The beginning of the public audits.
If there are folks out there saying there must be a decisive move to occupy some other space on the political spectrum, that’s just crazy. We’ve seen that fail in Canada, we’ve seen that fail elsewhere. That doesn’t work.
And because it’s never too early for leadership speculation:
There are two ‘litmus tests’, if you will, for my next Conservative leader. Fiscal prudence and a decided preference for decentralization. My current favourite is Maxime Bernier, but for only two reasons. I know he tends towards liberty and he isn’t afraid to voice his views, I don’t know his views on spending.
One of the downsides of the Harper years is that I don’t actually know what other contenders think.
What they think? Most politicians do not think, they react and most often badly. They all lead from behind now except for Mr. Harper because he didn’t care if he pleased anyone or not, he was obsessed with doing what’s best for the country. Selfish liberal takers do not get that. the next guy in will likely try to move center left in a folly attempt to please the unpleaseable.
Buy a membership, get involved at a riding level and stand as a delegate to the leadership convention – flood the party with like thinking western populist-libertarians or stop spinning your wheels about western political inclusion in policy making and leadership choice.
The cost of this rffective activism is minimal – it just takes some effort to get off the couch to save your country.
I appreciate Bernier for those reasons…but his weakness for lovely women is his downfall….
Jason Kenney would have The Kardashian kid trembling in his boots. Kenny presented an amazing message during the election tearing about the false claims of the Libs and media on the CPC being ‘racist and anti-immigration’. It was full of facts, so of course not a minute of it on MSM.
I saw it on FB….why didn’t the CPC (hello Jennifer Bernier??) get his message out?
Get rid of Bernier for a start.
I worry that the old PC red tories are going to try to get their “revenge” and create an internal war that will break up the coalition that created the CPC. There are still a fair number of them.
The base is still with the CPC. They did not leave (we got only 200,000 votes less than in 2011). It is vital that a new leader appreciate this, and not shift left with the notion to steal votes back from the Liberals. We did not lose that many votes – the other side attracted new votes, and took votes from the NDP. They will not be coming back to the CPC no matter how far left we shift. If the next CPC leader abandons gun owners, for example, that would be a disastrous mistake.
I will leave it to smarter heads than I to figure out what to do to attract new voters, or steal them from the Liberals, but abandoning the base and turning back into the PC party of yesteryear is a recipe for failure.
We also need a media arm. The incredible anti-Harper bias of the media this election was beyond anything I have seen before.
Sry…That’s Jenny Byrne not Bernier.
As an outsider I watched Mr. Harper do some great things for Canada,
but my observations were not shared by the other 39.47 percent of the low liberal information voters.
A good dose of Liberal castor oil, with jobs lost,
and spending out of budget control should put another Conservative back in office for another 10 years..
Well done Mr. Harper.
Dianne Watts, from Surrey. Former mayor of Surrey, and was touted for the provincial ‘Liberal’ party before CC swept it away. New MP for one of the Surrey ridings.
Can’t say if she’s a Red Tory, a populist, or a Libertarian. She did grow the municipal civil service so that’s a red flag, however, Surrey had massive growth in the last decade, so some growth was understandable. She was also popular across party lines.
She might be a little green on the federal scene, but she has lots of allies in Greater Vancouver, and as a former mayor of one of Vancouver’s largest suburbs, she knows the big picture.
A photogenic, s-m-a-r-t, female candidate to take on the “slightly less Shiny” Pony in 4 years has a lot of appeal.
Maxime Bernier would be a disaster.
Peter MacKay would be a disaster.
Jason Kenny would be a disaster.
Perhaps a Lisa Raitt or some other competent woman who is honest and doesn’t have to drag the Harper Legacy behind her. Although Harper made a number of great changes his negative perception among the centrist voters will last for several years, making any leader who backed him unelectable.
In unrelated news some total idiot on CTV news suggested that Trudeau should not be in a hurry to visit Obama in the USA because there would be some expectation from Canadians that he accomplish something from the visit. Talk about setting the bar low.
