At the top of the Government of Canada Economic Action Plan page is a Youtube link. It goes directly to a video of Stephen Harper playing and singing his Beatles song. Hurry is you want to see it because now it has been brought to the attention of someone in the media (not CTVNews or The National Post or even maybe The Globe and Mail) it will be quickly removed.
Is he taking his PR direction from some banana republic dictator or does he have some serious diagnosable personality flaw.
http://www.youtube.com/pmharper
youtube link but can't load what is on it
I got there from Susan Delacourt's site. When my grandson comes to visit he can give me a lesson.
This was a funny comment about it:
"If I wanted to see a middle aged man play music badly, I go to a Michael Bolton concert."
Meanwhile...e drift closer to a tin pot dictatorship with Harper as the piano playing tin pot dictator.
Wow-- it isn't just the youtube-- the facebook, flickr, twitter, myspace links-- they are all to Harper and all political
Also the lead here is "The Harper Government" http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1972-- you get there from the RSS feed also on the action plan.
All this is apart from the fact that the sites are all tory blue with a bit of the old Reform Green and I guess the grey represents industry-- The official Canadian colours-- red and white have all but been removed-- you ahve to see the tiny, tiny, Canadian flag to see that-- even then the maple leaf is usually shown to be black or white.
Also this -- http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?featureId=4
"On October 30, 2007, the Harper Government introduced $65 billion in permanent tax reductions, specifically designed to bolster Canada's economy for uncertain times." Not the Canadian government -- but the Harper government-- it is not the Harper government of course especially given that it is a minority.
Then there is this political campaigning on the same page above:
"In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper began warning Canadians of the coming challenges in the global economy.
The Prime Minister did more than just warn Canadians. He also acted to ensure that Canada remained ahead of the curve and well positioned to deal with the economic challenges ahead."
Even if the above were true, this would not be the place to be addressing a political rather than a policy statement.
Of course there is no mention of Canada's government anywhere- it is all the Harper government.
Then look at this which is a straight-up Con Ad: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?featureId=14
Even here the main government of Canada site:
"A partnership between the Harper Government and the Government of Alberta, the project will reduce CO2 emissions from TransAlta's Keephills 3 plant near Edmonton."
I could go on...
After a few more minutes of thought I think I have come up with the best political response.
If all the opposition political parties did an advertisement together where they all objected to the politicization of the government of Canada-- particularly the references to "The Harepr Government" this would be very effective-- very newsworthy and put their collective credibility and goodwill together. The cost of running the ad would also be cheaper-- they can share it. I think it would be newsworthy if all the opposition parties got together with the same message objecting to what the government is doing-- that in itself would give people pause.
Even a series on the anti-democratic antics of this government would be interesting -- with at the end all the opposition leaders voicing the same objection. I think Canadians might think twice. Then they can fight among themselves over the votes they shake off the Cons-- but for now this could be an effective way of getting Harper out of majority territory.
An ad reminding Canadians that Harper's youtube video went up on the economic plan page for the government of Canada could make that sussessful media hit Harper had backfire-- it will look as contrived as the sweater. This is an area of cooperation the opposition can have without coopting each other.
BTW-- I called the Liberals and suggested this-- I assume some NDP people are here and their office is closed Friday afternoons...
Interesting approach, as most certainly an alternative view needs to be put out there...
I view the politicization of national institutions and the blurring of national with a particular party as a separate issue to all the political differences and ideological differences between the opposition parties. Nobody has gone this far in coopting public insitutions-- the Sponsorship scandal pales next to this. I wish more people saw it this way.
I agree with that juxtaposition whole heartedly...i would like to know what lawyers think about Canadians launching a lawsuit against them for this, as it is very close to fraud in my view.
Indeed-- especially since the Cons did not even want to provide the stimulus but were forced to by the opposition in a minority parliament. That they now want to convince the public that this is Conservatives helping Canadians rather than our government following a decision of parliament forced against the wishes of the Cons is a fraud. I had not thoguht of legal action but perhaps there is a possibility there.
Certainly there may also be other legal avenues than fraud.
This goes well beyond leaving it in the hands of the ethics comissioner to give a slap on the hand report.
At the top of the Government of Canada Economic Action Plan page is a Youtube link. It goes directly to a video of Stephen Harper playing and singing his Beatles song. Hurry is you want to see it because now it has been brought to the attention of someone in the media (not CTVNews or The National Post or even maybe The Globe and Mail) it will be quickly removed.
Is he taking his PR direction from some banana republic dictator or does he have some serious diagnosable personality flaw.
I've heard him described as a malignant narcissist.
Wow-- it isn't just the youtube-- the facebook, flickr, twitter, myspace links-- they are all to Harper and all political
Also the lead here is "The Harper Government" http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1972-- you get there from the RSS feed also on the action plan.
