Harper's Bullying Tactics

[jdobbin]

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics...b8-a8d61446bcab

Conservative MPs, staffers and supporters are united in their condemnation of the way the issue has been handled by the Prime Minister's Office. "The people in PMO communications meant to help MPs understand the audience don't get them. They don't get the pride, the passion and the tribalism of the East," said one source.

"Dropping a sledgehammer on two of the provinces that endorsed you at the last election is not exactly the way to say 'thank you' on a file that clearly touches a chord in Atlantic Canada," said another senior Conservative.

This government's obsession with secrecy and control will be its downfall. The Conservative party has a front-bench overflowing with natural communicators and a strong story to tell, yet it seems either reluctant or unable to do so. It takes a real organizational talent to fritter away that advantage.

I'm sure the people of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are not likely to forget the bullying tactics.

[hiti]

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics...b8-a8d61446bcab

Conservative MPs, staffers and supporters are united in their condemnation of the way the issue has been handled by the Prime Minister's Office. "The people in PMO communications meant to help MPs understand the audience don't get them. They don't get the pride, the passion and the tribalism of the East," said one source.

"Dropping a sledgehammer on two of the provinces that endorsed you at the last election is not exactly the way to say 'thank you' on a file that clearly touches a chord in Atlantic Canada," said another senior Conservative.

This government's obsession with secrecy and control will be its downfall. The Conservative party has a front-bench overflowing with natural communicators and a strong story to tell, yet it seems either reluctant or unable to do so. It takes a real organizational talent to fritter away that advantage.

I'm sure the people of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are not likely to forget the bullying tactics.

No and if Steve does it to the East, he'll do it to everyone else.

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES BROKEN!

[jdobbin]

No and if Steve does it to the East, he'll do it to everyone else.

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES BROKEN!

And while the complain about delays in the Senate, they block business in the House of Commons.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070614/...t_committee_gag

The opposition parties charged Thursday that the Conservative government had knee-capped another Commons committee to keep it from hearing unflattering testimony, but the Conservative whip later said it was all just a misunderstanding.

The work of the Commons environment committee was crippled when the Conservative chairman, MP Bob Mills, stepped down rather than hear from a respected economist who has panned the Harper government's climate change targets.

No other Tory agreed to stand in Mills' stead, stopping the committee hearings in their tracks.

The procedural wrangling mirrored government tactics last month, when the official languages committee ground to a halt for lack of a Tory chairman rather than hear critical witnesses.

A leaked 200-page handbook for Conservative committee chairs detailed means of controlling witnesses and, if all else failed, shutting down committee work.

[jbg]

Yawn!! Another "hate Harper" thread.

[normanchateau]

No and if Steve does it to the East, he'll do it to everyone else.

He's already done it to British Columbia by changing our equalization formula so that BC ends up paying for some of next year's handouts to Quebec:

http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2007/03/b...ote-buying.html

[jdobbin]

Yawn!! Another "hate Harper" thread.

Another Harper lover response.

[Figleaf]

I can't wait for Michael Bluth to give us the scoop on this from inside the CPC. Is Steve responsible, or is it some jumped-up underlings?

[ScottSA]

Some people say Harper eats kittens.

[normanchateau]

Some people say Harper eats kittens.

This lame attempt at ridicule won't deflect attention from Harper's tactics.

[Fortunata]

Some people say Harper eats kittens.

Steve looks smug like the kitten that ate the canary but in truth his government is more like a pitbull.

[normanchateau]

but in truth his government is more like a pitbull.

In that it's out-of-control?

[Michael Bluth]

Steve looks smug like the kitten that ate the canary but in truth his government is more like a pitbull.

kitten that ate the canary?

did you go to the Jean Chretien school of English idioms?

[Alexandra]

He's already done it to British Columbia by changing our equalization formula so that BC ends up paying for some of next year's handouts to Quebec:

http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2007/03/b...ote-buying.html

How does B.C. end up paying for Quebec next year? Have you perused the equalization formula applied to B.C. which is now a Have province.?

Tielman is merely blowing smoke in his usual NDP fashion; why this Tielman blog would be of any use to prove whatever point you are attempting to make is beyond me.

`

[normanchateau]

How does B.C. end up paying for Quebec next year? Have you perused the equalization formula applied to B.C. which is now a Have province.?

"British Columbia has seesawed from have to have-not since the program was founded. For most of the 1990s, the province got nothing. But when a recession hit in 1998, the taps again began to flow. B.C. has been paid out every year since 2000 -- with a peak of $682 million in 2004.

