Stephen Harper’s ‘Strategic’ Path to Ruin

[arikara]

The federal government, that is Stephen Harper, is expected to announce its long anticipated decision on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline sometime in June. The decision could well determine whether or not the Conservatives can win the 2015 election.

The momentum of opposition to the pipeline — and perhaps more importantly to the hundreds of supertankers that would move tar sands bitumen to Asia — is clearly growing in both B.C. and the rest of Canada. This makes Harper’s absolute dedication to the oil industry, and his dogged commitment to the pipeline in particular, tantamount to a suicide pact. This is a pipeline that will never be built. It is already dead. But don’t assume Harper sees that. His decision, as many of them are, will be a war between his highly touted strategic genius and his narcissistic impulses — revealed by a pattern of rejecting defeat until reality can no longer be denied.

Harper’s advantage over his political opponents is also his disadvantage. He is far bolder than any opponent he has ever faced. He is a huge risk taker. But risk taking is not in itself a virtue. Indeed, some of the biggest risk takers are psychopaths, and you certainly wouldn’t want one of those running your country. A recent study out of Vanderbilt University “shows that people with psychopathic tendencies (like aggression, lack of empathy, lack of fear) are more prone to take excessive risk without considering the consequences,” reports Business Insider, “It’s not just that they don’t appreciate the potential threat, but that the anticipation or motivation for reward overwhelms those concerns.”

What motivates Stephen Harper’s risk taking? The rewards for some of Harper’s most excessive actions would seem as much personal as political. Consider the long list of attacks on high profile, credible government and agency figures. As Susan Delacourt helpfully documents in the Toronto Star, these include “Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand, vilified for getting in the way of Fair Elections Act and former auditor-general Sheila Fraser, for the same offense. Then there’s the former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page; former chief statistician Munir Sheikh; former nuclear safety commissioner Linda Keen; former RCMP public complaints commissioner Paul Kennedy; former veterans’ ombudsman Pat Stogran; as well as Marty Cheliak, ex-head of the gun registry; Remy Beauregard, the late head of Rights and Democracy; Adrian Measner, former head of the Canadian Wheat Board; and Richard Colvin, the former Canadian diplomat who spoke out on Afghan detainees.”

...

http://murraydobbin.ca/2014/05/19/stephen-harpers-strategic-path-to-ruin/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MurrayDobbin+%28Murray+Dobbin%27s+Blog%29

Quite long, but Murray is always worth a read.

[Rod Beauvex]

1. I don't live in Canada.

But I want to see Harper gone. The fewer international Yes-Men America has (and corporate America especially), the better.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Does Diebold "count" Canadian citizens votes?!?!

[arikara]

3. No, we still use paper and pencil

but he's done everything else to ensure that he wins. He's just rewritten the elections act, gerrymandered districts, robocalled liberal voters just before the last election telling them that their polling place was somewhere else. Every dirty trick in the book. His party has the corporate donations and they advertise constantly whether there's an election or not. With all that, he won a solid 39% "majority" which gave him the mandate to run roughshod over the country. That's because the stupid ass liberals and NDP are too busy splitting the left and they allow him to win time after time.

Idiots, sometimes I think they're just as stupid as he is evil. The NDP who I've always supported recently called asking for money and I told them no way, there is no use unless they get together with the liberals and decide to get rid of Harper before he destroys the country. The young fellow that called told me he heard that from everybody and he was passing it along.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

4. I for one am done with strategic voting.

Last edited Wed May 21, 2014, 02:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Even when the Liberals win, they instantly forget about my rust belt riding; has been the case for 30 years. And federally they slip the velvet glove over the iron fist of rampant neo-liberlism.

I'll be doing everything I can to defeat the Liberals. That Liberal 'natural governing entitlement' party's fear mongering machine has ran out of gas, and their leader is buffoon. The NDP can win, just like they did in Quebec 2011. Our Con/Lib controlled Media suppressed the word on the street running up to 2011 that the NDP were going to win.

Don't expect the MSM to ever acknowledge that this is a 3 party race with policy platforms, and HOC vote records that 'could' be discussed instead of Mulcairs beard, or Trudeau's hair. Thats up to us little people to educate our friends, colleagues,and neighbours.

[CanSocDem]

5. Indeed!

"The NDP can win, just like they did in Quebec 2011."


Now is not the time to be timid. We've come a long way. We're the OFFICIAL opposition and we have a leader that is the best we've had since Broadbent.

Now let's get out there and send ALL the corporate shills back to hell....


.

[arikara]

6. Philosophically I agree with what you say

but last year's BC provincial election about did me in. There was no way Christy should ever have won. I still feel gut punched over that one, and we have another 3 years of hell to pay for it.

I was also sure Harper would get at the best a minority last time around too, instead he's busy destroying the country with a 39% "majority". Definitely no, I'm not talking voting strategically, we've been there tried that and it didn't work. But if the federal NDP and Liberals split the vote again it I see it being the same result as last time. Isn't it a form of insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? It reminds me of the crazy robin who sees his reflection and keeps crashing into the window.

I know I'll come out and support the NDP again when the time comes, but my heart won't be in it if its just more of the same old. My money will be going instead to the people who are actually defending the country, instead of to the political parties. I already send what I can to a native camp blocking the pipeline and I will go up myself if Harper lets enbridge go through. And I know lots of others who plan to do the same.