Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
WEEKLY COMMENTARY
"Just Between Us"
December 19, 2005
A new Liberal 'national unity' attack on Alberta is now inevitable
For those of us who aren't completely on side with "Canadian values" ala Paul Martin and the Liberal party, last week's Sun Media election poll by Leger Marketing was encouraging.
In just the last few days, the Liberal lead in "vote-rich Ontario" (my how tired I am of that cliché) has been cut from 19% to 11%.
Nation-wide, the Conservatives were still behind 29% to 35%, but within striking distance for the January 23 vote.
Of course we all know that what the Liberals lack in ethics they make up for in cynicism -- and I expect they have contingency plans in (how's this?) "heavily-populated" Ontario.
Brace for an all-out Blitzkrieg of anti-Harper, anti-Conservative, anti-American, fear-and-loathing ads by the Grits after New Year.
Selling hate is like peddling porn and narcotics; you have to up the dose, or it loses effect.
The Liberals are masters of main-lining prejudice into national politics, as we have seen in Martin's mindless Yankee-bashing. It's terrible for the national interest, but goods for the Liberal campaign.
Now the Liberals have got hold of a 1997 speech Harper delivered to the right-wing U.S. Council for National Policy, describing Canada as a haven for EI loafers, radical gay rights and failed bilingualism.
These criticisms are all true, but so what? It's a Grit gold mine.
There's no point trying to predict this election, but it's useful to remember previous patterns.
The conservative alternative (Conservative, Alliance, Reform) rises during the first half of the campaign, and then gets pulverized by Liberal hate propaganda.
Hate messages work not by what they say openly but by suggestion.
Maybe the terrible right-wingers will start a war, leave your sick mother to die in a homeless shelter, make you go to church, and let loose armed, date-raping neo-Nazis on gay pride parades.
Pick your worst nightmare, because that's what you'll get.
The fact that these hate messages succeed, especially in "vote-rich Ontario" (I give up), explains our lack of national unity. You cannot unite a nation with steady infusions of malice and suspicion.
There's a second, more important pattern of "déjà vu" we should be aware of.
Twenty-five years ago, three things were the same as today.
Alberta's resource revenues were surging. Ontario was being economically battered by world markets. And Quebec was heading for a sovereignty referendum.
The only difference now is that all three factors are much more acute than they were then.
Trudeau's solution in 1980 was to unite Quebec and Ontario economically, politically and constitutionally against Alberta.
He appealed for all Canadians to save Canada from OPEC and the oil industry. But it was a direct attack on Alberta, and everyone knew it.
This time, the appeal will be to save "Canadian values" from American imperialism and greenhouse gas. But again it will really be to raise a national mob to loot Alberta.
I think this attack is now inevitable -- if not in this election, in the one that will soon follow, after Martin has been replaced as Liberal leader by a Quebec francophone.
The Liberal rallying cry will be "national unity," as always.
But their real aim will be to stay in power, regardless of cost to national unity.
- Link Byfield
Link Byfield is chairman of the Edmonton-based Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, and an Alberta senator-elect.
WEEKLY COMMENTARY
"Just Between Us"
December 19, 2005
A new Liberal 'national unity' attack on Alberta is now inevitable
For those of us who aren't completely on side with "Canadian values" ala Paul Martin and the Liberal party, last week's Sun Media election poll by Leger Marketing was encouraging.
In just the last few days, the Liberal lead in "vote-rich Ontario" (my how tired I am of that cliché) has been cut from 19% to 11%.
Nation-wide, the Conservatives were still behind 29% to 35%, but within striking distance for the January 23 vote.
Of course we all know that what the Liberals lack in ethics they make up for in cynicism -- and I expect they have contingency plans in (how's this?) "heavily-populated" Ontario.
Brace for an all-out Blitzkrieg of anti-Harper, anti-Conservative, anti-American, fear-and-loathing ads by the Grits after New Year.
Selling hate is like peddling porn and narcotics; you have to up the dose, or it loses effect.
The Liberals are masters of main-lining prejudice into national politics, as we have seen in Martin's mindless Yankee-bashing. It's terrible for the national interest, but goods for the Liberal campaign.
Now the Liberals have got hold of a 1997 speech Harper delivered to the right-wing U.S. Council for National Policy, describing Canada as a haven for EI loafers, radical gay rights and failed bilingualism.
These criticisms are all true, but so what? It's a Grit gold mine.
There's no point trying to predict this election, but it's useful to remember previous patterns.
The conservative alternative (Conservative, Alliance, Reform) rises during the first half of the campaign, and then gets pulverized by Liberal hate propaganda.
Hate messages work not by what they say openly but by suggestion.
Maybe the terrible right-wingers will start a war, leave your sick mother to die in a homeless shelter, make you go to church, and let loose armed, date-raping neo-Nazis on gay pride parades.
Pick your worst nightmare, because that's what you'll get.
The fact that these hate messages succeed, especially in "vote-rich Ontario" (I give up), explains our lack of national unity. You cannot unite a nation with steady infusions of malice and suspicion.
There's a second, more important pattern of "déjà vu" we should be aware of.
Twenty-five years ago, three things were the same as today.
Alberta's resource revenues were surging. Ontario was being economically battered by world markets. And Quebec was heading for a sovereignty referendum.
The only difference now is that all three factors are much more acute than they were then.
Trudeau's solution in 1980 was to unite Quebec and Ontario economically, politically and constitutionally against Alberta.
He appealed for all Canadians to save Canada from OPEC and the oil industry. But it was a direct attack on Alberta, and everyone knew it.
This time, the appeal will be to save "Canadian values" from American imperialism and greenhouse gas. But again it will really be to raise a national mob to loot Alberta.
I think this attack is now inevitable -- if not in this election, in the one that will soon follow, after Martin has been replaced as Liberal leader by a Quebec francophone.
The Liberal rallying cry will be "national unity," as always.
But their real aim will be to stay in power, regardless of cost to national unity.
- Link Byfield
Link Byfield is chairman of the Edmonton-based Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, and an Alberta senator-elect.
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