Folks hold on to your seats and be prepared to be bombarded with every kind of propaganda imaginable. The Conservative war chests are overflowing. Panicked parties who suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of history seldom go gently or quietly.
The Globe and Mail has intercepted next week’s Conservative talking points distributed by Harper’s Chief of Staff Guy Giorno (ex-Chief of Staff to Mike Harris).
The intercepted script they are giving to MPs who will be making the rounds of radio and television talk shows over the next week is so detailed that they certainly don’t seem hopeful MPs have the skills to legitimize Harper’s actions on their own. The talking points are also strangely absent of any real justification for the Conservative economic plan, which flies in the face of sound fiscal policy in a recession.
What makes the Conservatives seem even more desperate, is that many of their talking points contradict numerous statements previously made by the Prime Minister:
On September 9th, 2004 Harper, Layton and Duceppe signed the following letter to the Governor General:
“As leaders of the opposition parties, we are well aware that, given the Liberal minority government, you could be asked by the Prime Minister to dissolve the 38th Parliament at any time should the House of Commons fail to support some part of the government’s program. We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority. Your attention to this matter is appreciated.”
This Guy Giorno Guy really isn’t doing a good job is he? Mixed messaging, leaked talking points to the media, well at least Harper has never given an interview to CBC where he goes into further detail about the right of the opposition to form a government without forcing an election right?……
Here’s some highlights from then Leader of the Opposition Stephen Harper’s interview with Evan Solomon on CBC:
“The government can only be brought down because it alienates several parties in the House. And the first obligation in this Parliament, if the government wants to govern, it has to come to Parliament and it has to show that it can get the support of the majority of members, through the Throne Speech, through legislation, and through budget and supply”
“We’ll support the government on issues if it’s essential to the country but our primary responsibility is not to prop up the government, our responsibility is to provide an opposition and an alternative government for Parliament and for Canadians. What the government has to do, if it wants to govern for any length of time, is it must appeal primarily to the third parties in the House of Commons to get them to support it.”
“I’ve consulted pretty regularly with Mr. Duceppe and Mr. Layton to get a sense of what they’re looking for - it’s up to the government to do the same thing. If you want to be a government in a minority Parliament, you have to work with other people.”
“I think the real problem that we’re facing already is that the government doesn’t accept that it got a minority. The Liberals think the natural state of affairs is a Liberal majority - they’re not happy about this, they don’t accept it and quite frankly, they’re going to look for any opportunity to call an election. I can tell you that our party and I’m sure Mr. Duceppe and Mr. Layton from our conversations want Parliament to work - it’s in the interests of the Opposition for this Parliament to go on for a while and be effective. It is only the government that wants to end this state of affairs and go to have another election.“
There’s actually more, but that’s enough to give anyone a sense of the hypocricy the Conservatives will have to engage in to destabilize a government that has the support of the vast majority of Canadians. The NDP and Liberals alone recieved almost 1 million more votes than the Harper Conservatives.
There’s got to be enough Hockey Moms and Dads out there across Canada to explain to Stephen that you can’t have different sets of rules for winning and when you’re losing.
