You know, I really want to believe this thing will grow uglier and get out of control. Massive, systematic and coordinated misinformation, all with the express purpose of disenfranchising voters?
If this doesn't throw the results of last May's federal election into doubt, then God knows what will. Alison's been keeping track of the numbers. A majority without legitimacy? It's a sweet thought. Boris, Simon and the Dawg have been all over it too.
But in the absence of a coordinated strategy that involves both the parliamentary opposition parties, for whatever they're worth (cough), and a sustained and effective campaign of resistance grounded in civil society and the public sphere itself, one fears that this bunch of thugs will just be able to brazen it out. Not like they haven't done it before. A little misdirection, a little manufactured narrative, a couple of Shiny ObjectsTM, and before you know it they're back to their sleazy, arrogant, authoritarian selves. Hey, who wants a nice helicopter ride? Anyone?
I really hope I'm wrong about this.
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Don't get demoralized or they win. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteOne province that will never give up, is BC. For over ten years, we have never forgotten Gordon Campbell's theft and corrupt sale of our BC Railway. Never, ever will we give up.
ReplyDeleteWe BC people will never forget Harper's part in the forced HST onto the people, brought by him and his favorite henchman Campbell.
The BC citizens will never permit the Enbridge pipeline, not the filthy oil tankers from China. Over 80% of the BC citizens, are fully standing with the F.N....To fight those atrocities.
We will never forget Harper's treachery of his election fraud. People from BC have been posting the election robocrimecalls, for months. Harper also campaigned over a Calgary radio station, on election day. Strictly forbidden. Harper also had a many times convicted American felon working for him. Robocrimecon calls, came out of North Dakota. Hmmmm. BC citizens, forget nothing.
You are wrong. The Liberals, at least, now have a very experienced leader who won't get tripped up by language difficulties, a hearing difficulty, or lack of political experience. I think Rae will be relentless in this as long as there appears to be evidence of wrongdoing.
ReplyDeletePlus, the most effective CPC strategy in the past was the "put your money where your mouth is". They're doing it again, demanding to see the evidence, mainly to give the Target Seat Management Unit time to muddy whatever evidence there may be (a robo call campaign to Elections Canada's complaint line is a likely possibility).
But in the past minority situation, "put your money where your mouth is" meant forcing an election, implying if you don't you were bluffing. The Liberals would either back down, or when they didn't, Harper would prorogue claiming he was saving the country by doing so.
Now the shoe's on the other foot. If Harper knows he is truly in the right, he'd call a public inquiry, or an election. Now he is the one who looks like he's "got nuthin" if he doesn't. Problem is, if he actually did call an election, he's also admitting guilt and it's game over.
If I were them, I'd claim Rae is trying to make their position so difficult they'll have to call an election, and of course there'd be no time for the interim Liberal leader to be replaced, therefore this is all a plot by foreign interests(tm) to put Rae leading a coalition(tm) into 24 Sussex.
Of course it wouldn't work, but desperation leads to stupid moves. It's already happening with Del Maestro.
An underlying cause of lack of public involvement is lack of literacy. This is the elephant in the room - between 40 and 50% of the population can't read well enough to function as an adult (according to multiple surveys, including international ones). I had a job that required me to have English-speaking adults read out loud a sentence, and found 58 out of 60 read "conscientiously" as "consciously". Most were house owners too; they weren't poor. Most Canadians lack reading stamina; they would find your blogs long and hard to read. With the lack of reading comes a lack of exposure to new ideas and an intolerance of anything more complicated than the lost puppy stories the media is so fond of. All this suits the government and economic bosses just fine.
ReplyDeleteThe second type of literacy is computer literacy. Older people have been left out entirely. 21% of American women 65 and over use the internet and 33% of men. It is probably the same in Canada. This is quite a large segment of the population who will never encounter your blog and they are often people with some free time and money. Younger people are more computer literate but lack reading stamina and mental sophistication and spend most of their online time in social networks.
Of course, literacy doesn't guarantee political involvement but it does act as a catalyst for all kinds of mental activity. It makes people more mentally vigorous, aware and questioning.
I suspect Canada is very close to being at war again, maybe even by May. In which case, Canadians will be persuaded that Big Daddy Leader is essential, no matter how he got there. As we know, dictators love wars; it is so distracting from everything else. I hope I am wrong about the war but the signs are there. There has been a huge naval buildup in the Straits of Hormuz since January.
ReplyDelete