Maxime Bernier needs someone to tidy up and expand his Wikipedia page so everything isn’t negative. If I was single, I’d be banging biker chicks too, or more likely getting rejected by biker chicks.
old Lori: You are so right, don’t know why other didn’t carry Kenny speech. I thought it was great and thought other heard it but not. CPC do need to get there word out over media, I hope this will happen the next election. The CPC did a great job while in gov’t and I hope the Libs don’t do to much damage. Next time will be CPC as people will start to realize they did a great job economy wise, lower taxes, kept us safe and much more.
Old Lori,
Totally agree other than the comment about media. Sun TV was a real opportunity for the CPC and IMHO they dropped the ball. If Harper had given regular interviews to SUN TV he
might have dealt CBC and CTV a serious blow. It would not have been enough I know.
The real issue with the CPC over the 10 years was the destruction of the riding association. Under Reform we were building a grassroots org that theoretically formed policy and was a protection from possible nomination candidates who were what I call
political carpetbaggers. The CPC became a top down org not unlike the Mulroney years.
The HO during Reform days used to send organizers out who would educate riding Board
members and help with constituency problems. That was done away with even before the merger. After the merger it got worse as directions became exlusively top down.
The biggest failure IMO was the poor effort to educate Canadians about the conservative message. Realizing that the education system is progressive and that media is hostile to
the conservative message then it had to be a major priority for the party to find a method of getting their message out. If the decision apparently was to mute the riding
associations then what was the alternative. Who would talk at the local level about both
national and local issues. Our riding had a CPC MP and he did not have one town hall meeting during his term. We used to have regularly meetings and our MP at that time knew
most party members by name.
I have been told by party members that even on a national level the dysfunction was wide spread. If as I suspect progressive members within the Party try to elect a leader who
will move the Party more to the left then a split is very likely. As a Westerner I still distrust the east. The economic divide between east and west creates opposing priorities and has not gone away. Equalization has built in a welfare mentality across the country
which predominantly favors the east. The West’s future is in the Pacific not in the east. $100’s of billions were spent on a industrialization of central Canada which has failed. It was not even a issue during this last campaign. Most of the original Reform issues
were not addressed in 10 years of CPC government.
You are bang on Lori. We will never see a conservative Party like Harpers conservatives again.
Sadly even conservative commentators seem to think this is a good thing.
Harper was controlling for a couple of reasons.
1) media likes leaks because then they can pre-emptively spin the news to block any Conservative initiatives. When the opposing team knows the plays you are going to run they can shut down your offence
2) Harper needed to have a very firm hand on Party discipline because the party was/is still full of Progressives looking to knife Harper.
Without Party discipline Harper could not have effectively governed.
So not only was he attempting to govern but he had to run defence within his own ranks and against a wholly corrupt media, and the opposition.
And he managed to do all of this quite effectively, without being in the back pocket of anyone. Previous PMs were (and that is a primary reason Harper had to go – he was not corruptible)
One more majority would have been all he needed to purge the party of the last of the progressives, force the left to collapse and rebuild like the right did, complete senate reform, and continue to strengthen Canadas ecomomy, and likely get a more compliant US regime to work with. And as a bonus continue to force the CBC to pay their own way.
One more majority. The left/media knew this as well, which is why they threw everything at Harper regardless of the transparency of their actions. It was do or die and they won.
So the elites will never be put in a position like this again. The conservative party will get a new leader and it will be one that will be vetted by the political power elite in this country. Jean Charest anyone?
So when the Liberals inevitably need to be replace it will be with another Progressive government that is in the back pocket of the same cabal that ran Mulroney, Chretien, Trudeau and Martin – (and although Manning was never PM he too is now part of the Club)
It makes me sick to watch so called conservatives pile on with the same BS talking points the media and Harpers enemies used to define him.
Democracy died in Canada on Oct. 19, 2015.
While it will not happen I would love to see the Party re-elect Harper as leader. His “brand” is only poisonous because the Liberals and Media say it is. He did not lose the base.
We are going to have 5 years of corrupt government anyways. The very best tactician to oppose them and to maintain the party that was truly being built to again be conservative, is the guy who built it.
The Harper era has come and gone. The CPC has to find a new face. They need to make a wise choice and in 4 years if things have not gone well for jr. they may succeed. Jr. has a way of punching above his weight though. When we all expect him to fail he comes through. I dunno?
