Best-of Canadian Conservative government blunders for 2012

Dave sez,

This little blog is my attempt to keep track of all of the comings and goings of Canada's Conservative government. Every week I spend an hour or two putting together a weekly round-up of the bad things done by the Conservatives in the name of "fiscal responsibility" and "family values". Honestly, there's always so much material to work with that it practically writes itself. I figured it would take no time at all to put together a nice little list of my favourite Conservative moments/people/events of 2012. But there was just so very much to work with I very quickly became sad, angry, confused, overwhelmed and then sad, all over again. There's a few holes and a few things missing, but this list should provide a nice little primer for anybody that wants to know about the fantastic accomplishments of Canada's Government in 2012! Highlights include:

- A Conservative MP who keeps falling asleep at work and then gets really angry when people ask him about it
- An incompetent energy company attempting to hack a pipeline through the wilderness of British Columbia
- A Conservative Minister who attempted to destroy Internet privacy but threw a hissy fit when the details of his divorce were made public (spoiler: he may-or-may-not have slept with the babysitter!)

24 Percent Majority: 2012 Best Of - Week 87 - Dec 25-Jan 1 (Thanks, Dave!)

• [Bob Dunkin]

  Sadly…I’d forgotten about some of that. If sadder is that I have to live with this for a while longer…

• [Michael Polo]

  I’m not so sure that the political leadership is getting worse, rather the journalism is getting better.

• [Eark_the_Bunny]

  Someone should hold a contest to see who has the awfullest “conservatives”, Canada or the USA.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Aren’t Canadian conservatives the droppings of US conservatives?

    • [DoctorDoak]

      Still not clear to me which is worse – awful Conservatives, or their excrement.

    • [opit]

       Nope. People tend to forget that the court system was/is the same throughout the British Empire – and that precedents in one country are legal precedents in another. That should tell you more than you want to know about a similarity that should be inescapable when noting degree of resemblance.
      NATO countries soldiers are interchangeable as well – serving in each others’ armed forces. And intelligence services are united by secret decree. Then there is the matter of the so-called ACBA armies….for the names of the countries which pioneered that integration.
      Add in disinformation operations and shared ‘intelligence’ and the appearance of individuality erodes as quickly as shared UN protocols.

• [Rock Hardwood]

  More interested in the ‘goings’ of these tools.

• [ldobe]

  Wow.

  And I thought the Canadians were a benevolent and peaceful people.

  Perhaps they are (I’ve never had a bad time during my travels in B.C., hell, even the cops are nice, even when I’m caught speeding with no excuse). But I guess politics attract the worst kind of scum available, no matter how nice the local people are on average.

  • [foobar]

    These are mostly Albertans. They don’t want to be Canadian and Canadians don’t want them.

    • [conflator]

      Woah, there, hoss. Not all Albertans are Conservatives, and even the ones that are mostly make good neighbours. We’ve got our crackpots like everybody else, but it’s an unfair brush to paint us all with.

      And as I recall it was the GTA that ushered in our current overlords. Everyone knew Alberta would vote Conservative, as they have for decades. Toronto got them the majority.

    • [Niel de Beaudrap]

      It’s attitudes like yours which make me reticent to tell people where I grew up when I’m in Canada. It must feel quite nice having been raised in The Real Canada™ (one of the first two from before Confederation), the tone of the media being set by your fellow true Canadians, confident of your political centrality and indispensibility.

      I wouldn’t mind Alberta separating, just so that when I retain my Canadian citizenship and move to Montreal, people like you can finally get your wish about not having to deal with any political discussion with provinces whose priorities are too dissimilar to Ontario’s, and people can stop questioning my loyalties. Then, when Canada has become sufficiently fractured that we can’t maintain our sovereignty from the U.S. whatsoever, you can at least feel satisfied that at least it wasn’t those fake-Canadians out west who dragged you down, but rather an entirely home-grown and truly Canadian failure of the spirit.