All this is apart from the fact that the sites are all tory blue with a bit of the old Reform Green and I guess the grey represents industry-- The official Canadian colours-- red and white have all but been removed-- you ahve to see the tiny, tiny, Canadian flag to see that-- even then the maple leaf is usually shown to be black or white.
Also this -- http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?featureId=4
"On October 30, 2007, the Harper Government introduced $65 billion in permanent tax reductions, specifically designed to bolster Canada's economy for uncertain times." Not the Canadian government -- but the Harper government-- it is not the Harper government of course especially given that it is a minority.
Then there is this political campaigning on the same page above:
"In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper began warning Canadians of the coming challenges in the global economy.
The Prime Minister did more than just warn Canadians. He also acted to ensure that Canada remained ahead of the curve and well positioned to deal with the economic challenges ahead."
Even if the above were true, this would not be the place to be addressing a political rather than a policy statement.
Of course there is no mention of Canada's government anywhere- it is all the Harper government.
Then look at this which is a straight-up Con Ad: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?featureId=14
Even here the main government of Canada site:
"A partnership between the Harper Government and the Government of Alberta, the project will reduce CO2 emissions from TransAlta's Keephills 3 plant near Edmonton."
I could go on...
This is good. Look what happened when Czar Nicholas II assumed control and resposibility for conducting the war in Russia 1914-1917 and Adolf Hitler during 1942-1945. Since Harper is advertizing that he is in control of the economy, just wait until things continue to become steadily worse.
The tragedy is that for the sake of one asshole egomaniac, hundreds of thousands (or more) suffer.
I view the politicization of national institutions and the blurring of national with a particular party as a separate issue to all the political differences and ideological differences between the opposition parties. Nobody has gone this far in coopting public insitutions-- the Sponsorship scandal pales next to this. I wish more people saw it this way.
Absolutely. It would help if the media reported it this way.
That would just result in another accusation of being in bed with separatists.
How?
I view the politicization of national institutions and the blurring of national with a particular party as a separate issue to all the political differences and ideological differences between the opposition parties. Nobody has gone this far in coopting public insitutions-- the Sponsorship scandal pales next to this. I wish more people saw it this way.
Absolutely. It would help if the media reported it this way.
Update
Good news! What I have been seeing since is that the media has begun to report it this way.
no link
Welcome to USSR. Lenin didn't liked coalitions and saw compromises as a temporary measure on the road to the power. What he really wanted was to achieve a majority. For achieving the majority he built the party founded on the centralization and discipline - the Bolshevik party – powerful instrument for accruing unlimited power. What Harper is doing since hi came to power is performing of the modern script from the Lenin's playbook.
Funny thing is the way the conservatives want a police state and control of everything with draconian law ..I mean now they won't even entertain anything to do with privacy laws , like we have too much... if they actually got their way Canada wouldn't be that differant from all the worst Russia had to offer at that time.
I think all this Harper in your face stuff is going to lead to mass over exposure and people will be virtually sick of looking at his lying mugg and when that hairpiece falls off that will be the clincher. Phony from head to toe. Someone will have sit above one of his speechs with a fishing line and snag that wig just to put my curiosity at rest.
Ah, as I predicted the evidence has disappeared. Conservative elves worked all night long to get rid of it, I guess. Yet again.
Sarann. As one who sees the importance of Leo Strauss's scripting in things Conservative, do you think Steve's show was just serendipity on the part of Maureen - or is Leo's hand at work here, the stirring of popular opinion at the Greek amphitheatre, and Steve recognized the connection?
It says lots about the level of political consciousness, eh? People to be played, just like a piano. :) Straussians depend on that, of course.
"People to be played, just like a piano. :) Straussians depend on that, of course."
Yep they do, and it is going on everywhere.
Yes, George, I believe Mr. Harper derives his permissions from Straussian philosophy - the lies, the sneakiness, the control, the belief the rest of us are fools and need someone to tell us what to do. Don't know details of strategies but I am now doubly paranoid since I have chanced on the book 'The Family' by Jeff Sharlet. It is a dense read and I didn't read all of it, but enough to get the gist. Many politicians and movers and shakers, according to the author who did an undercover operation, belong to a group which are Jesus followers (but they are not Christians in the sense we have always known). They are, however, fundamentalists who believe Jesus loves those in power and grants them the privilege of doing whatever they wish. Very handy indeed, don't you think? He claims the powerful in other countries are involved and intends to investigate Canada. Double permission maybe to be completely dishonourable.
Tin pot... tin ear.
Expect this video to come back in anti-Harper campaigns.
Yes, Sarann. I'm going to try to find that article from the early days of Walrus (forgotten the author, a woman I believe) giving us some inkling of the connection to Strauss. Maybe my memory does not serve me here. Would love to see someone able to show us Steve as part of one of the university Straussian study groups. They infect all the larger schools.