The CPC is well positioned to take advantage. This is their time out of power and if they use it correctly they will be back.
I feel that the Conservatives fell victim to a whole series of false narratives put forward by their opponents and of course abetted by the media. I am still seeing references to the “snitch line for neighbors” — a shocking mischaracterization of a help line for victims of things like honour crimes, and something that has been requested for a long period of time by immigrant women’s groups. There are many, many examples of how initiatives done by the Conservative government have been intentionally misconstrued. Conservatives will be elected again when the Liberals mess up — and given who is at the helm, that should not take too long.
“and I hope the Libs don’t do to much damage. ” They will dismantle everything. These are not ordinary times. There was foreign money and the globalists playing a role in Harper’s defeat. Unfortunately, people are very vulnerable to propaganda and the Harper government was smeared ruthlessly.
A prime example is Michael Harris’s book which I am currently reading. I have never seen such a one-sided diatribe. He takes every controversial issue that came up during the Conservative reign and rounds up all the disgruntled people involved in the issue and gives them a forum in his book. Any time you take a position there are always going to be people who disagree. A litany of their complaints is hardly informative. There is not even an attempt to disguise this foolish lack of perspective.
Anyway an uncritical public laps this up — and it is very easy to manipulate them to vote in a certain way. Harper did quite well in the election, given the cards that were stacked against him. Unfortunately, I think the Liberals are closely connected to the globalist agenda and that our sovereignty is now at risk. It is probably too late to change that. We will be doing whatever the globalists at the UN want us to do.
I hear radio callers saying that the election was a rejection of the Reform party Conservative Party. How so? It seems to me there were at best six Reformers in the last Parliament and hardly any stood as candidates in this election.
Michael Harris was fired by the news radio station in Ottawa because of his liberal bias, so reading his book is just regurgitating more liberal hate.
Reality check folks. The “conservative message” is the problem because it’s easy for the faux liberals, aka statists, to muddy, obfuscate and outright fabricate for their own ends. It makes no difference whatsoever whom the Conservatives choose as their new leader. He or she will be outright inhuman and therefore unsuitable for public office because of their “conservative” views. C’mon the Stephen Harper Conservatives were no more conservative than the Liberals were liberal. Too bad many conservatives joined the Harper Hatred Brigade on that, thus helping the LPC; though I’m not sure of the actual damage. Ross Perot would be so proud.
We are the only non-statist party. Package that, any way you want, but that’s the message; that’s who we have to be to have a positive effect on Canadian life. Screw ideological purity. Grassroots free enterprise liberalism (not the “progressive” farce that has called itself that since 1900). That’s what “Canadians want.” They don’t want conservatives, so vote against Conservatives more often than not, and only give them power after serial and serious taxpayer and citizen abuse at the hands of the Natural Governing Party.
Harper was about to change that, using the sacrilegious idea of limited government. He had to be stopped at all costs, and that’s what was done. It’s time for a good look, on that basis; so no need to rush in a new leader and without dumb remarks about who would be a disaster. Let’s start by not eating our own, as we have so many times before.
What needs to be restored is the grass roots legacy of the Reform party and the free enterprise limited government model of Progressive Conservatives. Harper achieved that to some degree, but the mediocracy never gave up on the idea he and his party were “conservative,” which in their Ottawa addled thinking, having had their careers flow through both the Grits and CBC, defaulted to slogan of “mean spirited” implying intellectual inferiority (yes, and guided by such outmoded thinking as common sense, which is now a superpower).
Their fraud must be exposed if the Conservatives wish to compete for government in the next election. The mediocracy are not our friends, never have been, never will be. It fact they’re the true mean-spirited bigots in the room, true Grits all. They hate you and their fallacious view of your philosophy, only putting up with you when forced to by the voter, always temporarily and with constant complaint. They’re always in a Grit holding pattern, make no mistake. Use grassroots approaches to outmaneuver them. They’re all dying dinosaurs anyway. Let them go quietly.
Harper made them wait much longer than what they found acceptable. They hated him even for that more than they did before. They abetted the manufacture of an industry of Harper hatred, with the very same intolerance they accused him of. They did it because they had to deny the truth of our increased standard of living and freedom under his government, in favour of some contrived “worst job creation record since the Great Depression” nonsense, as if governments really created jobs, exposing their top down statism, bias, thus unprofessionalism, thus lack of integrity, by assuming their ideas to be correct and choosing to “report” it that way. A pox on all their crumbling houses.
