Conservatives must fight off Liberal mud-slinging if they’re to have a prayer of winning next election
I’m not quite sure what kind of a strategy Conservative leader Stephen Harper has for battling Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberals in the next federal election, but it had better be an aggressive one.
Even a brutal one.
Get Martin on the run, trip him up, and then put the boot in when he’s on the ground.
Not nice words?
Well, the Grits won’t hesitate to throw as much dirt at Harper and his candidates as they can find—or at least concoct.
Compared to the squalidness of Martin and his cabal, the Conservatives are squeaky clean—so Harper’s forces are going to have to fight back with all they have.
None of the gentlemanly route my longtime friend Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield was encouraged to take in the 1968, 1972 and 1974 federal elections. Elections Stanfield lost every time against the crafty and cunning Pierre Trudeau.
No, no—Harper shouldn’t get down into the gutter. That is already Grit occupied territory.
No space left there whatsoever.
But Harper has to take the political ball, run with it, never look behind, and kick it through the goalpost to victory.
He must mercilessly tear Martin and his coterie apart at every touch and turn.
Wage trench warfare.
Martin will have absolutely no qualms himself about playing a dirty game.
He is not a man of great political ethical stature.
The prime minister has demonstrated that on several occasions.
As finance minister, he spent years trying to undermine his boss, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, until, tired of being knifed in the back, Chretien kicked him out of his cabinet.
Not that Chretien had any higher political ethical values than Martin.
Both Chretien and Martin—who feign their devotion to the cause of national unity—didn’t hesitate to make Alberta the scapegoat in the 2000 and 2004 federal elections.
They twisted Premier Ralph Klein’s policies—and they twisted what Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day and Harper stood for. Twisting the values of these three politicians and preparing to sacrifice Alberta, showed their true colours.
Martin will do it again.
He’ll try to hide from the question that as a cost-slashing finance minister, he is chiefly responsible for the plight of our health services today.
Harper can surely run him into the ground on that one.
He’ll try to evade his responsibility for the boondoggle of the $2 billion gun registry, blaming lax American border controls for the war zone society Toronto has become, even while we know it is our border posts that are atrociously understaffed.
Harper can surely run him into the ground on that one.
He’ll try to avoid the issue of our relations with the U.S., which he swore he’d rebuilt after the disastrous Chretien era.
They are now worse than ever.
Harper can surely run him into the ground on that one.
He’ll try to divert attention from Mr. Justice John Gomery’s inquiry into Adscam—even though as finance minister he signed the cheques for this $250 million rip-off of the taxpayers money.
Harper can surely run him into the ground on that one.
He’ll try to make us forget his commitment to fixing the “democratic deficit” was all flimflam—Senate appointments and Supreme Court appointments still all come out of the PMO, with no genuine input from all-party committees.
Harper can surely run him into the ground on that one.
He promised to give tax breaks to business and industry—to spur investment, boost productivity and create jobs—but capitulated to New Democrat leader Jack Layton’s blackmail.
Harper can surely run him into the ground on that one.
He swore he would consider his tenure a failure unless he solved the problem of western alienation, and yet bitterness in the West towards Ottawa is deeper than ever.
Harper can surely run him into the ground on that one.
Come to think of it—when has the dithering, blundering, self-serving Martin ever fulfilled a legitimate promise or commitment he made to the Canadian people?
Ooops!—it’s the bottom of the page or else I could conjure up more of Martin’s sins of both commission and omission.
Surely Harper can do the same.
- Suzuki playing gutter politics - Sunday March 4, 2007 at 10:41 am
- Grit record terror-ible - Tuesday February 27, 2007 at 9:51 am
- Britain’s Blair takes tumble - Sunday February 18, 2007 at 10:53 am
