SPLIT PERSONALITIES...

For those Stephen Harper fans here in B.C., life has become a big contradiction.

Most align themselves quite comfortably with Gordon Campbell of the right-side B.C. Liberals (a close relative of the long-departed SoCred Party). Their mortal enemy remains the red-underwear wearing BC NDP.

In their current battles against their provincial rivals, the BC Libs (which include a mix of federal Liberals, CONservatives and even far-right Christian Heritagers) wave the big flag in support of Campbell's Carbon Tax. They'll cash their $100 cheque in the coming weeks as tho it was a valued BRIC share.

But by night, donning their Harper fan club issued 'CON-Head cap', they denounce Stephane Dion's Carbon Shift plan, which includes a reduction in income tax plus a plethora of tax credits which almost replicate Harper's own tax-credit mania from a few years back.

No discussing the issue with a straight face, however. Incendiary images and bluster only, please. Canadians who support the CONs expect nothing but.

Perhaps their biggest secret fear is that their 'so-called leader' will do one of his 180-spins and try to combat Dion's plan with a faux carbon tax of his own. Don't laugh -- many CON supporters were assuring their elder relatives that their Income Trust accounts were safe under Heir Harper.

They line up on the blogs to post 'Dion is the Devil!' and 'Tax Grab!' crib notes, while filing into Campbell's phone cubicles to pump up the benefits of a Carbon Tax.

If they were true CONs, perhaps they'd stand by their principles and rip up their cheques.

But we've come to expect nothing consistent from this gang that has lost its chess pieces...

PANTS ON FIRE...

Besides protecting Big Oil, the public and the media should really wonder just why Stephen Harper and his Blind Mice Band feel such an urge to paint a picture that hasn't even been drawn yet.

Despite solid numbers which show, poll after poll, even, that Canadians want real action addressing the global warming issue, the CONs true instinct is to deny, diffuse and distort.

Well, at least some prominent people are getting their say out to the 'left-leaning' media.

Dr. David Suzuki quickly came out and defended the idea of a carbon tax as a way to reduce our carbon footprint. Now professor and top resource economist Marc Jaccard is standing up and calling the CON ad attack as "just totally dishonest", he's speaking as someone who has studied the issue of how to address and compared the various solutions. Obviously his take isn't vested in how best to confuse the public.

The as-yet unreleased Liberal platform on Carbon Tax shifting has turned the party and Stephane Dion into an easy disinformation target. Last month's announcement has also opened the door for discussion and discourse -- if only we had a government that valued those tools.

Although he's happy to have his photo taken with Schwarzenegger, Harper remains among the dinosaurs -- having only recently discovered the environment as a major issue. Protecting his friends and funders in the oil industry remains Job One in Harper's book. He was dragged grumbling and pouting to the issue, and he's fooled some with his half-assed declarations before the cameras. But when someone steps forward with some real action, the CONs so-called leader is exposed as a fraud.

As with his stance on nearly every other major issue, disinformation remains the order of the day (nuclear safety, hospital wait times, accountability, Afghanistan, public security, etc).

While there remains a debate on whether carbon tax or cap and trade is the best singular method to engage in, our oil dependent economy requires a mixture of both. As noted in the Stern study, commissioned by the British government, doing nothing about global warming and carbon emissions is a kin to suicide -- both economically and environmentally.

Canadians unfortunately are currently led by a government with its head stuck in the tar sands, and an Oil Spot spewing their lies.

A STITCH IN TIME...

Who ever is surprised at the following, please feel free to date and comingle with members of the Hell's Angels without facing any consequences.

It took the CONs nearly three months to take a second-hand tape to two right-wing friendly analysts who then produced a CON-friendly analysis of Stephen Harper's gravel-driveway confession...

And it only took the CON ad team a couple of weeks to design, concoct and otherwise 'fund' a new neg-ad, with the concurrent free publicity of such, to combat a still-unfleshed carbon tax shifting Liberal policy initiative. Nevermind that Harper's own intentions regarding climate change, remain as encapsuled as the hot air spewed by his drones Van Loan and Moore.

As to the CONs own policy ideas and plans, being the guys in government, we're still left in the dark. But I'm hoping they keep 'Splotchy' as their spokesperson when and if ever they decide to enlighten the electorate. Because, let's face it, Big Oil is just the kind of appealing friend-of-society that most of us harbour deep wells of sympathy and empathy for.