So, the statists needed a compliant media to pull of the message. The Liberal media gave it to them with no scrutiny whatsoever of Trudeau’s economic promises, not even bothering to pull out their calculator, seeing he didn’t have one anyway, and idea that will soon become obvious to Canadians. Then they all lucked in an Mulcair cratered the NDP vote.
But they all had one overarching goal; dump Harper, damn the consequences and the damage to civil society, our values or even honesty. The false narrative is not a temporary condition; statists need its emotional appeal because they believe in the indefensible idea that government is the magic bullet, that as it removes productivity from the economy it miraculously makes our lives better, without overbearing coercion. The historical record states otherwise; the media refused discussion on that reality. The fact most of them are economic illiterates was used as cover rather than as a signal to increase understanding.
That is why I don’t watch any of their garbage anymore. I don’t need them for information anyway, biased as it is. That’s my exercise in free speech. We should have been more forceful on our moderate civil society ideas. We need to be going forward. It’s a tough go but the only political prescription.
Yup the same propagandists who swayed the public vote, through an orchestrated campaign of hate, now want to tell us, who to replace their target with?
I am with CT here, 10 years and power and the central issues of Reform were not addressed.
Reform was effective in forcing Chretien to be fiscally more responsible.
The conservative coalition gained power, but where to internally riven to use it.
Without property rights, the right to defend your own life and to be able keep the majority of the return on your labour, there is no buy in from the productive members of society.
What we know as civilization falls.
Now the media has spent decades accusing white working males of being the cause of every social ill.
They have made no secret of their hatred for me and my way of life.
And they sure love the funds they extort from my pocket.
So any advice the Media Party Lackeys offer up is worth what they were paid for it.
If there is no way to reform the Kleptocracy, then voters have shown their wisdom.
Beer and circuses let it burn.
Now as the productive stop producing, the fools and bandits will hasten the demise, each of their “new Ideas” to “invest” in the economy will succeed in driving real production down further and increase the national debt further.
Soon enough the easily persuaded voters will recognize the real change as the definition of rich sinks in(Anyone with an income).
But of course the media will still be blaming Harper and Bush as the trade system implodes.
Liberal motto;Real Change? we will take that too.
Stephen Harper can STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN CANADA FOREVER……
IF he takes the few remaining days in office AND PLANTS CANADIAN FLAGS IN EVERY LAST INCH OF NORTHERN CANADIAN SOIL
AND OF COURSE INCLUDING THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE ………….CANADA’S CONTROLLED WATERWAY!
MOve YOUR ASS NOW HARPER!
BLOCK THE RUSSIAN BASTARD …PUTIN!
I AM
Yes, be on guard for a red Tory insurgency, encouraged by the liberal media. I~m not sure where Bernier stands in this regard. I think his attraction to good looking women is a bonus. Kenny of course is good b8ut another from Alberta, that the media party will attack.
Perhaps a MacDonald-Cartier arrangement
I hope one of the ground rules that comes out of the leadership elections operation committee is a firm deadline to be a paid member in order to cast a ballot. That date should be October 19 2015 and anyone who wasn’t a member before that date gets no vote. We do not need johnny come latelys and we do not want some kind of membership drive style leadership race. You want to be leader? Convince your loyal members, don’t go hunting for new ones.
I really don’t know why anyone would want the job as leader of the Conservative party. From the moment of election till death the media will be digging for some mistake made way back when. Making up lies and talking about your hidden agenda. You have to have a very thick skin to put up with what Stephen Harper has put up with for the last 15 years.
I agree, the Red Tories are still licking their wounds, I’m betting every one of them voted Liberal.
As for Kenney,yes he would be good IF he’s interested. I also don’t think the media would get away with the hateful crap they tossed at Stephen Harper, Kenney wouldn’t tolerate it and they know it. He also has a different rapport with them, he wouldn’t put up with it and slink away.
