Canada Re-elects Stephen Harper
  

Congratulations to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He won the lottery. Frustrated Canadians who are sick and tired of the status quo gave him the mandate he coveted, and time will tell whether he is able to win the confidence (majority) of the Canadian people, as well as the election.

I did not vote so I reserve the right to criticize everybody.

This historic election has proved that when it comes to an election, there is no geater advantage than timing and luck, and Mr. Harper is one lucky man. As a Liberal, I was (to my embarrassment) prepared to trash him this morning, but I thought his acceptance speech was flawless, and that tells me that this man's best days are yet to come, so maybe, it's time to let bygones be bygones and to tend to the real needs he was hired fulfill.

Even though I call myself a Liberal I am in fact an objective historian, and my words are impartial and objective because that's my job. If I wasn't impartial and objective, I would not be a historian.

For the sake of full disclosure, I am a Social Liberal and a Fiscal Conservative. According to my standards, both the Liberals and the Conservatives are Marxists and I am deliberately using the term very loosely to highlight the fact that it is commonly used (especially in AM Radio talk shows) to demonize Liberals. These ignorant attacks are unwarranted and misleading because in the context of Canadian politics, fiscally responsible, Paul Martin-style Liberals are not as "marxist" as clueless, Jim Flaherty-style Conservatives who have mismanaged our economy (and that is not a cheap shot).

In the coming days, weeks and months, all kinds of ignorant pundits and journalists will be pulling reasons out of a hat to explain the outcome of the election and I am going to keep adding to this article because I think it is important to document the enormous gap between pundit delusion and fact, so stay tuned, especially if you are a pundit or a journalist because you might learn something.

Jack Layton, the New Democrat leader said Canadians voted to strengthen public health care, retirement security and help families make ends meet. "And you voted to end the same old debates and political games," he told the crowd. Is that why you voted? What about the people who did not vote, what did they want? It looks like this election has already gone to Mr. Layton's head and isn't that the problem? Jack Layton is not supposed to be an ignorant pundit, but he is beginning to sound like one.

And what about that foul mouthed, Ezna Levant, a "reporter" for Sun Media newspaper. On May 3rd, 2011, I was startled to watch this know-it-all pundit on national television, claiming that "Jack Layton visited a whorehouse fifteen years ago." What's his obsession? In the next breath, he claimed, with a wink and a smile that "the economy and jobs resonated with Canadians," giving us HIS peculiar explanation for Harper's historic majority. Is that right? And how does a record deficit help the economy?

Needless to say, if you read between the lines, it is clear and obvious that Ezna Levant is not a journalist. He is Canada's very own Rush Limbaugh (as far as his broadcasting style goes) and that appears to be a growing trend, especially on AM radio talk shows.

Toronto Sun, Senior National Reporter, Mark Dunn echoed Ezna Levant's lunacy when he wrote that the elecion outcome was a "ringing endorsement of his (Harper's) handling of the economy". These traditional explanations do not apply because election 2011 produced two politically diverse "winners" -Jack Layton AND Stephen Harper.

And just when I thought I had seen and heard everything, my father-in-law brought me a paper of the May 3 2011 copy of the Toronto Sun. All the other papers had been sold out, probably by anxious Canadians who are trying to make sense of an election that doesn't make any.

The cover of the Toronto Sun ridicules Jack Layton despite his historic victory and the political message is crystal clear; "Listen up Jack, we used you to ridicule and to demonize Michael Ignatieff and now that you helped us get Stephen Harper elected, it is time to ridicule you." This comes at the heels of radio talk show hosts who had repeatedly made fun of Jack Layton's forecasted "caucus" because Jack Layton was expected to "rise" to the occassion.

You really have to have your mind in the gutter to get these jokes, I guess I am not as "pure" as I should be, and I make the point so that all the decent folk who might not understand AM Radio talk show punchlines that are extremely, extremely redundant to anybody who listened to all hosts and guests make fun of "massage parlor" Layton, in the last 2 or 3 days.

I am an equal opportunity critic. I reject Layton's presumption as well as the Toronto Sun's disgusting cheap shots, and let me be clear. I do not blame Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the delusions of Ezna Levant and other reporters, whether they work for the Toronto Sun or not, unless he takes them seriously.

In their defence, I at least partly excuse the Toronto Sun and their brash reporters because in the absence of their courage and frankness, it would not be possible to realistically assess the outcome of this bizarre election result.

The point that appears to be rising to the surface if we choose to be reasonable and rational is that we are all Canadians, we are not Liberals, Conservatives or Marxists, and we will never be able to get a grip on the problems that confront us unless we pull together -no pun intended.

In that spirit, I hope that Prime Minister Stephen Harper comes to realize that journalists who constructively criticize him are in fact his best friends because if they do their jobs as it should be done, they will cultivate the environment that is necesay to grant Prime Minister Stephen Harper the opportunity to meet his mandate.

And what is his mandate? It is to be accountable, to be responsible and to be a fair and reasonable leader who is intelligent enough to accept valid media reports and to ignore the knee-jerk(off) reactions of ignorant pundits.

Now that is what every Canadian deserves regardless of what they expect or how they attempt to explain the reason behind Stephen Harper's first, majority government, and the message of the election is...? The message is that predicting a Canadian election is becoming as complicated as predicting the stock market, and that is a good thing. I like it. Here today, gone tomorrow. In the meantime, it is time to hold the ignorant bureacrats who are destroying OUR economy accountable.


NEXT: When will Prime Minister Harper Fix this?


[postscript] It is Thursday 5 May 2011, 8:52 am. Now that the I have digested all the information that I have time for, I have drawn a conclusion. Is the media responsible for Stephen Harper's majority election? Absolutely. There is no doubt about it. The media (and I am including the Internet) took Micheal Ignateff, one of the brightest minds that Canada has ever produced and turned him into a Marxist at best and "Iggy" at worst. Was Canada ready to elect Prime Minister "Iggy"? Absolutely not. Is there anything that "Iggy" could have done, to change his fate? Absolutely nothing. No doubt, the media will blame "Iggy" for losing, but he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Did the media do the right thing? Time will tell.The law of unintended consequences is impossible to forecast.
 
 
 
 


 
 
 

 
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