Yes, Sarann. I'm going to try to find that article from the early days of Walrus (forgotten the author, a woman I believe) giving us some inkling of the connection to Strauss. Maybe my memory does not serve me here. Would love to see someone able to show us Steve as part of one of the university Straussian study groups. They infect all the larger schools.
Goerge, is this it?
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/the-man-behind-stephen-harper-tom...
That Walrus article is hands-down one of the best insights into Harper, his ideology, his political motivations, his mentors. It offers a stark reality to compare to the sham that Harper plays pandering for majority, so that he can get back to his core libertarian ideals.
Btw, have you noticed that Flanagan completely disassociated himself from Harper in public but he gets the odd op-ed and slyly supports Harper while appearing to offer criticism. I've no doubt Harper and his Flangan-Dad are as tight as ever but sneaking around so that Flangan's extreme, unapologetic views don't taint his Harper-Son.
"He's <Flanagan is> concerned the state should not adopt people as wards," says Allan Kornberg. "It eventually has a corrosive effect on the entire society." That libertarian loathing of special rights for any group is the philosophical underpinning of Flanagan's most provocative work, First Nations? Second Thoughts,
What ignited the most fury was Flanagan's contention that aboriginals were simply conquered peoples who'd been bested by Europeans with a higher degree of "civilization," as he termed it. That argument, peppered with references to "savagery," hadn't been heard in polite company for decades.
When First Nations? Second Thoughts won the $25,000 Donner Prize in 2001, Flanagan's foes weren't surprised. The award is funded by the Donner Canadian Foundation, which set out to promote a Reaganite agenda in this country. The foundation, in fact, funded Flanagan's basic research with a $25,000 grant.
Harper to sidestep the question posed by aboriginal leaders: does he share Flanagan's views? Rick Anderson, who has worked with both Harper and Flanagan in the Reform Party, has no doubts. "I'd be astounded if it were otherwise," he says. "They're intellectual soulmates, philosophical soulmates."
When I saw Harper's tears and apology to Canada's First Nations, I recalled these quotes and could only gasp at Harper's hypocrisy.
Manning, the foundation's star fellow, strikes a more conciliatory note. He is careful never to betray bitterness toward the two protegés who helped orchestrate his ouster from the movement he founded - Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan - both once his closest aides.
Poor Manning. Knife in the back courtesy of Harper. Still too much a gentleman to say anything about it in public though. But Manning you could help put Harper back if you would just speak out.
The down-home parables that Manning added came from cocking a careful ear to the small talk after political meetings - part of the process he calls "democratic discourse." Harper had no time for it, then or later. "Stephen worried about the dark side of populism," Manning says. "He'd feel I went overboard on all this grassroots stuff."
So, in the crunch, Steve puts on the sweater, plays the piano, plays cribbage with the old folks .. more galling hypocrisy. Manning must sit shaking his head when he watches the evening news.
In Harper, Flanagan finally had his dream candidate to carry the neo-conservative torch: an alter ego whose benign boyish good looks belied the radical agenda they shared. Says Cooper: "Tom understands that Stephen is a guy who has the capability of changing what the country looks like."
To those who are unnerved by that prospect, Byfield offers no cheer. "Those people who said they're dangerous - they're right!" he says. "People with ideas are dangerous. If Harper gets elected, he'll make a helluva change in this country ."
Indeed. Canada's traditional (if somewhat overhyped) intl reputation as 'good guys' is diminishing, we'll have soon have bigger, more and fuller prisons, a politicized (demoralized?) bureacracy of Conservative elves spending time painting Canada's infrastructure blue, an opposition decimated by relentless, ruthless tactics and lies, lead by a PM with eviscerated Ministries run out of the PCO.
All the long while we have been shortchanged by not having a government of people that work to govern, build, create, have inclusive, progressive vision for the future. Its not just bc we have a minority gov, its bc we have a Harper lead minority gov. Anyone but him would have long ago cooperated for constructive reasons. its just a shame.
Bless you Tigana, you found it. No Strauss that I can see in a quick perusal but lots else:"To those who are unnerved by that prospect, Byfield offers no cheer. "Those people who said they're dangerous - they're right!" he says. "People with ideas are dangerous. If Harper gets elected, he'll make a helluva change in this country ."
Thus endeth the story. And yeah, Canadian Alien, he's getting away with it because not enough has been written about the bastard. When Walrus published this, I thought that Canada had finally come on a trustworthy journal - but of course it immediately thereafter capitulated to the advertisers, who, undoubtedly, saw that piece as undermining the foundations of capitalism itself. I keep getting renewal offers from Walrus. Anyone seen anything at all "challenging " in it?
Bless you, George, for mentioning it. It is of vital interest to Canadian Natives.
Interesting re-reading that article, some people sure do want Strauss and his everlasting, it seems, network, buried from public minds.
Straussian network buried? Good idea, remind.
Suggestions?
Other than exposing the "big lies" no matter where they reside?