I hope the Conservatives don’t pick someone like Bernier simply thinking it might woo Quebec voters. He would be a charismatic choice if you want to mimic the Liberals,but a cut above Trudeau when it comes to qualification.
Should be some interesting times as we build a solid CONSERVATIVE party,Stephen gave us a good foundation to build from. Hell, the Liberals haven’t yet rebuilt their party after the shambles left by the Chretien/Martin feud.
Unless some economic collapse takes place, Trudeau will be PM for 8 to 12 years, given the stupidity of the Canadian electorate. So the next Conservative leader will be one of the current MPs, because he/she is already there, in the House of Commons. Therefore, Brad Wall won’t leave his premiership to be the opposition leader for 4 years (the Conservative leader will be replaced after the first election loss in 2019).
Harper? Stephen Harper could become the leader of the opposition in Alberta, uniting Wildrose and the PCs and winning the next election there. He will have fun nagging Trudeau when he meets the premiers.
Everyone needs to lighten up.
#1. It wasn’t much of a loss. The vote share was roughly the same as 2011. If motivated “STOP HARPER” voters hadn’t shown up like they didn’t last time then Harper would’ve won.
#2. Trudeau moved the Liberals to the right. Anyone actually read the platform? Other then some tax increases on rich people and trivial deficit spending (most of which is going to Child Care Tax cheques…the type people with kids already get) the platform would’ve looked like a Mulroney third term. Yeah, there’s lot’s of annoying leftist dogma (climate change BS, gender issues, etc) but most of the stuff they want to do isn’t that bad. Cut middle income tax, rebuild the Navy (why didn’t Harper get this done anyway?), clean up the Senate for real…
#3. Conservatives ran a worn out campaign. Just not Ready had millions of dollars behind it…other than that? Stupid game show tactics at the end, boring promises of nickel and dime tax credits, more of the same….get some ambition if you want a fourth term.
#4. Conservatives are drifting from the members. As one commentor stated above…the riding associations are pretty weak. When Harper took over the party he required discipline and defense. The Mediaparty destroyed Preston Manning and Stockwell Day because they played inside the Liberal frame with rules that worked against them. In the early days discipline was required to present a unified strong conscious message amongst all candidates and party infrstructure.
It worked.
It worked even better in 2006.
It worked again in 2008.
But then they kept going back to the well too many times. 2011 was the high water mark for this strategy.
Over the past four years the party has become so corporate and streamlined that us little members are supposed to be like consumers of conservativism. Grassroots need to stand up.
#5. Jason Kenny is rumoured to be a closeted gay man. Are CPC members really going to vote for a guy who’s a “confirmed bachelor” and won’t answer questions about his personal life? Not going to happen.
Kellie Leitch is another leadership contender, but has anyone asked her if she’s a lesbian. It needs to be asked.
Same with John Baird. Someone needs to ask the question and get an honest answer.
My vote is for Peter MacKay. He’s seen as a “progressive conservative” by the normals out there. They think this because he’s the last leader of the old party. When you examine the guy though, his time in office has been all about tough on crime and killing terrorists. He supports the military, he’s team player, and a friendlier face. He should’ve been in the PMO last year and we may not have suffered this Oct 19th, result.
#6. The whole PC/Reform thing is long dead. It was 13 years ago. Most people sending cash to the party never belonged to either original one.
Let it go. – The dangerours progressives ie Liberals all left ten years ago. They ain’t coming back…not when Trudeau is running a Mulroney styled government.
#6?
So get over it, government is theft, sit down and shut up ?
Thank you for your nameless advice.
As for Trudeau running a Mulroney Government being a good thing.. um a Pair of Chairs ring any bells as to how much we taxpayers loved that gong show?
#2 What the hell does the Liberal Platform have to do with their actions?
Has never been any past correlation, so why you so sure now?
The fact that the CPC maintained practically its entire voter base from the 2011 election tells the real story. Voters didn’t abandon the CPC. Voters abandoned the NDP, largely in Quebec and Morontariowe.
Never, ever, buy the media’s false narrative.
CBC is dead to me, all channels have been deactivated on my box. All but one LCTV station has been deleted too.
Get with the program everybody, we must aid in destroying their ratings as much as possible. The providers (Cogeco, Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Telus) all track which stations are watched, and for how long and when. Its all digital tracking, done automatically. These are then used for advertiser rates to charge, eventually.
