On Bernier - Agree or disagree, the Conservatives fumbled

I don't want to keep going on about this, but it's bad enough seeing Liberals and the media scorn Bernier and those who agree with him, but it's worse when Conservative leadership lines up alongside. I understand the urge to distance oneself from the perception of racism or anti-multiculturalism, but if instead of the kneejerk reaction, they'd taken a moment to consider how Bernier's tweets actually resonated with a lot of Canadians, and that really, when taken in context as a response to Justin Trudeau, rather than a response to multiculturalism, they could have managed it so it didn't have to be divisive or damaging to the party. Instead, they've let the Liberals set the tone for the Conservative agenda.

They could have said something like,

'We understand Mr. Bernier's concerns, and agree that Prime Minister Trudeau has failed to demonstrate that he values the Canadian identity with the same passion as he does our cultural diversity. We believe, as Mr. Bernier obviously does, that most new Canadians wish to become part of the fabric of Canada and integrate in a positive way, and that our diverse backgrounds and experience enhance our country. As Mr. Bernier has said, we need to continue to find ways to encourage newcomers to do so. 

Unlike the Justin Trudeau's Liberals, we also believe that newcomers to Canada long to be part of a society where they are free to express their political opinions and not be censured or shamed. Mr. Bernier has expressed a point of view which does not incite hatred or violence, but which was, we believe, meant to highlight that it isn't our enjoyment of the flavours, or the dances, or the costumes we see within our cultural mix that makes Canada great as Justin Trudeau keeps telling us, it is our common aspirations for freedom, peace and justice. These are what make us great. These are what unite us and this unity is our greatest strength.'

If, as it appears, the only card Andrew Scheer has to play is being against the Carbon Tax, Doug Ford and some of the other premiers have relieved him of too much worry on that front. How else does he differ from the Liberals? He doesn't seem as simple-minded as Justin, and likely wouldn't embarrass us on the world stage, but he might be pretty invisible. That mightn't be a bad thing had he handled this situation better.

There are just so many ways the Conservative Party could have responded without throwing Bernier (and like-minded conservatives) under the bus and without ostensibly aligning themselves with the Liberals -- you know what-- I am a moderate conservative, and if I have the choice between Justin Trudeau's Liberals and Andrew Scheer's liberals, I'm just staying home next October. If someone is going to run the country like a liberal, then I'd rather it be them. 

I will nevermore be responsible for him by my direct support—even though the consequence should be the election of Jefferson. If we must have an enemy at the head of the Government, let it be one whom we can oppose & for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures.

~ Alexander Hamilton, referring to the election of John Adams

Maybe the idea of Scheer is not quite that menacing, but having a Conservative Party that is Liberal lite is not worth the bother.

canadianna

Safe

I started writing this blog because I felt that my Canadianness was being attacked. I don't remember specifics, but if you go back in my archives, it was right around the Sponsorship Scandal and the Gomery Commission and the election that followed.

Throughout that time, the values of the Canadian right were being assaulted (seemingly more than usual) by the supposedly centrist Liberals and of course, the unabashedly far-left NDP. As the Liberals attempted to court 'mainstream' voters, they painted formerly middle turf values as extreme far right, evangelical, unCanadian. This was long before Donald Trump and the apparent rise of the alt-right in the US. Our Conservative Party and our conservatives thinkers were being painted as bigoted, racist, homophobic, misogynists even then in 2005.

I started writing because I felt excluded from the debate. I've always considered myself pretty middle-of-the-road politically, with a slight tilt to the right. None of my personal opinions on things like gay rights or abortion or immigration seemed radical to me, but here I was, nearly every day, reading about some Liberal saying that my opinions were held only by Neanderthals. I wanted to express my point of view.

After scary Stephen Harper was elected, I guess the need to write fell off a bit. I was no longer under attack. There was always yipping from people who hated him in particular and conservatives in general, but for the most part, I felt like all Canadians now had the right to think as they pleased without the government bashing them.

