You must register with the Western Standard to read some of Mark Steyn’s columns. It is worth it.
Here he comments on the seeming inability of voters in Ontario to think.
…CTV and The Globe And Mail commissioned a poll showing that 63 per cent of Canadians do not believe Paul Martin is telling the truth when he denies any involvement in Adscam. Let’s be clear on that: they’re not saying just that they don’t believe his initial position–that he didn’t even know about any of this stuff; they’re saying they think he was actively involved in it. When polls showed that 58 per cent of Britons thought their prime minister was a liar, Fleet Street produced stories with headlines like “The Big Lie” and “The King of Duplicity” and “Blair in Thick of New Battle on Iraq ‘Lies.'” All for a mere 58 per cent? Sixty-three per cent of us think our prime minister’s a liar, which may be a G7 record, and a strong Commonwealth second-place finish after Robert Mugabe. And how does CTV headline its story on this stunning poll finding? “Cdns. Suspicious of a Tory Hidden Agenda: Poll.”
Given the thin gruel of their non-hidden agenda, one can only hope the Tories have some sinister for-your-eyes-only master plan written in invisible ink and secreted in the leather thong Joe Clark will be wearing for his tolerant, inclusive appearance in this year’s Calgary Gay Pride parade. But, whether or not they do, CTV’s headline gives a pretty good idea of how the campaign will go: the Liberal agenda is staring at us in plain sight, but the proverbial hidden agenda of the Conservatives is still the real issue. The Tories may have top-secret plans to cut public spending: dozens of Quebec advertising agencies may be forced to look for work in what passes for the province’s private sector and the monthly staff outings to Liberal fundraisers paid for by taxpayers may be cut back to once or twice a year. And from there it’s a mere hop and a skip to cutting back on late-term abortion which means that many high-flying female Quebec marketing consultants will have to take time off for maternity leave instead of taking time off because they pulled a muscle waddling out of the restaurant with $150,000 in small bills stuffed in their pantyhose. The Tories are a threat to “da Canadian values”–and, in the sense that da Canadian values are those of the G7’s first Third World kleptocracy, one hopes they’re right.
The opiate of the Canadian masses is apparently delivered via the milk of the government teat.
This easily translates into the Grits perpetual, droning anti-Americanism – which is elevated to a full-fledged advertising campaign during elections.
The Grits always hit the Tories with the charge that they’ll make Canada more like the United States. They use the same topics as do Democrats in the United States. Why rewrite the statist playbook?
Health care, social security, guns, American cultural imperialism, racism, any abortion debate whatsoever, and just generally not being as nice as Canadians present the full range of Grit insight into Americans vis-a-vis the critical danger to “da Canadian values” represented by a Tory victory.
Grit campaign attack ads mentioning the Tories have themes like these:
“With Tories in power, you’ll have to pay for some of your own health care instead of us deciding whether you really need that bypass operation.”
“They’ll make the old people eat American dog-food.”
“Some misguided politicians are for a strong military, but guns are dangerous even in the hands of the military. We’re fixing that.”
“With Hockey Night in Canada off the air, who would watch CBC once they saw the Home Gardening Channel?”
“The Tories will stop immigration of Paki cab drivers and cause an urban transportation crisis.”
“What if an American got your daughter pregnant and she couldn’t abort it after the second trimester?”
“Sure, our clerks are surly, but who wants to constantly hear “Have a nice day!” Eh?”
Swap a few proper nouns and localize a couple of adverbs and you can take this stuff right off MoveOn.org. Sadly, it is effective.
I am sorry to say this, but the effects of the constant background noise of anti-Americanism, combined with the twisted refinement only a close neighbor could bring to anti-American political innuendo, bodes not well for the longest undefended border.
If these guys are willing to take bribes up to the level of the Prime Minister’s office, and ignore the rules of their own governmental system to cling to power, then we have a problem. Can we trust them to be tough on Al-Qaeda?
Al-Qaeda’s money is a whole new level for these guys.
Even worse, if Canadian voters are so comfortable with blatant corruption and anti-democratic pariliamentary maneuvering that they re-elect the Liberal Party and Paul Martin, we really have to ask what – “What would the whole country cost?”. We should certainly buy it before Al-Qaeda merely buys the Prime Minister.
If the voters of Canada re-elect Liberals* in the next election, then we have an emergency. Who could possibly believe any assurance regarding security from an anti-American government so cheaply bought?
*I can’t imagine honest, 5% politically aware voters even giving them a significant minority.
Update 26-May 9:04PM
From:The Vancouver Sun, May 26.
Thanks to Andrew Coyne.
Schafer said Murphy was speaking in “thinly disguised code,” but the “hints were broad and unmistakable. I think to a large extent what is considered proper behaviour, and what is considered over the line and corrupt in Canada, will hinge on how Canadian public opinion reacts to the Grewal tapes and the revelations.
“If people aren’t outraged … then I think we can expect in the future that ambassadorships and other government appointments may be used as if they were the private resources of politicians acting in their own self-interest or the interest of their party.”