One other point: if it is to be a battle of ideas and responsible goals, I'll proudly stand beside Dion, May and Suzuki anyday against Harper, Gwyn 'oily' Morgan and Splotchy (my guess is they're getting a mascot suit sized up for Peter Van Loan at this moment.

RETURN OF THE JEDI...

It's a legitimate question, but questions are a quibble apparently the Stephen Harper government does not deal well with.

But many are asking it - why delve into your own pandora's box and bring out an ol' dirty little scandal when it had disappeared behind a litany of fresh ones?

It's chess, people.

All that public cash the Harper government has been lavishing on private polls and focus-groupings may have told them something about their two most recent (as of June 6th) missteps, the NaFta-gate and Maxime's Own In-And-Out-And-Misplaced Emporium of duck-ups.

While the public was easily shielded away from the CONs' faux investigation result of the Brodie cock-up spreading stories about American politicians, the Maxime and the Biker Chick fracas has legs, so to speak.

While you better damn be sure you know what your father-in-law's up to, Liberal guy, but darn if its anyone's business who's cavorting with who behind CON closed doors. So that may explain why all those Oil Executives bring a bouquet to visit the PM...

Changing the channel is one thing, and this group of morally challenged buffoons have remotes for all occasions, but zigging back to your own malfeases seems a little counterproductive, doesn't it?

But this week Harper's chubby attack dog de jour, portly Jimmy Moore of Port Moody, is wheeled out with neon talking points dancing over his shoulder, to feign outrage and unleash accusations of uncertain proprieties. The tape's been fiddled with! Tampered at! Toggled too!

Yet when it becomes clear, that without some guilty party attached to it, and with no real interest in getting locked into a law suit with either the author/taper-in-question or the publisher, Moore had to resume his blathering by trying to pin this on the Liberals.

It's an attempt of fuzzicating the original accusation, which was that the CONs, led by Stephen so-called Harper, had approached dying independent MP Chuck Cadman in search of a deal to acquire his vote in 2005. Heck, even their own candidate and Cadman's widow remains adamant on that central point.

Obviously, this gang of bumbleheads has watched too many Law and Order episodes.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a method to their madness. First of all, as witnessed in the success of their favourite presidential bumbler GWB, creating stuff and throwing it at your opponent doesn't require authenticity, but stickability.

Secondly, noise is news. So if someone is shouting out about your attempt to bribe a dead man, shouting out 'when did you stop beating your wife?' can be a potential evasive trick.

Thirdly, with the economy heading down the toilet, and with an injunction that would keep the tape locked up in September on the books, this could be that additional pressure trying to prod Stephane Dion and the Liberals into bringing down the House.

While I'm all for an election -- wavering and disappearing during some of Harper's slippery tricks has not gone well with me nor a number of Liberals I admire -- I do agree that timing is critical. Harper believes a summer campaign, with Dion having less time to sell his (still unlaunched) carbon tax shifting idea, could be his best window. Ontario is only going to get uglier in the meantime and he needs to hold there and build in Quebec. Meanwhile, his toilet-paper thin talent pool of MPs continues to reflect poorly on his control-freakiness.

Squeezing the Liberals into feeling they have to use what had been a fairly neutralized tape (but because they would have made it a centralized point to their campaign had it been on the other foot, so that's why they fear it) when its available may be clever. But if I was advising the Liberals, I'd even toss out the tape now and just use Dona Cadman's quotes. And Maxime Bernier's stumbles, and... well, the list is growing, isn't it?

DUMB AND DUMBER...

Of course, it doesn't matter who's dating who, or who lays with whom.
Because as we've seen before, it's fine if our close friends and advisors may have suggested bribing a dying man, or slagged protestors who don't fancy my 'ack!-ountability'; gave the cold shoulder to people suffering from an incurable disease because they talk out of turn; heck, my team may have even fudged heavily on election rules so as to get some free taxpayers' monies.
But let the bra-less squeeze tell-all on TV that she saw your briefs, well, then my so-called feckless leader has a problem.

Have a Jos. Louis, PM?

WHO'S PLAYING CHESS NOW?

