Da plane! Da plane! Those were the words that were spoken by Tattoo in every episode of the hit 1970s television series, Fantasy Island. But don’t expect to hear those words spoken by federal Liberal leader Stéphane Dion any time soon although when he does, at least he’ll be pronouncing them the same way Tattoo did.
The Liberals were caught at the beginning of the federal election campaign without an aircraft even though the reality of the election this fall has been known for weeks.
Dion, who undoubtedly had no intention of bringing the government down this fall, just didn’t see Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s request for dissolution, coming and as a result, the Liberals have been left with no plane to begin the campaign. As has been pointed out, if he can’t run an election campaign he certainly cannot run a country. And there is a correlation between running a campaign and leading a country. We know this for a fact because Dion’s hero, Barry Obama, said so. In discussing his experience in relation to that of Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, the Messiah said that Palin was only in charge of 50 employees when she was mayor of Wasilla Alaska while he has 2500 people employed in the campaign that he is running. The fact that Dion’s party is beginning the campaign without a plane is, for lack of a better description, scary.
The plane that the Dion Liberals are getting is a 30-year-old gas-guzzler and much less “environmentally-friendly” than the aircraft that were acquired by the other parties (that incidentally already have them). The fact that Stéphane Dion is making the environment a central plank in his party’s platform while not caring how much his party adds to the environmental degradation is, for lack of a better description, scary. It shows that Dion will take steps to improve the environment only as long as there are no adverse consequences to the Liberals. This should actually surprise no one; Dion is a typical “do what I say, not what I do” environmentalist. Al Gore would be so proud.
Scary Steffi intends to attack Stephen Harper as being scary. Presumably Dion will be telling the masses that a Harper majority will outlaw abortion, reverse same sex marriage and presumably build concentration camps for women, gays and other people the Conservatives don’t like. The Liberal leader has previewed this strategy by already saying that Stephen Harper is more right wing than John McCain. Further to the right than John McCain??? John McCain was in deep doo doo until he chose Sarah Palin as his VP because he wasn’t far enough to the right. Other than his blinding love for all things Obama, a statement like that makes you wonder how much Stéphane Dion actually knows about the United States and the rest of the world. His claim that Harper is to the right of McCain, other than being a complement is, for lack of a better description, scary.
As former Prime Minister Paul Martin might say in relation portraying Stephen Harper as scary, been there, done that. And it didn’t work out that well for Martin, who, by the way he slashed spending when he was Finance Minister was definitely to the right of John McCain. Martin at least had the sense to tone down this rhetoric during the 2005-6 campaign. While there may have been some advantage to attempting to portray Harper as scary in previous elections, Harper has been the PM for two and a half years now and there are better ways to attack him other than to advance strange speculations of what he will do if he gets a majority. Dion’s attempt to portray the man who as governed the country for the past 32 months as a right wing fanatic is, for lack of a better description, scary.
When the votes are counted after the October 14 election, there is a chance that Canada will end up with a scary prime minister. But it won’t be Stephen Harper.
