Canadian Election: How to Chip Away at the Sweater Vest
Steve thought he’d pull a fast one on the Canadian public and launched his illegal election campaign with the sweater-vest fire-side chats.
Unfortunately, Canadians seem to be falling for it. That, or the polls are full of ‘unusual anomolies’. Something smells.
Anyways, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I have some suggestions for the other leaders that they should at least consider if they’re going to have half a chance of beating Steve at his own game. Here they are, in no particular order (readers are asked to submit their suggestions here as well or submit them as comments with the number of anti-Steve pages that exist on Facebook):
- Collectively, we need to make him snap. I remember seeing him bark at a reporter once ("Do you have a question, Barbara?") when electioneering on the 2006 campaign. (If someone’s got a link to a video, please post it in the comments).
- To make him snap, you’ll have to poke and poke often. Dion tried referring to ‘ABC’. Jack talked about Steve quitting. Keep it up. It will work.
- When talking with, about or to Stephen Harper, always refer to him as ‘Steve’.
- NEVER apologize for calling him Steve.
- Maybe every once in a while, find a creative way to suggest that there’s something not quite right (while we know there’s something too right) about Steve.
- Voting for Steve is voting for Steve. Have you heard anything from any other Conservatives? No. This is Steve against Canada.
- Refer to all of the people that can’t work with him. Refer to all of the people that have quit under his ‘command’.
- Talk about Daffy Duck or Elmer Fudd (what with his hunting jacket and all) and Steve in the same sentence.
- Constantly drop soundbites that speak to the notion that he’s a little more tolerable than that dude that Martin Sheen played in ‘The Dead Zone’. ‘Hallelujah!!’
- Without getting into religion, get into religion.
- Without getting into race, get into race. This is a great example of what happens when race, guns and violence become a topic of discussion.
- Without getting into homosexuality, get into homosexuality.
- Force him to talk about Obama and what he would do if Obama were the President of the US.
- Throw things at him that will be sure to dig a little at the superficiliaty that they’re showing us and watch him snap.
Anyways, I know I’m talking a lot of BS now as well. It seems like everywhere you read, Dion and Layton are incapable of pushing the wrong buttons.
15. Remind Canadians that more people died from tainted meat in a 6 week period than from youth violence. Demand that food security become a priority from the candidates and that that does NOT mean deregulation or privatization of inspection services.
16. Remind Canadians that Harper borrowed his proposed Copyright from the US and that it would make it illegal to even download your OWN collection of CDs and would empower border guards to open up your laptops and summarily convict you for copyright infringement with huge fines. And there’s a whole lot of other ugly stuff so direct Canadians to Michael Geist’s informative blog.
17. Remind Canadians that Harper has done absolutely nothing to improve our public health care system. In fact he killed some very effective on-line information initiatives run by the Public Health Agency. He also muzzled the role of the agency by removing a public servant as the head and putting Health Canada minister Tony Clement in charge. (Oh and while we’re at it, remind Canadians where Clement was during the Listeriosis crisis and his flippant quip about the appetizers.)
18. Remind Canadians that Harper’s goal to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board is about diverting $$$$$$ to the top 5 agri-food corporate monsters (who already control 80% of food distribution throughout the world. Remind them of how Harper uses undemocratic means for advancing his goals by firing elected Board members and problematic public servants in his quest. Remind them how he then stacks these positions with like-minded idealogues. And don’t forget how he over-turned a third party advertising rule so that those handful corporations can use their huge $$$$ to sway farmers votes in their favour.
19. Remind Canadians that the above tactics were used with a number of federal advisory boards and agencies, including Atomic Energy Canada, immigration board, reproductive technology board, etc. Connect these actions to Harper’s desire to dismantle public services or control them with an iron fist to pass his anti-immigration, anti-science and anti-choice agenda.
20. Remind Canadians that loudmouth Christian extremist Chuck McVety is Harper’s personal spiritual adviser. Remind them that the PM’s personal spiritual adviser is an ad-hoc policy adviser for Stockwell Day and Rob Nicholson. Also ask why the censorship clause (buried in an omnibus tax bill and included without stakeholder consultations — a hallmark of Harper’s style of governing) that would prohibit “offensive” productions from accessing film and television tax credits includes a provision for the Department of Justice to have final say in what is deemed offensive. Yup, that’s Nicholson’s department. Also remind Canadians that Nicholson, as advised by McVety, does not intend to introduce legislation counter to Bill C-484. That’s a ruse to try to attract women voters. That’s why the timing of abandoning Epp’s bill was so close on the heels of a call for an election. Remind Canadians, especially women, that only FOUR conservative MPs voted against Bill C-484 at second reading. These extremists do NOT change stripes.
t-shirt/sign/poster idea
Steve Harper
Hates Canada
Do You?