Don Martin: Let's blame Harper for everything

If that doesn't sum up 99.9% of his columns in the National Post, then I don't know what does.

His latest article in which he talks about the Calgary West riding so-called "fiasco" he places the blame on  Stephen Harper:

But Mr. Harper would undoubtedly have to sign off on this unprecedented act of national retaliation against locals whose only interest was to land the best possible candidate for their riding.

I find it both amusing and sickening at the same time that our buddy Don seems to think that Harper has control over everything. In that statement he checks his facts at the door. Even CBC managed to get their facts staright regarding this matter:

But when they failed to get the necessary backing of two-thirds of constituency members needed to hold a nomination race, Anders was declared the official Tory candidate.

The federal Conservative Party instituted the two-thirds requirement last year for constituencies that want to oust an incumbent. No riding was able to reach that threshold, so all sitting Conservative MPs, including Anders, were declared candidates for the next election.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, no conservative riding association was able to garner the 2/3 votes needed to oust their incumbent.  And if Martin wants to point the finger at Harper for anything to do with this democratic process that the party brought about, he's pointing in the wrong direction (yet again!).  The decision to allow for a vote in each riding to determine whether the incumbent would run again or a new candidate would be chosen is a decision made by who? National Council.  National Council had nothing to do with cherry picking who they like and dislike.  Every riding was given the same opportunity.  What happened in the riding of Calgary West was democratic and had NOTHING to do with Stephen Harper.

Are there folks in the riding who wanted Anders out on his ass? You bet.  But they did not make up 2/3 of the vote. 

But this heavy-handed move denies a local riding the right to even ask the question about contesting an incumbent of questionable quality. And that burns to the populist roots of a party whose first MP in that particular riding was named Stephen Harper.

Total garbage Don... get your facts straight.

Truth be told I think Martin watched too many episodes of Inspector Gadget in his life.  Why do I say that?  Well, it appears that he likens Stephen Harper's so-called iron fist of control to that of the evil Dr. Claw.  Remember him?  All you could ever see is his right arm as he sits in his big chair watching what was happening on all of his tv screens in front of him.  There was always some kind of big button or two that he would push to unleash his evil on people.  His MAD agents were mindless twits running about, doing his dirty work like Don seems to think Harper's Cabinet Ministers and staff do.  Don sees himself as Inspector Gadget, always able to put a stop to the workings of Dr. Claw by unwittingly throwing whatever go-go-gadget he can whip out of his trench coat, hoping that something will work.  That may work in the cartoon Don, but in real life it's much different. 

Don, next time you want to stop Dr. Claw, er, Harper, try whipping out your go-go gadget fact checker first.

The Clash of Conservative and Coolness

Rex Murphy in an article titled, Jekyll and Hyde in the National Post has me wondering, is it really Stephen Harper or does it have more to do with being a Conservative?  Tasha Kheiriddin and Adam Daifallah in their book, Rescuing the Right, dares us to name one cool Conservative.  I have to admit, my mind went blank.  Actually, images of Belinda Stronach briefly crossed my mind before I remembered she had crossed the floor.  That was the closest flirtation with any real degree of coolness I suspect this party has ever seen.

I have to be clear what I'm talking about, because I suspect some folks out there might take this the wrong way.  Do I want Stephen Harper to try and be cool, no I don't.  I happen to like the man just the way he is, warts and all.  I like his tough side, because I know he'll stand up for Canada and he gets things done. That's more than I can say for any Liberal Prime Minister in the last decade or so.  What I'm referring to is what Rex talks about in his article, the public's perception/relationship with our Conservative Prime Minister.

It may be the year 2010 but it seems to me that much of the public has yet to be convinced that Conservatives do not have a hidden agenda, that we don't eat babies (yes, I'm being extreme) and that underneath it all we're just American Republican wannabe's.  Is it really as difficult as it appears to marry conservative ideology and populism?  Or is any future Conservative leader doomed to the same scrutiny that Stephen Harper endures because he happens to be Conservative?

Why do Liberals get all the cool PM's?  Why do university students want to sit down and have a beer with Jack Layton?  Is it party platform or is it charsima?  I thought Brian Mulroney was charismatic but instead he gets labelled as a car salesman that wears expensive suits and too much cologne.  John A Macdonald was cool, he was popular and he was charismatic in his own way.  What happened to all the other Conservative leaders after him?  Did being conservative and being cool die with John A Macdonald?  Will I ever live to see the day when women, students and the media come to idolize a Conservative Prime Minister?

Being a student at Carleton University I can say with no reservation that letting everyone know that you are Conservative is equal to announcing that you have leprosy.  Given the chance they would probably throw rocks at me.  Diefenbaker joked that when he was young, "The only protection a conservative enjoyed in the province of Saskatchewan was under the provisions of the game laws" (April 29th, 1966).  I can't say that much has changed, except that statement would apply more today to Quebec and Ontario.

The next time anyone in the media publishes an article about Stephen Harper sabatoging his image or the popularity of the party, I will have to wonder if being cool with the Canadian public is ever really possible so long as we remain Conservative.

*Picture taken from here