Down south of the border, Americans were treated to a variety of good (and some not so good) commercials during last night's Super Bowl. Here in Canada? We got a bunch of propagandist claptrap from the Conservative Party and/or the Government of Canada touting the accomplishments (sic) of head honcho Stevie Harper and the downfalls of liberal head Mike Ignatieff.
Overlooking the fact that most of the anti-Ignatieff commercials were years old, and the outright brazenness of attaching Harper to ANY good news in Canada over the last four years, the mere existence of this crap on the air portends a coming election. SURE we have election laws in this country preventing such advertising outside of the election process window. But that doesn't apply if we aren't actually IN an election at this precise point in time. The same behaviour evidenced itself just before Harper called a surprise election last time ... you know, the one he passed a law against. Schmuck.
So, we have an election this year. Don't know when ... Harper knows. There's no reason for the wasteful expense of an election, unless you are a power-mad dictator wannabe who senses the coffers of the Liberal and NDP parties approximates that of the Green Party. Why NOT try to grab the brass ring of majority power and then do everything short of ... well ... I was about to say illegal means, but I'm not sure Harper understands a boundary exists there ... to blot the Liberals and NDP parties out of existence. There are many ways to dream one's self to sleep at night. Harper's is to think happy thoughts about a one-party country. Schmuck.
I would have thought the CRTC decision to add millions, if not BILLIONS, to the bottom lines of Bell and Rogers (and to a lesser extent, Shaw and Cogeco) at the expense of the vote-casters, might have been Harper's Waterloo. The other parties, including the Parti Quebecois, seemed poised to get together and drive a stake through Harper's government if that decision wasn't over-turned by the minority of government officials who have sold their sold to Harper's Conservative junta. But the finger-to-the-wind test proved decisive and it was all but announced that the CRTC's bought and paid for decision is going to be unbought. Although the reversal is far from a fact, the sixty-day grace period being extended by the CRTC is really a timeout to come up with a reason to reverse the decision, as foolish a decision as has been made in politics in recent memory. You can skim SOME money from all the people with only isolated roars of outrage. Try stealing it all and some people are going to get ornery enough to rally the rest.
Politics is always a test of how much lying we'll take from who. You lie to get elected and then you lie to the people that you are doing things in their best interests. Doesn't matter who's in. Some are just bolder in their screwing of the people.
As always, I pine for minority government because it does give some control over the worst wretched excesses of majority government. Had the Harperites actually been in total control this past week, the CRTC would have been rammed down our throats, Bell's profits uber alles. This is why, come whenever Harper decides he has the greatest political advantage and calls the snap election, we must band together and vote in another minority government. Technically, I'd like the Liberals to be the head of the government because this is a liberal nation, a country where we want to help everybody and exclude none. Problem is, the Libs are just as power-crazy in some ways as the Cons and absolute power corrupts.
The election is coming. The election ads without an election say so.
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