This is something the province is not particularly proud of, according to Hamish Telford, a political science professor at the University College of the Fraser Valley and a member of the Queen's University Institute for Intergovernmental Relations. "My sense of that is that B.C. was never very comfortable in the 'have not' category. We like to think of ourselves as a 'have' province," Telford told The Tyee last week. "I think we were embarrassed a few years ago when we fell from 'have' to 'have not' province."

The result, Telford said, is that you don't hear much from the B.C. government on equalization, even though the province has a lot to gain or lose depending on what happens to the formula. If Harper keeps his promise, B.C.'s payments could go up to $2 billion a year, according to a report done by an advisory panel to the Council of the Federation. If he doesn't, they will, in all likelihood, disappear."

http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/03/16/HarpersBillions/

[Fortunata]

Steve looks smug like the kitten that ate the canary but in truth his government is more like a pitbull.

kitten that ate the canary?

did you go to the Jean Chretien school of English idioms?

You're right, let me change it up for you to make it more appropo - the fat, mean, spoiled house cat that swallowed the canary who used to sing the children to sleep. Much better yes?

In that it's out-of-control?

As in anything they can't control they use a sledge hammer approach to still dissenting voices. If they don't have a play book they don't have answers and seemingly implode with the unexpected. A PM that takes so much delight in making small minded mean spirited comments on other parties and persons is not what we had expected and is not what a PM should be. Weren't pit bulls banned in Ontario?

[normanchateau]

A PM that takes so much delight in making small minded mean spirited comments on other parties and persons is not what we had expected and is not what a PM should be.

I wonder if his social conservatism has anything to do with the small mindedness.

[Argus]

I'm sure the people of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are not likely to forget the bullying tactics.

Bullying to an easterner apparently means challenging them on their demand for every last penny in your pocket.

[Argus]

Some people say Harper eats kittens.

This lame attempt at ridicule won't deflect attention from Harper's tactics.

What tactics?

[Argus]

A PM that takes so much delight in making small minded mean spirited comments on other parties and persons is not what we had expected and is not what a PM should be.

I wonder if his social conservatism has anything to do with the small mindedness.

I wonder if your social liberalism has anything to do with small intellect.

[Guest chilipeppers]

Some people say Harper eats kittens.

This lame attempt at ridicule won't deflect attention from Harper's tactics.

What tactics?

He/she means her tactics of misleading and imputing and deflecting threads, don't fall for this type of baiting and trolling which is lowering the level of this forum.

[normanchateau]

A PM that takes so much delight in making small minded mean spirited comments on other parties and persons is not what we had expected and is not what a PM should be.

I wonder if his social conservatism has anything to do with the small mindedness.

I wonder if your social liberalism has anything to do with small intellect.

On the other hand, since there is an evidence-based negative correlation between religiosity and intelligence,

that might be contributing to his small mindedness.

You of course have no evidence of an inverse relationship between social liberalism and intelligence.

[nbguyca]

Some people say Harper eats kittens.

This lame attempt at ridicule won't deflect attention from Harper's tactics.

What tactics?

He/she means her tactics of misleading and imputing and deflecting threads, don't fall for this type of baiting and trolling which is lowering the level of this forum.

I think there are many who are lowering the intelligence level in this forum.

[ScottSA]

Some people say Harper eats kittens.

This lame attempt at ridicule won't deflect attention from Harper's tactics.

What tactics?

He/she means her tactics of misleading and imputing and deflecting threads, don't fall for this type of baiting and trolling which is lowering the level of this forum.

I think there are many who are lowering the intelligence level in this forum.

Especially since some can't quite keep a handle on whose tactics are under discussion. As I read it, the topic was Harper's tactics, and that seems to have slid sideways into baiting and trolling tactics.

I made the comment because this slavishly anti-Harper nonsense threatens to become a Canadian version of Bush derangement syndrome. I thought we might as well accuse the guy of eating kittens, or at least start a rumour to that effect. I hear he's been caught looking sideways at dogs too, but not with eating in mind, if you catch my meaning. Boy dogs, too.

[normanchateau]

I made the comment because this slavishly anti-Harper nonsense threatens to become a Canadian version of Bush derangement syndrome. I thought we might as well accuse the guy of eating kittens, or at least start a rumour to that effect. I hear he's been caught looking sideways at dogs too, but not with eating in mind, if you catch my meaning. Boy dogs, too.

There's no need to refer to fabricated kitten eating or caninophilia. Why not just focus on Harper's actual actions and statements?

[jdobbin]

Bullying to an easterner apparently means challenging them on their demand for every last penny in your pocket.

My understanding from the article is that it is staff within the PMO itself that have commented on the bullying. I'm sure come from the west as that is where Harper's brain trust comes from.