No Taxpayer-funded Campaigning Under M. Harper, Non

In accordance with our commitment to a fixed election-date, the next general election will be held as prescribed by law.  As it is my intention to begin campaign-related activities, and it's also the case for the other party-leaders, it's important that these campaigns be funded by the parties themselves, rather than taxpayers.

My fucking jaw dropped when I heard this on the CBC.  The balls on this man...

And how about deceptive robocalling-campaigns ?  Is it okay for them to be funded by the taxpayer, Mister 'Message from the Government of Canada' ?


Meanwhile, that economic downturn I'm currently overseeing ?: More reason you be very very afraid of the opposition and keep me in power even longer.  And also, ISIS: VERY, VERY AFRAID !  Liberals & NDP weak !  Justin inexperienced !  Me protect you from Scary Vladimir Putin ! BE AFRAID !

Oh, and in case I don't sound enough like an American Republican: 'Best country in the world !'  But only so long as you keep us in power.  BE AFRAID !!!

The Grauniad Spitting into the Prairie Winds of Probability

Sure, it could.  So, what, the NDP & Liberals should engage in some grand alliance ?  Yeah, ha ha.  Sure.  That'll happen.

Short of electoral reform (and the record of that in the west is pretty bad, the US having failed to make any movement whatsoever towards abolition of the electoral college, that system having finally in 2000 made a man president ahead of his opponent who literally won more votes, and the electorate of the United Kingdom having actually voted down the option of AV (Alternative Vote/Preferential Voting), because...because, well, there's no way I can say that without being deeply insulting to the intelligence of said electorate), strategic voting is still the best option the voters have.  In theory, politicians and parties could put their own egos and ambitions aside, but when has that ever happened in the West outside WWII ?

For most of my lifetime certainly, voting for the least shitty likely outcome has always been the most sensible option for most of the western world, which does again beg the question for proponents of proportional voting who voted against AV in the UK, what the fuck were you thinking ?  Think the Tories are ever likely to put proportional voting on the ballot given the last results ?  Think there's much chance even AV will be on the cards again for the next several decades ?  Think a likely future rUK will give you any choices other than Tory or UKIP, or the future identical simulacrums thereof ?

But returning to Canadian voters again...Fuck it, you're going to re-elect Harper's government again and you know it.  Short of a massive crisis of confidence in the Tories' economic policies and/or some titanic scandal, you'll vote, like the idiot Brits, in favour of caution over chance, even if you're sane enough to recognise that burning off the oil-sands may well be a death-knell for the planet.

Because you're cautious, you're conservative, you're easily scared, you're risk-averse, you're disproportionately focused on the near-term future, you're rather wedded to irrational thinking, and, in other words,...you're human.

Also, It's a Lie...

Strong. Proud. Free. And a state secret.

The genesis of the Harper government's "Strong Proud Free" slogan that is currently bombarding Canadian television viewers is considered a cabinet confidence and will be sealed from public scrutiny for 20 years.

...

A spokesman for the Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy that supports the Prime Minister's Office, would only say that the slogan is "drawn from the thematics" of the government's 2013 throne speech.

Opposition critics point out the language is also drawn from the 2011 Conservative party platform and mirrors the themes promoted as Conservative values on the party website and in fundraising pitches.

...

The Conservatives have come under repeated criticism for spending tens of millions of dollars annually on government advertising that is often indistinguishable from the partisan branding of the party. The marketing exercise extends to departmental web design (now a uniform Tory blue, with cross-pollinating links to popular Conservative initiatives such as family tax cuts) and even departmental press releases, often heralding local "Harper government" expenditures.

"There have been some ambiguous government ads where a plausible defence could be made that they are not partisan or that they provide some modicum of information, but the 'Strong Proud Free' tagline makes no such pretence," said Jonathan Rose, a specialist in political communication at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

"It's almost verbatim from the Conservative party website."

Economic Action Plan (those were just straight up blatant partisan ideological propaganda), War of 1812, 150th Birthday of Canada...  My prediction is, if Stephen Harper & Co. are still in power after 2017, no matter what, they'll still find...something...requiring a constant taxpayer-funded barrage of 'A Message from the Toriesthe Government of Canada' ads.  Why not just drop the pretense already ?  Assholes.