Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Harper: secret tapes show Liberals at fault

Harper says secret tapes show Liberals at fault. This strikes me as a gamble. They would be better to try to change the subject (see the story in the next thread). The more attention on these tapes, the worse it is for the Conservatives.

7 Comments:

Blogger Progressive Maritimer said...

Once again Harper is showing that while he may be an intelligent man, he has terrible political instincts. In that regard, Harper is like Martin, Martin fortunately, manages to get the breaks while Harper does not. Harper is also demonstrating how poor many of his political advisors are. Is it any wonder there are conservatives who want to be rid of Geoff Norquay?

9:49 PM  
Blogger buckets said...

I suspect that the difference is that Martin has power and Harper doesn't. Being Leader of the Opposition is the toughest job in Canadian politics. You have to attack with what you have. Sometimes what you thought was a stick of wood turns into a stick of dynamite that blows up in your own face.

9:53 PM  
Blogger Progressive Maritimer said...

Agreed Buckets. By the way, many thanks for finding that National Post article about the immigration issue. You saved me some time consuming work tonight as I was going to transcribe the segment from the National after work. So thanks!

10:03 PM  
Blogger No Yards said...

Maritime Liberal said...
"Once again Harper is showing that while he may be an intelligent man, he has terrible political instincts."

I have to disagree, and demand :-) an example of something intelligent that Harper has done or accomplished.

It's not like it took brilliance to say yes to backstabber Mackay, or then beat the sleezebag in a leadership race (actually one could make an argument that this was a move of supreme stupidity and a lack of principles.)

Seriously though, Harper is not some superior intellect. He's not even above average intellect as far as I can tell. His only claim to intellectual fame is that he looks like a nerd.

And sorry about taking personal shots at Harper, which may be against the blog rules(?), but my point is that the myth that Harper is some kind of superior intellect has to be refuted, as it is not true.

8:37 AM  
Blogger buckets said...

I think it would be better if we all avoided global judgements on matters like this. Perhaps we should limit ourselves to whether he has made intelligent decisions with regards to the Grewal tapes.

9:08 AM  
Blogger Progressive Maritimer said...

I didn't say he had superior intellect, I said he was intelligent. I do not doubt that he has a good understanding of policy, he is a policywonk and Tories I know can support that. I strongly disagree with him, his view on policy, etc. However, I don't doubt that he has an understanding of policy and is an intelligent person, just a politically stupid politician.

In regards to the Grewal tapes, I do not believe he has made a smart decision on them. The Liberal stratagy with the Sponsorship Inquiry was to say, "let the commission do it's work." Scott Brison answered that so many times in the last three months that he could have recorded a CD with the 7 or 8 variations he has and then the Liberals could simply just select the appropriate response to each question.

It worked though. Most Canadians thought this was a rational, common-sense approach. What Harper should have done is back off immediately and ask the Ethics Commissioner and RCMP to do it's work and that speculation and allegations are not proven facts. He could have said that until they have the investigation, they cannot be certain of who is telling the truth or what happened and that only after the investigation concludes will all the facts be in place to make an accurate judgement.

Can you tell I watch question period? I am starting to sound like Brison. The point is, however, the liberals managed to get the majority of Canadians to generally support that conclusion.

The Tories criticize the Liberal playbook, however, if they ever want to succeed, they should take notes. I certainly hope they don't, as far as I am concerned I want Harper and his advisors to keep to their playbook, they are well suited to the opposition benches.

9:18 AM  
Blogger buckets said...

Knight. I'm not even reading your comments anymore. Some might be OK, some not. Doesn't matter. All of your comments will be deleted.

3:05 PM  

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