During Harper's time as PM, gay rights advanced, and immigration increased and life went on and no matter what the other side thought about anything, I don't remember any Conservatives telling the other parties or other points of view, that they were unCanadian or unwelcome. Sure they argued and said they were wrong, but not unCanadian. Not even when those people were interfering with the economy by blocking pipelines etc. Everyone was entitled to their opinion. Non-conservatives were not vilified by the government for their opinions... am I wrong?

Here we are, not three years into a Liberal term and here I am again being told that my views and opinions are unCanadian and unwelcome. Not even worthy of discussion. Just objectively wrong. Take the Summer Works Programme attestation requirement. I'm anti-abortion. Oooops. UnCanadian. Can't even discuss it. Can't even suggest that there might be another reasonable point of view beyond the status quo which is absolutely no abortion law whatsoever, so no protection for the unborn at any stage of gestation. Nope. Nope. Shut up. You're wrong - so wrong, that unless you believe how we do on this controversial life and death subject you are ineligible to receive government money (even if your business has nothing to do with your beliefs-- you as a business owner/service provider CANNOT BELIEVE CONTRARY TO THE LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA ON THIS) and you must sign a values statement as proof.

Canadian values. Liberal style. One thought fits all.

Remember what Justin Trudeau said:

"And I'll give you the quote so that you guys can jot it down and put it in an attack ad somewhere, that the Liberal Party believes that terrorists should get to keep their Canadian citizenship," said Trudeau, in an audio recording first reported by CTV News. "Because I do. And I'm willing to take on anyone who disagrees with that. Because the question is, as soon as you make citizenship for some Canadians conditional on good behavior, you devalue citizenship for everyone."

Trudeau said he's "envious" of new Canadians because they "got to choose Canada".

"The idea that we would say that we'll give you your citizenship, but for the rest of your life you have to be on your best behavior ... that principle that says the government can decide what you did means you no longer get to be Canadian is a very, very scary one," he said.

Read all that carefully -- *the Liberal Party believes that terrorists should get to keep their Canadian citizenship because I do.*

That's why they think it. Because Justin Trudeau does. And they think as they are told.

And, let's just let it sink in that Justin Trudeau does not comprehend the difference between say, murder in a gang fight or domestic situation and treason. Not that murder in other contexts is not bad, but there HAS to be a distinction between generic crime, and crime against country. Has there ever been a real debate on this? A national conversation? It's important and timely, but just another thing that has been done, but will not be discussed because there is no other valid point of view.

And that brings me to the Maxime Bernier situation. Do I think he should have tweeted what he did? NO. But not because I think he was wrong. I think he made some valid points and those points are worth discussing. I think they need to be discussed. But he was wrong to tweet because it's unsafe again for conservatives to voice their opinions.. even if they're carefully worded, nuanced, respectful... Maxime's in my opinion, were borne of frustration with Justin's rah! rah! rah! at the opening of Taste of the Danforth, which, considering the situation, should have been more circumspect... so -- Mr. Bernier was tweeting passionately and perhaps it came across as rejecting diverse peoples rather than rejection of the fake, vapid, costumes-and-flavours diversity that is the only kind of diversity Mr. Trudeau has ever experienced. So, for that reason, if some reading those tweets took them as being directed at new immigrants or at differing cultures... it seemed rude. But if you parse it down and stop reading it from the perspective of someone who WANTS to anticipate antipathy towards minorities by conservatives, you see Bernier is just expressing that he wants our culture, Canadian culture to be respected -- and for that to happen, we first have to acknowledge that there is, in fact, a Canadian culture. Trudeau does not believe that and for some of us, that's difficult to swallow.

Andrew Scheer and other prominent Conservatives have distanced themselves from Bernier, and understandably. We live in a climate where it is again, unsafe to hold opinions contrary to those of the guys in power, and particularly now, with Trump to the south, no one here wants to be equated with that. Innocuous talk by the likes of Lisa McLeod and Michelle Rempel has been called Nazi and alt-right, which of course is meant to quiet discourse and frustrate people on the right who simply hold a different point of view--and maybe push them to the point of tweeting passionately on the subject of culture.

