Crooked in Canada

As if the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth doesn’t have enough attractions.

Back in the day when I lived in Calgary I went to the Calgary Stampede maybe twice, three times max in the almost 10 years that I was there. It was then, and probably still is now, quite the exhibition with plenty to do and see.

Apparently though the PM of Canada and the Liberal opposition leader don’t think so.

Nothing like a little mudslinging deep into what CTV news staff is calling hostile territory.

Apparently, and I’m going by what I what I read on the CTV website, both PM Harper and the pseudo-Canadian Liberal leader Ignatieff traded barbs during the weekend.

Ignatieff stood up in front of 700 Liberal supporters at a Stampede Breakfast (yummy), and while they were chowing down on sausages and flapjacks, he railed against the PM. Something about Conservative attack ads and his party being the alternative for people fed up with Conservative rule.

Maybe it’s just me, but the polls aren’t showing that Canadians are fed up with the Harper minority government just yet, and while I could be wrong I think Canadians aren’t quite ready to jump on the Liberal Party of Canada bandwagon so soon.

The way I see it, Canadians are willing to give the Conservatives a little more time to prove themselves. I mean come on now, they gave the Liberal Party almost 13 years to prove themselves, and when the shit hit the fan over Adscam, Canadians promptly kicked the Liberals to the kerb.

Granted, it did take Canadians 13 years to wake up and smell the coffee (or is it the wild Alberta roses) before kicking them out of office.

Anyway, not to be outdone, the PM had a go at the Liberals in front of some 800 of his own supporters on the same day. He reminded them of the threat the Liberals made to form a coalition with a separatist party and the NDP, the latter party being about as useless as teats on a boar hog.  That coalition government thing the Liberals threw out there, that is a really, really big downside to any party leading the country.

Being a Canadian myself, and my political preferences aside, I would be a little concerned about any future government willing to align themselves with a separatist party to topple what is for now a party that wants a united Canada. And then of course there’s that little matter of Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc Party having what would amount to the final say when it comes to all things right and best for Canada.  Ignatieff was willing, and likely still, wants to jump into bed with the Bloc if only because he wants to be Prime Minister of Canada.

Michael Ignatieff isn’t going to do what is best for Canadians. He is going to do what is best for him and the Liberals, who need I remind you, are still trying to re-establish the credibility and integrity they lost under the leadership of former Prime Ministers Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien.

At the end of the day, and say this without wearing my political colours on my sleeve, the lesser of two evils for Canadians is the Conservative Party of Canada. At least for the time being anyway.

From where I am sitting, and that’s quite a long way from Canada at the moment, Canadians seem to be doing alright on the Harper’s leadership, but that doesn’t mean it won’t all fall apart in a heartbeat. For the time being, and well into next year, my advice to Canadians of all political stripes is to be patient, sit back and enjoy. Nothing like watching the Liberal Party (or maybe it’s just Ignatieff) self-destruct.

Unless the Liberals can come up with a better plan then the one the Conservatives have and are implementing at the moment despite Ignatieff’s threats to bring down the government, I don’t think the Liberals should be putting all their eggs in one basket, which by the way they will be doing if they eventually find themselves in a position to follow through with their threat to force Canadians to the polls.

Common sense (and one doesn’t take a lot here) says that the Liberals aren’t looking much like an alternative to the Conservatives at the moment, and as far as I’m concerned the Liberal leader is looking through rose-coloured glasses if he truly believes his party running the country is what Canadians want.  In my opinion, the Liberals forcing an election, is political suicide.

They lose an election they force, and the Conservatives form a majority government at the same time, then it is the end of Ignatieff, and the Liberal Party will have dug themselves a bigger hole than the one they are already to climb out of.

He’s fantasizing about becoming Canada’s next Prime Minister, something that while he was living in the U.S. for all those years, he couldn’t have cared less about.

He might be coming across as patriotic Canadian, but at the end of the day his pseudo-patriotism (that’s what I think it is anyway) isn’t what Canada wants or needs, is it?

Harper, Ignatieff trade barbs at the Calgary Stampede