorities.

  39. Chris from Victoria
    M/Cpl. Paul Franklin cannot receive the Canadian Victoria Cross, He’s a Master Corporal not an officer. I say this some what tongue in cheek however check on Victoria Cross “winners”. What is the ratio officers to enlisted. I have some knowledge I am an ex M/Cpl.
    Besides Gov Jean would have to get one first.

  44. Stockwell Day.
    Standing
    Beside burning crosses
    Outside Hedy’ Fry’s riding office
    As we speak
    I am not making this up

  45. Wow..not only did canidiot lose, but he lost in the first paragraph with the direct dive to facism.
    Good one. Nice self-immolation.

  47. Look, my Canadian cousins, the truth is that what is in America’s interests is also what is in Canada’s interests.
    People often remark about the way Canada is joined at the hip with America economically and with defense issues. If America is strong economically, then Canada is strong economically. If America is strong militarily, Canada is strong militarily.
    If America can afford to buy more Canadian goods, then more Canadian sellers will profit. If Canada is threatened by another country and the US is very powerful militarily, then Canada is secure and can even scrimp on military expenditures. (Though that is not in the best interests of either your country or mine.)
    Take a look at what Patrick Basham said in the Ottawa Citizen: “An alternative approach is the model artfully practised by prime minister Brian Mulroney in the 1980s. Mr. Mulroney grasped the nettle: closer relations with the U.S., the most powerful nation in history, must be a Canadian priority. Active accommodation with its southern neighbour is pragmatic because that is where Canada’s interests lie. The 1988 Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement that underpinned the past decade of Canadian economic growth epitomized this approach.
    Stephen Harper should explain to Canadians that bilateralism reinforces multilateralism. If Americans saw Canada as a more reliable partner, Canada would be more influential around the world because it would be more influential in Washington.”

  48. Kate…All the posters here seem to be enthralled with your insight. Please don’t count me in that group. We should thank the Americans for many things but they should be thanking us as well. This is a 2 way street. If it wasn’t for our efforts during WWII they’d be goose-stepping through Central Park today. Payback is a bitch.
    Did you know that many of our southern nieghbours visit Canada just so they can speak their minds out loud (something you cherish). Censorship and media control in the USA has reached outlandish proportions. Pravada USA is a reality.
    Try taking a site like this across the border and say what you say, especially if it criticized W. You’d be in for the surprise of your life.
    Wake up!

  50. Ron,
    But they ARE goose stepping through Central Park this very minute!
    KKKarl Roves Storm Troopers goosestep a little jig just before they round up all the peace activists, hippies, homosexuals, jews, blacks, lesbians, you name it. They load them all on train cars to processing plants in Montana. They come out as born-again Christians!
    Michael Moore said so!

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