      • [foobar]

        Try again, I’m from BC. Which, incidentally, is why I know that Albertans make terrible neighbours. Unless you like oil spills.

• [Charles Lenchner]

  Thanks for posting stuff here about Canada. People I know in the US really like Canadians. Let’s be friends!

  • [ldobe]

    I’d love to be your friend :-]

    I can’t say that I personally know more than one or two Canadians (even though I live in the PNW) but I’ve spent plenty of time on numerous occasions in B.C. on business and vacation, and I must say, it’s “nicer” there.

    Shop owners don’t act like I’m some kind of obnoxious fly, the police are respectful and don’t call me “boy” or “son”, people greet me on the street instead of silently averting their eyes or carefully ignoring my greetings (which is standard operating procedure in Seattle).  All this while I’m not an obvious tourist.  I’ve even had strangers invite me to join them for dinner out on a couple of occasions after sharing a cigarette (in Victoria, I declined, it was early in my travels in BC and I was paranoid).

    As far as my experience informs me, Canada would be my number one destination if I had to live someplace else than the US.

• [David Aked]

  hmmm.   Wow.  For those that keep of thinking of Canadians as synonymous to the word “Sorry”, remember that the most terrifying thing is being bitten by the dog that has been friendly for so long.  Worse for being so unexpected.

  As for conservative.  I’m not sure if half that stuff listed is “Conservative” but rather NUTCASE!

  For the sake of Canadians, I hope that the majority population learns from this or else we’ll start to see #MovingToAmerica.  (As an Australian, I’m finding the Canadian stuff more deeply disturbing.  Many of the ‘American complaint’ stuff is stuff that is obvious.  The Canadian stuff is almost borderline psychological warfare against its own citizens)

  However, I don’t pretend to be (nor have I played on TV) someone that is across all of US and Canadian law.  So take my comments with a grain of salt about the size of a medium sized state.

  • [Nathan Hornby]

    “I’m not sure if half that stuff listed is “Conservative” but rather NUTCASE!”

    What’s the difference?

• [morgane]

  I don’t want to be in Harper’s Canada anymore. His proximity to Israel’s Far Right is nauseating, amond thousands of sickening things about his politics.  His disrespect towards the First Nations is disgusting. I’m so ashamed to be in Harper’s Canada. So ashamed.

  The only thing saving me from becoming a full on independantist is Mulcair and his NDP. But if the Tories are re-elected in 2015 by the ROC (Rest Of Canada), i expect a Referendum in Québec soon enough after that. And even if the Oui is at less than 35% in the polls in Québec right now, a Harper campagning “for Canada” during a referendum would push the Oui over 50% just because of “him”. His popularity is around 15% in our province the last couple years. We hate him that much. Ontario gave him his majority govt last elections, let them deal with him without Québec.

  • [edkedz]

     Nice job using Harper’s own logic (“I must have a mandate because I have the seats, regardless of my pathetic popular vote standing”) to paint absolutely everyone in the “ROC” (a loathsome term) with the blame for him being in power.

    Also, as a western leftist (don’t forget where the NDP was actually born) you can stuff that whole “let’s just leave them to Harper’s not-so-tender mercies, they’re all righties like him anyway” load of crap right up your ass.

• [Morgan Maher]

  The way out and over this Harper insanity:

  Idle No More
  http://idlenomore.com/

  Overviews:

  Idle No More
  http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/04/idle-no-more/

  The Wild Fire of Idle No More
  http://www.realitysandwich.com/wild_fire_idle_no_more

• [dragonfrog]

  My own charming MP didn’t make the cut, it seems.  Drunk driving by a stalwart “law and order”-ist just isn’t quite colourful enough I guess…

  • [Nathan Hornby]

    My representative in government is famed for once being seduced by a Russian Spy.  So there’s that.

• [feetleet]

  As an ugly ugly american, I think the plurality/majority/supermajority thing is as superior and off-putting as the ‘whom’ police. But I’m ugly.