This story passed pretty much under the radar but after reading this warm and creamy ode about what is objectively speaking one of the most evil regimes on the face of this planet, I think the rightly dishonorable Brian Mulroney PC CC can add a couple of more initials after his name.
Right now he’s a PC(member of the Queen’s Privy Council) and a Companion of the Order of Canada. As far as I’m concerned the only initials he needs after his name are CE or Cocksucker Extraordinaire.
Is Mulroney so short on cash? Does he get a cut in any contract signed while on any of these jaunts that he’s leading to that thrice damned reichlet? If there were bribes or if there were kickbacks, I would not be at all surprised. That way of doing business is quite common there.
How many dicks did he have to suck, how many butts did he have to kiss, and how much did he have to drink before he could pen this ode to the Saudis
The recognition of the potential benefits of a Canadian-Saudi partnership by the leaders of both countries is encouraging. There have been six major Canadian ministerial visits to Saudi Arabia since 2008. I have been leading a delegation of senior business leaders on a mission to the country this week. I am inspired by the interest government and business leaders there have shown in Canadian companies as sources of, and partners in, investment. Saudi interest is bolstered by our government’s focus on maintaining an open climate for investment, reducing corporate tax rates and diversifying export markets…
Our different histories, cultures and systems of government can generate contrasting points of view, but we should be able to address them in a manner that does not jeopardize or undermine the underlying strengths of our partnerships.
The Liberal party leader is spot when he says that support for the Liberal party will rebound.
Absolutely true. The only question is when? Iffy thinks that support for his party will rebound under his leadership.
That was certainly the case for the Liberal party during most of the 20th century. With the exception Sir Robert Borden, each and every Tory prime minister self destructed. The litany is sad and long. Meighen in ‘20 and ‘26(the King/Byng crisis), Bennett is ‘35, Diefenbaker in ‘62 and ‘63, Clarke in ‘79, and Mulroney in ‘93. Each went down in their own pecular way but each went down spectacularly leaving destruction in their wake.
Given that sorry history, the Liberals could certainly expect that the pendulum of public opinion would certainly swing back to them and swing back rather quickly.
As the saying goes, however, the past is no predictor of the future. And that certainly is the case now. Canadian politics has been in flux since the 1984 election broke the status quo that had prevailed in the country since 1935. Since then the pendulum of public opinion has swung wildly back and forth. In the 25 years since that time the Liberals have ruled 50% of the time and the Tories 50%(believe it or not!)Â
So, eventually, the pendulum will swing inevitably back to the Liberals. But this time the Tories don’t look like they’re going to fall on their own sword. The Liberals are going to have to work their way back into power.Â
And given the Liberal performance in opposition this time round, they’ve got a long ways to go.
I was thinking that the fourth anniversary of the swearing in of Stephen Harper and the Tories is only a couple of months away(February 6, 2006) and that brought to mind this essay, “Has Harper found his tipping point?” by Michael Bliss published back in early October.
Who would ever have thought that Stephen Harper and Mackenzie King would be favourably compared together?
Who would ever have thought that the name of William Lyon Mackenzie King would ever strike fear into the heart of the Liberal Party?
If it didn’t, it should. For it was Mackenzie King that built the coalition that kept the Liberal Party in near continuous power for some 60 years. While King was a very adept politician he also had enormous luck. His term as Prime Minister coincided with the rise of the first of Canada’s regional parties, the Progressive Party of Canada. King was able to govern during the 1920s with the assistance of that party. Then in 1930 King had the enormous good fortune to be defeated. He was able to sit back and watch the Tory party collapse under the pressure of Great Depression. With the Tories thoroughly discredited – the phrase ‘Tory times are tough times’ would haunt the party for decades – King was able to consolidate his Liberal party as the Natural Governing Party.
In the nearly 70 years since 1935, the Liberals have faced a perennially weak opposition party and could rule virtually unopposed. The Tories on the other hand were condemned to opposition and a string of eminently forgetable party leaders.
On the three times(that’s right, count ‘em, three times) during that period when the Tories were able claim power, the only thing the Liberals had to do was wait for Tories to self destruct.
This was due to the fact that any coalition the Tories were able to construct was inherently weak and would shatter under the weight of its own internal inconsistencies(ie the differences of Western populists and Quebec nationalists). As well, given the long periods in opposition, the Party simply had no experience in how to govern properly when it had the chance.
The Tory party’s weaknesses, however, were ALWAYS combined with disastrously flawed leadership. In 1957-63, John Diefenbaker had the misfortune to some into office during a period of economic downturn(echoes of Tory times are tough times) but he was also incompetent. Under his leadership the Tory party fell into bout of internicene warfare that scarred the party for a generation. In 1979, Joe “I don’t know how to count” Clarke blew it. Between 1984-1993, Brian Mulroney was able to paper over the differences in his caucus between the party’s Quebec and Western MPs. Ultimately, though, Mulroney was as flawed as the previous two Tory Prime Ministers had been. He overreached, stayed too long, and shattered the party as a result.
Now wonder that the Liberal thought of Tory rule as a simple blip that would naturally correct itself and for 70 years that was the case.
In 2006, things changed. However, the Liberal party didn’t notice. They thought their defeat was just another self correcting blip. If I recall correctly Frank McKenna said something to the effect that the Tories were something that Canada had to endure ever twenty years or so.
The difference, of course, is that for the first time in generations, the Tories have a competent and canny leader. That’s not to say that he doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn and some of them have been whoppers. I don’t think that any Tory will soon forget the government’s near death experience in November 2008. The thing is though is that while Harper does make mistakes he also learns from them. I don’t think he’s ever, publically at least, made the same mistake twice. And he learns fast. Anyone who remembers November 2008 should also remember December 2008.
Harper, like Mackenzie King who faced a divided Tory party suffering from wounds inflicted during WWI and its aftermath, has also been incredibly lucky. Harper faces a fatally(???) weakened Liberal party riven by personality conflicts and weighed down by the results of decisions that have alienated large swaths of its traditional base.
The Liberals are clearly flummoxed. They were waiting for a Tory collapse that never came and now they don’t have a clue what to do.
The Tories have a unique opportunity to forge a strong, durable coalition. They are certainly doing all the right things. One has only to look at the penetration of the Tories into ethnic groups that have supported the Liberals for generations. Voters that had been reliably Grit are now turning Tory
The Liberals are facing William Lyon Mackenzie Harper. I think they should be scared. Very scared.
At least one person in the blogoshere didn’t like the PM’s piano playing. Yup. Good ol’ “Barney” Kinsellsa takes the low road yet again. The man simply has no class.
And for the record, I too cringed when Mulroney and Reagon did their little spiel. I also think that Mulroney was seriously flawed both as party leader and as Prime Minister but his sample of one certainly doesn’t revile the man. I also think, Warren, that if you ever get out of the gigantic echo chamber that passes for your mind, you would find find that a lot of others don’t share your opinion of the man either.
And, Barney, I think “Nowhere Man” would be a much more appropriate song for your new idol with feet of clay, Michael “We Americans” Ignatieff, don’ you?