Ah, like the fortunes that are told through the tarot cards, the Stephane Dion strategy is becoming clearer.
Floating a trial balloon isn't a new concept, but seeing an opposition party do it is fairly unique. It's typically the bailiwick of a government -- like Harper and his magically mysterious defence strategy. It allows for the party to stake claim to an issue and an action without painting itself completely into a corner. On more than a few occasions, governments have overshot their policies, heard the outcries, and quickly averted complete catastrophe. However, by attaching his flag to a carbon tax proposal, there are negative possibilities. Looking too ambitious, or appearing indecisive, for two.
Here in B.C., Gordon Campbell's sudden conversion to a carbon tax action plan has been met with more than a few howls. But the difference is distinct: Campbell is stepping into territory he never campaigned on; Dion is making the issue his own, rightly or wrongly. Like a high-wire act at the ol' circus, the public can't help but be interested in seeing this person reach his destination.
At this stage of the game Dion has little to lose. He's been defined to death through the most savage of means, his obituary was every columnist's sudoku -- so fun they'd do it twice a week and three-times on Sunday. Now, however, he's being given credit at least for having cajones.
From my uncomfortable ledge above the cheap seats, I'm beginning to see a very interesting action plan unfolding.
And it all starts around the reality that Dion is a principled, studious man of integrity. Let's step back to his decision to link unofficially with Lizzy May and the Green Party. Coming from his experience on the environment file, which involved extensive footwork to understand what is at stake, what are the issues and what is the depth of Canadians' concerns, Dion came to a crossroads. Let the Liberal Party stand merely on its record and accomplishments of the past, while relying upon the 'campaign on the left' election strategy, or create a new box outside the box.
He witnessed the breadth of the environmental movement, the drastic sea-change required to alter what he (and most scientists) sees as a global crisis, and Dion embraced a proactive risk. By standing with May and the Greens, the undercurrent among passionate, educated environmentally aware voters was that at least Dion 'gets it.' Whether they trust the Liberal party or would accept it, was another step.
That's where the current carbon tax trial balloon lifts off.
It is risky, and people can see that risk as Harper and his Schultzian henchmen try to pop it. And then there's Jack, shouting down the idea of any form of carbon tax, professing regulation as the only pill that can save the patient. He's immediately pushed away 75 per cent of the electorate and virtually every economist right there.
As NdP support bleeds to the Greens, and the CON support begins to melt around the edges with the stickiness of its own hypocrisy and lies, Dion has positioned the Liberals to a place where no other party wants to go.
Come the election -- and God, make it soon! -- those who truly worry about climate change and social justice and the Harper social conservatives, will see someone standing above the rest. He may not be charismatic, he may not be the best orator, he may not even be the most leader-like, but he will have taken a stand on a difficult but vital issue. And that is the definition of a leader.
He has worked hard to create a vision where a coalition of Canadians -- Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, NdPers and Greens -- could find some comfort from the storm. It would lead to a "We'll take those votes back now, Jack" and a "let's work together, Lizzy, and get these things done" mosiac that scares the bejeezus out of Harper and his band of half-wit blowhards.
And while Harper is counting on fooling the Canadian electorate with traps out of the Bush republican playbook, he may just be taking for granted that our nation is keenly aware of what occurred down south. It doesn't mean that we're immune to it, but it may provide more Canadians with the knowledge that the best choice isn't the one that offers free stuff and sunshine.
No, it may just mean that Harper's game of chess will turn into solitaire.

TEARS OF A CLOWN...

Let's just rename the CON's the Pity Party and be done with it.
Of Stephen Harper's traits, some are worse than others. That he seeks to hide them from the public should only cause alarm bells.
How many times can you blame others for your foibles?
When you advertently try to twist the rules to win, you should expect that you may get caught.
Instead, you attempt to scurry around and play favourites, dart down stairs and then tell fant-abulous lies just to blur the facts.
Then you once again impugne a rock-solid Canadian institution, just in hopes that some of the dirt you've cultivated sticks on someone else.
When your lying also means trying to defend taking $700,000 of taxpayers' hard-earned money, then it becomes a scam.
Why don't you just come out and tell the truth, instead of putting wee willie Pierre to be your cry baby?
Canadians aren't buying the crap you're pitching.
Did the Devil make you do it?