Hit them where it hurts!
The Mulroney record was good for 2 seats and Elsie Wayne is 83 years old and Jean Charest is a Liberal.
I have no idea what rock you have been hiding under:
#2 Mulroney and Junior Trudeau were/are more to the right? You really have no idea why the Reform movement rose to be the Opposition in ’93, do you? John robertson nails it.
#5. it’s a well known fact that John Baird is gay. He just refused to where it on his sleeve, and use it to appease the left. He had more important issues to deal with and he did it well.
#6. Why is this an issue with you if you think the Reform movement is dead? Do you see the irony in your statement if you don’t want Kenny or Leitch because they ‘might be gay’?
#2. Just saying for a Liberal platform Justin is far better then Stephane Dion or even Michael Ignatieff. A 3rd term Mulroney isn’t THAT bad. No soviet daycare, no carbon tax, no shutting down oil sands, no billions for the Indian industry…could be worse.
#5. Gays are not a good fit for CPC leadership.
#6. Don’t think the Reform movement is dead. It’s just mostly been fulfilled or run it’s course. Not to say the CPC should move left, but the notion that there are all these “Red Tories” out there I think is false. There’s Conservatives, there’s Liberals and there’s people that don’t care and don’t know the difference that vote for self interest and haircuts.
Peter MacKay is a quitter. He left politics just before the party lost “to be with his family” and he’s going to magically reappear at a leadership contest? No thanks.
I don’t think Jason Kenney is a closeted gay man. I believe he is a committed Catholic and a self-admitted virgin because he is unmarried.
Nevertheless, Kenney’s “curry in a hurry” ethnic outreach strategy is in tatters. The Conservatives only won 3 of the 40 ridings where non-whites are a majority, compared to half of them in 2011.
So don’t believe the propaganda about Kenney having the Midas touch with visible minority voters. His success in 2011 was solely due to the one-time collapse of the Liberals, who once again own the ethnic voting bloc lock, stock and barrel.
I think Maxime Bernier would be an excellent choice for CPC leader, partly because of his small-government conservatism and partly because of his roots in the greater Quebec City area.
One of the CPC’s few bright spots this election was Metro Quebec City, where they won 8 of 10 seats and 41% of the vote compared with only 4 of 68 seats and 14% of the vote in the rest of the province.
Quebec City now stands with Calgary and Edmonton as the only major cities in the country to support the Conservatives. I think a leader from QC would be in an excellent position to grow the party not only in the rest of Quebec, but Atlantic Canada too.
A Quebecois leader would also be well-positioned to take a nationalist/populist stance with regards to identity, immigration and multiculturalism, and get a lot less liberal media blowback for it than a leader from, say, Alberta.
What we need is an identitarian conservative in the style of Donald Trump. Less of a blowhard perhaps, but with the same unapologetic defense of the interests of Canadians first and foreigners second. A nationalist rather than a globalist.
Is Bernier that person? I don’t know, but if not him there is always Gerard Deltell, a newly elected MP also from Quebec City. He is the former leader of the ADQ party in Quebec, and successfully used the niqab issue to win more than 50% of the vote in his riding.
And although Harper will go down as a giant in the pantheon of Canadian conservatism, what we don’t need is the same old, same old: tax cuts for millionaires, endless wars in the Middle East, and “free” trade with Third World countries.
That’s the neocon/chamber of commerce-type “conservatism” that’s being overthrown in the GOP right now by Trump. It’s being replaced by a populism that is attracting lots of Democrats and Independents, and would surely attract lots of Liberals and NDPers in this country.
And Quebec, where the only serious opposition to mass immigration and multiculturalism exists in Canada, is the natural home to such a Trumpian leader and platform.
So my advice to the CPC is: hold your leadership convention in Quebec City (the last bastion of conservatism east of Saskatchewan), pick a nationalist-populist-identitarian leader like Bernier or Deltell, and watch le dauphin go down to a crushing defeat in 2019.
Wonder how the older Liberals, male and female will feel having a young whippersnapper, perhaps younger than or the age of their own sons giving them orders? This could be fun as it plays out as reality sets in.
