In a statement last week, Liberal MP Bob Rae showed how desperate the once mighty Natural Governing Party is these days. Rae said that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are in deep doo-doo if Barack Obama wins the presidency next November because of the NAFTA leak that occurred earlier this year. It was leaked that Obama has no intention of renegotiating NAFTA and only said that he would in attempt to gain votes in states such as Michigan that have lost manufacturing jobs. Rae indicated that a President Obama would not be too pleased with the Conservatives which the former NDP Ontario premier referred to as “a Republican farm team”.
Concerning that description, Rae may not be too far off the mark. Win or lose, John McCain will become the head of the Republican Party after George Bush exits the White House next January. Harper’s government, often described as Liberal-lite may in fact appear similar to a Republican Party run by the McCainiacs. Then again, John McCain might very well make Stephen Harper look like the scary right wing extremist that poor Paul Martin, remember him, always tried to portray the Conservative leader as.
It is not uncommon for political parties in general and the Liberals in particular to attempt to scare voters into voting for them by painting Chicken Little scenarios about what will happen if their opponents win the next election. But Bobby is scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. Who’s afraid of the big, bad, Bama?
The leak about NAFTA will not cause any problems unless and until a President Obama actually begins to renegotiate the agreement. And NAFTA will hardly be a priority of a new Obama administration. Barry will be too busy cutting and running from Iraq, introducing some form of Hillarycare and meeting with the leader of Iran, after which he’ll no doubt come home and say “that is not the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that I know”.
What is really bad about what Bob Rae said was that it’s just a matter of common sense, something that Liberal elites like Rae don’t think Canadians have. It is stating the obvious to say that Republicans prefer Conservatives and Democrats prefer Liberals. And no one on either side of the border particularly cares for the NDP.
All Rae is doing is reminding us of what relations between the two countries was like between 2001 and 2006 when George Bush was president and Chrétien and Martin were residing at 24 Sussex. Rae’s comments bring back memories of Chrétien blaming the greed and arrogance of the West (read the United States) for 9/11 and Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish’s “Damn Americans, I hate those bastards” comment, among others. There is nothing that Stephen Harper could ever do that would even come close to the flagrant anti-Americanism under Chrétien and Martin. Thanks for the memories, Bob.
The cost of fuel is now hovering around $1.35 a litre and Harper has broken the promise that he made in opposition to reduce taxes when the price exceeded 85 cents. As well Harper seemed absolutely unconcerned with the country’s security after saying that the former Foreign Affairs Minister’s relationship with a woman with known biker associates was a “private matter”. The Liberals should be in majority government territory right about now but the polls have hardly moved. This is of course due to the terrible leadership of Stéphane Dion whose sole ambition in life seems to be to increase taxes on already over-taxed Canadians. Even greenie Jack Layton can see that imposing a carbon tax will be disastrous for lower income Canadians and those on fixed incomes.
And the once mighty Bob Rae, who in his previous incarnation as a federal MP set the ball rolling to bring down the government of Joe Clark is now reduced to saying don’t support the Tories because O’Bambi might get mad.
It’s hard to imagine a greater example of political desperation than this. But with Steffi at the helm, it’s not surprising that pretty well all the Liberals have is desperation.
