Is Erin O'Toole a Dead Man Walking?

 


Recent polls show Justin Trudeau on the path to another false majority government.  His only real challenger, Erin O'Toole, is already being written off.

The Beaverton captures the Tory dilemma best:

OTTAWA – Staring down the possibility of their third straight electoral defeat, members of the Conservative Party of Canada are beginning to entertain the notion that it may not be the wisest choice to always choose someone who makes people’s skin crawl as their party leader.

“Ever since Stephen Harper we’ve had a clear strategy for picking leaders,” said party official Hans Gunderson. “And that is: go with the guy who you not only don’t want to get a beer with, but who is so weird the idea of them doing something normal like drinking a beer seems insane.”

“Maybe Canadians don’t want to vote for someone they would never want to have a conversation with under any circumstances? I don’t get it personally,” he added.

Harper, Scheer and O’Toole have very different personality traits. For instance Harper had a robotic demeanour, Scheer more of a passive aggressive whine and O’Toole seems to be the personification of punching a wall in anger. But all three share the key component so important to Conservative Party members: being so fundamentally unappealing that your average voter goes “him?”

I know, I know, it's The Beaverton. Hardly the place for serious deliberations on important matters such as governance. C'mon, Parliament is a joke and a lame joke at that. It has fallen so far behind the critical, immensely dangerous problems of the day that it deserves our disdain and mockery. The Beaverton is exactly where it belongs.

Comments

  1. TrailblazerJuly 6, 2021 at 6:17 PM

    There are no political parties anymore; only dressed up special interests predominately in the carbon industry posing as salvationists who would save us from the deprivation of a social conscience.

    I fear the battle is lost.
    Best we can do is make the perpetrators miserable.


    TB




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibJuly 6, 2021 at 10:30 PM

      I have a theory, Trailblazer, that what we're experiencing is the inevitable consequence of neoliberalism. With governments' hands tied by intricate alliances and global trade agreements, there's increasingly less room for vision and leadership. We wind up with technocrats, petit fonctionnaires, who become indistinguishable grey suits stuffed with wet cardboard. Making a comparison between diminutive Justin and his legendary father is painful.

      If there was ever a moment to rise to the occasion we're in it between the pandemic and the climate emergency plus a world that's fraying at the seams but no one is at the wheel.

      O'Toole is the best friend the Liberals have. It's the soon-to-be-ousted Tory leader and his party so broadly at odds with the Canadian public that will deliver Team Trudeau a victory, quite possibly a majority of mediocrity.

      And the band played on.

      Delete
  2. John B.July 6, 2021 at 7:52 PM

    I'll condemn the whole operation for the irrelevance it has embraced with a special mention for the CPC. Harper's leftovers are behaving as if to let us know that they don't take it seriously. It seems like a pathetic attempt to make common cause with public sentiment. I wonder if they take a similar approach to their constituency work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibJuly 6, 2021 at 10:31 PM

      They really are the gang that couldn't shoot straight, John.

      Delete

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