It’s impossible to believe this can all end well for Canada in the long run…four years is a long run in a situation like this.
First, not Kenney. Way too soft on immigration and spending nearly a decade sucking up to them should be an instant disqualify.
Second, not a woman. Women are not conservative and that’s doubly so in the post-modern world. There are so few exceptions (Kate being one, it seems) to prove the rule.
Third, not Quebec. Stop pandering to the province that demands fealty from the rest.
Brad Wall, if he was a federal MP.
“I don’t think Jason Kenney is a closeted gay man. I believe he is a committed Catholic and a self-admitted virgin because he is unmarried.’
Katholics have these things called priests……they are all celibate, well except for buggering a few little boys
ewe should do stand up:-))))
Eastern Canadians find it easy to hate Western Canadians. If you ask any Easterner who the worst prime ministers of Canada are the list would be R.B. Bennett, Joe Clark, and Stephen Harper from Alberta and John Diefenbaker from Saskatchewan. That would be the complete list and it’s all about media inspired hate. End of story. Harper ran the soundest economic platform in the world and it did no good in the face of unchallenged claims by the opposition. I was a separatist at the time Justin’s dad spewed his hate on the west and I may have to consider it again depending on what the Manchild does.
It would be good to have a leader from Quebec or at least someone really bilingual. Not sure if Gerard Dultell flirts with separatism like the current leader of the CAQ. Have to do more research. He did support the merger of the two centrist parties which I did not because of nationalist leanings of the CAQ.
Shelly Glover from Manitoba did not run in the election and a Liberal took over her riding with a large lead. She impressed me a lot as an ex police sergeant and good minister of several portfolios.
Michael Chong might appeal to voters.
In 1987 when I asked Preston to explain how he expected a bunch, “(50) MP’s elected in the west,” to go to Ottawa and possibly “hold the balance of power in a divided parliament” to push the “Western Agenda for Change” agreed upon at the Reform Conventions.
Knowing all the while that if that was the case there would be NO one from the PC’s NDP or Lieberals that would ever form a coalition with this western party to advance our stated goals which included “Equalization and Senate reform. Both issues would see a weakening of eastern domination in this CON-federation if the west got its way.
He was stumped!
His feeble attempt to answer me was that we wanted to go to parliament and tell them “give us what we want…or we will be replaced”.
In other words a western separatist movement may emerge if you eastern elitists don’t listen.
Preston successfully deflected western discontent down the same path previous western political movements had gone. Namely the Progressives, CCF and Socreds…for those of you who don’t know the history.
Free the West.
to relieve the doom and gloom
A teacher asked her 6th grade class how many of them were Justin Trudeau fans. Not really knowing what a Trudeau fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for Little Johnny. The teacher asked Little Johnny why he has decided to be different… again.
Little Johnny said, “Because I’m not a Trudeau fan.”
The teacher asked, “Why aren’t you a fan of Trudeau?”
Johnny said, “Because I’m a Conservative.”
The teacher asked him why he’s a Conservative.
Little Johnny answered, “Well, my Mom’s a Conservative and my Dad’s a Conservative, so I’m a Conservative.”
Annoyed by this answer, the teacher asked, “If your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot, what would that make you?”
With a big smile, Little Johnny replied, “That would make me a Trudeau fan.”
Ted Cruz for CPC leader.
I would think that being gay would be a plus for any leadership candidate these days. The MSM loves nothing more than a good LGBTQ story.
Almost every newscast has to include at least one story: bakeries that won’t serve gay weddings, transgendered children not getting their own school bathroom and then there’s always the “heroic” Caitlin whatshisname.
Not participating in gay pride parades is the kiss of death for any politicians.
The last thing the CPC needs is to listen to any Liberals, or especially their agents, the MSM party, define “what the CPC needs to do to change”.
The base is solid, and relatively unchanged. This vote was affected by turncoat NDPers, the legal dope brigade (who will not vote again if they get their way), and the bribe to professional students, paying them off for being eternal students and unproductive to this capitalist(?) country.
The need for change is subtle, and minor, more like tweaking. The Spawn is ripe for the picking next time, there’s a lot of failed promises to keep track of, and exploit, whether they be unfulfilled, reneged, or, worst of all for them, the 180t turn that FIberals are most famous for.
