Of course, one can't expect Jane Taber's coverage to note the flip side to the Cons' strategic distractions. But while Taber hands her report over to Con spinners for a typical dose of NDP concern trolling, let's note that there's more common ground than reason for disagreement between Quebec and the rest of Canada when it comes to pointless distractions like renaming Canada's Armed Forces and playing up the monarchy.
Indeed, every region of the country has ample reason to see those moves as an utter waste of time compared to other issues. And none figures to be interested in shifting votes toward the Cons as a result if the NDP's response is to focus on that common point of view.
So if the Cons really plan to spend a substantial amount of their focus turning back the clock on Canadian symbols, that may be exactly the opening the NDP needs to undercut any credibility the Cons currently claim when it comes to higher priorities like the economy and health care. And that opportunity will only be amplified if the message sinks in with the public that the Cons are deliberately trying to avoid dealing with those more important issues.
I would venture to suggest that the NDP might profit by undertaking that undercutting in a particular way.
ReplyDeleteThe Cons want to play a Canadian patriotism card. And like it or not, patriotism has some potency. The stuff sells.
But a problem for the Cons is that their patriotism is false. They want to sell the symbols of patriotism, but many of their substantive policies undermine Canadian sovereignty or at a minimum slavishly imitate failed American policies.
S o for instance, on health care Harper wants to undermine Canadian health care by imitating failed American health care and letting American health care companies in to make profits from us. Of course he denies it and the media tends to give him a pass on this one like it's gauche to accuse him, so some care needs to be exercised in bringing it up.
On the military, he wants to make the name "Royal", but the substance is integration with American forces, taking up (only) American missions, and buying white elephant American jets that even the Americans are having their doubts about.
On security, he wants to hand our data over to American agencies and, again, integrate, meaning hand over our independence.
On the economy, he wants to follow the American model that has landed them in the soup, and keep us tied as much as possible to the wallowing American economy. His political allies were probably the kind of people who not so long ago were speculating about ditching the Canadian dollar in favour of currency union with the US.
His speeches to Americans tend to the shameless flattery and toadying; he seems convinced the US is a better country than Canada.
He is in short not a nationalist, not even a continentalist, but someone who seems to want to submerge Canada into the US as deeply as possible. If he's patriotic it's US patriotism.
So for any institution he wants to give a symbolic rah-rah British Canada makeover, it should be easily possible to point out substantive policies which are both wrong and undermine genuine Canadian sovereignty in favour of genuflexion to the US. Point his failings out in this way and both the substantive policy ground *and* the symbolic ground are cut out from under him.
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