Apparently infected by the decline of political discourse in the United States, the Canadian right is increasingly moving toward defining the use of facts that run counter to its narrative as conspiracy and policy disagreement criminality. If you doubt this, consider recent Tweets by the likes of Calgary Conservative MP
Continue readingTag: Conservative Movement
Alberta Politics: They can still feel shame! Conservative leaders duck and cover in wake of Saturday’s disgraceful display
PHOTOS: Chris Alexander, at the moment the chant of “lock her up” began from the right-wing mob at the Alberta Legislature Saturday. Does this look to you like a man who is “shocked, taken aback, mortified even”? Me neither. Below: Michael Chong, Deepak Obhrai, Rona Ambrose and Brian Jean, all
Continue readingAlberta Politics: About those conservative coup attempts: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times has got to be enemy action!
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper seal the deal. Actually, I think Mr. Harper was welcoming Mr. Kenney to his cabinet as defence minister in this official looking portrait found on the Internet without attribution. I’m assuming it was created w…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Time for parties of the Canadian and Alberta right to deal with the violent extremists in their midst
PHOTOS: Nigel Farage, leader of the extremist U.K. Independence Party, at the 2013 Manning Conference in Ottawa. That’s former Australian prime minister John Howard with his back to the camera, for what it’s worth. Below: The target picturing Alber…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s not just the #kudatah – it’s the feeling Alberta’s conservatives are all boarding the Crazy Train
PHOTOS: George Clark, Alberta’s answer to Joan of Arc. (Screen grab from Youtube.com.) Below: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean, who with his MLAs is tacitly supporting Mr. Clark’s efforts; the origin of the #kudatah meme; Preston Manning, a conserv…
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper v. Canada: Understanding Stephen Harper’s War Against Canada
Welcome to Harper v. Canada, a new column that digs deep to understand Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s current war against our democratic institutions, freedoms and dissent. The column uses two approaches to unravel Harper’s phony commitment to making Canada “the best country in the world: a) exhaustive excavation of Harper’s
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Stephen Harper and Newt Gingrich May be Reunited After All
When Newt Gingrich and the Republicans stole the Mid-terms in 1994, Gingrich gave much of the credit to Preston Manning and the Reform Party. Manning’s lieutenantt at the time was Stephen Harper. In the contest for the Republican presidential candidacy, Newt Gingrich was a long shot, but that shot just
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Since You Brought it Up: Stephen Harper and R.B. Bennett
In 1931, during a particularly stormy debate in the House of Commons, a member of the Opposition asked Conservative MP Walter D. Cowan, why he didn’t wear his “nightshirt”. An odd question to be raised in Parliament, but a very significant one. Before winning his seat in the federal election
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Would a Romney Victory Mean the End of the Conservative Movement?
Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary with 40% of the vote and appears to be heading toward winning the Republican nomination. Unlike most of his opponents, he has not “surged” but just plodded along, attacking when he needed to attack, and standing up to the blows from his tag-teamed conservative
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Harper Government on the Wrong Side of the Drug War
Harper’s new omnibus crime bill will mean stiffer sentences for those growing a few marijuana plants, clearly designed to go after the user. However, if he really wanted to do the war on drugs right, he would be targeting the pharmaceutical industry; the real drug pushers of this generation. I
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: The Conservative Movement and Homosexuality Revisited
“The hypocrite’s crime is that he bears false witness against himself. What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: A Half a Century Later and We are Losing Half a Century
The Canadian Manifesto: How the American Neoconservatives Stole My Country In researching the conservative movement on both sides of the border, one thing becomes clear. In the U.S. they don’t like to be referred to as Republican any more than Stephen Harper likes to be called a Tory. They are CONSERVATIVE,
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Dog Whistle Politics and the Return of Old Dance Partners
“Borrowed in part from the legacy of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Canadian neo-conservatism owes much of it’s character to the right-wing populist tradition of the West. “Indeed, Canadians became exporters of neo-con innovation in the 1990s. ‘I would say Margaret Thatcher and Mr. [Preston] Manning are the two non-Americans
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Back to the Future to Change the Course of History
The Canadian Manifesto: How the American Neoconservatives Stole My Country I was sent an article posted on Aljazeera recently: The deep roots of conservative radicalism, by Corey Robin. Robin is the author of the The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, and in his Aljazeera piece, he challenges
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Piquante Sauce and Why Mitt Romney May Lose the Nomination Race
David Horsey wrote recently that Mitt Romney was the only adult in the GOP Kindergarten Race. He’s probably right. However, will it matter? Since the Republican Party was taken over by the Conservative Movement in 1964, they have a different criteria for a leader than simply the ability to win
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Despite Evictions and Arrests, Occupy Wall Street Message is Getting Through
The actions of those in the Civil Rights Movement were not always supported by the majority of Americans, especially the violence. But the messages presented at the sit-ins and marches did begin to resonate. However, what probably helped the movement the most, was the response of segregationists like George Wallace. “In the name
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