And, by the way, I don’t care if Kenney, Baird, or 50% of the former caucus was gay. So much the better, gay and conservative, its a direct counter to the extremist hyperbole of the FIberal agitator agenda, and further eliminates a bogeyman that the HDS crowd tries to give life to.
See what I mean? Here’s another “well, this won’t be as easy as we promised” excuse.
“LEGALIZING MARIJUANA WON’T BE EASY”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/trudeau-marijuana-colorado-1.3287747
(From Bourque, another Liberal fartcatcher)
This is how it will go down with the Fiberals, the gentle let down.
Didn’t do their research or diligence. Figures, but it sold to the Low Information set and thats all that counts. It only took a week.
Maybe Trudeau will implement a “Pot for guns” exchange.
Alberta used to be the best province for conservatives: no debt and no sales tax. Stupid was for Morontario. Then Alberta dumped the PC party for not the Wildrose party but the NDP. Now Alberta has the biggest deficit in its history.
No more talk of Morontario.
Steve, you have apparently forgotten Jim Prentice. He quit his post as Cab Min partway through, said he had done his bit for public service and was done with it.
Until of course the opportunity came up for to complete the progressive takeover of Alberta PCS (yes I know it was almost complete anyway)
Media simply presents a new narrative for him, dumps his history down the memory hole, and bingo we have a love in for the new savior.
McKay, Moore, and any other second rate progressive will get the red carpet treatment.
About the next Conservative leader……….. I agree that policy matters. Why elect a social democrat or a liberal to lead the Conservative party? It makes no sense. On the other hand, electing someone who is branded as “extremist” or (worse still in the eyes of the Media Party) a true “social conservative” (horrors!!!), if that is all they have to offer is similarly nonsensical.
If the Conservative party were run like a business, it would look to gain enough market share to win the next election by appealing to a “conservative enough” coalition of voters. If that means remaining committed to the OAP and CPP to get a plurality of the seniors’ vote — OK. If that means having a commitment to “law and order” and some social issues so as to appeal to the more conservative immigrant communities — OK. If it means having a commitment to low taxes and fiscal responsibility to get the small business vote — OK.
But……….. (and here is the tough part), the message is not the whole deal. In the television and internet age, one has to have a “presence” and a “charisma” that attract attention (in a good way). Reagan had it. Mulroney and Diefenbaker did too (for a time). So the sexy, “being presentable” and “wow” factor are important as well (maybe more so if winning is given a high priority).
I think Maxime Bernier has the intelligence, libertarian instincts and looks to fit all of those. I’m not sure his English has improved so as to come across as “fluent” in the majority language. Bernard Lord has some of those, but I’d need to know more about whether he was a true economic conservative and he comes across as maybe a bit more soft-spoken than gets my attention.
Maybe one of the woman cabinet ministers (Rona Ambrose, Dr. Leitch, etc.) would work. But you’re right that we don’t know much about their “innermost thoughts” on policy. So now it’s time for them to take a stand.
So issues, principle, and a bit of “wow” factor. Not impossible to achieve. But often hard for those who’ve served in subordinate positions to rise to the occasion……
oa515
“My vote is for Peter MacKay. He’s seen as a “progressive conservative” by the normals out there”.
Check out JustRight http://jr2020.blogspot.ca/2015/10/another-strike-against-peter-mackay.html
This appointment to CHRC is reason enough to disqualify him; did he vet this woman at all? I’m reminded that it was Brian Mulroney who appointed Beverley McLachlin. Surely a conservative governments can find some like minded women to appoint. While McLachlin is for life, even M-C Landry is there for 8 long years. To paraphrase Wm F Buckley, opening a telephone book and picking a random name would have resulted in a better candidate.
‘Harper’s greatest achievement wasn’t anything he did; it’s all the terrible ideas that he did not do, that Paul Martin, Stéphane Dion or Michael Ignatieff would have done’
Ezra’s comment is so true but underlines a key problem for those of us who don’t necessarily want anything from government except proper attention to balancing the sums. How do you convince the general population over and over again that less is more? It becomes even harder with a puerile media convinced that active busy in your face government is effective government.