Right now, I don't know the best course of action for Conservatives. Most people aren't following the twitterverse, and are unaware of the level of animosity that exists for all things right-leaning -- most people, voters, are concerned with our borders, but don't *feel* they are racist because of that, but their main issues are always going to be money issues... taxes, jobs, health care etc. But when it comes to an election, a wedge issue like immigration can move people who are otherwise ambivalent -- that's what happened in 2015 when the Syrian crisis heated up and the Conservatives went a little weird with their cultural abuse hotline that had everyone wondering who was running the show... THAT was extreme and weird and creepy -- and utterly unconservative. It made a lot of people uncomfortable, and tipped the vote in Justin's favour. While I don't see Bernier's opinions as being that kind of extreme, the climate has changed and people are very sensitive to the perception of racism, discrimination and bigotry -- in part because you have media like Rosie Barton of the CBC accusing Bernier of using the anniversary of the alt-right Charlottesville Rally as his impetus for tweeting and thereby inciting violence... and later CBC suggesting that his tweets caused the destruction of a sign for a park in Saskatchewan named for the founder of Pakistan. When you have media suggesting that a person's tweets are inciting violence, how close a proximity are you going to keep when you want to win an election in fourteen months?

Sadly, I think Conservatives are going to play it safe. I think all of the things we can't discuss in Canada will remain things that can't be discussed. They're important issues, deserving of our time and energy and even our passions -- because they mean life and death and future. But even when Stephen Harper came to power, we didn't talk about them, because even when it was safe to think them, it still wasn't safe to say them --- or else you might not get re-elected.

If that's what it's all about, just about being elected but then following the liberal status quo once you get there, I don't know why we even bother with the charade.

canadianna     

Speaking of diversity

A lot of media types are implying that Maxime Bernier's tweet thread yesterday means he's anti-immigration/anti-immigrant, racist, nationalist etc.

Did anyone notice the video embedded in the tweet:

First in tweet thread with video of Trudeau at Taste of the Danforth

This is a short version of the video, but you can find others if you look. This is our Prime Minister at the opening of the Taste of the Danforth, less than two weeks after the shootings. Even the longer versions where he mentions the girls who were murdered, there is no solemnity, no sense of the gravity of what has happened to the victims or to the community. It's a stump speech, political in every way. It's rah! rah! Liberal values! But regardless of your values, your beliefs on diversity or multiculturalism, pluralism -- this wasn't the time.

Yes, it's wonderful that in the face of adversity that our city is able to rally around and come together and still feel a sense of community, but the ladling on about diversity being the *reason* for the resilience and what makes it great -- bullshit. Just bullshit. It has nothing to do with diversity -- people came together out of a sense of shared grief, shared horror, a shared need to find a way to find something good, to find a way to move forward from this. Diversity had nothing NOTHING to do with it. Did diverse types people come together? I'm sure they did, but it was their common need to connect, to respond, to make things right again. It was our shared humanity and longing for wholeness -- yes, there were people of many races, religions, genders, ages -- quite common in the western world. It's delightful when it's simple celebration, but in this particular instance, irrelevant I think or at least, not really what you'd expect to be the focus of a speech.

Perhaps if Bernier comes off sounding a little pissed off about diversity, it's less in response to what's happening at the border, or to the ethnic identity of the shooter, and more a reaction to Trudeau's using the Danforth tragedy to campaign about his superior values. The fist pumping political rhetoric had no place at an event like this. The city is still recovering from its shock, and the timbre of Trudeau's address did not match the atmosphere.

I agree with some of what Bernier said, but I cringe because saying it, in our current climate, is toxic. Those who are inclined to believe that all conservatives are racists, pounce on something like this as evidence. In my opinion, it was a man frustrated by the glib and unseemly politicking and blatant disrespect of the situation displayed by Trudeau in that video.

canadianna

Side with the home team

Much as I believe that tweeting diplomacy is stupid, and that Chrystia Freeland and her Foreign Affairs Department were foolish to chastise the Saudis publicly in an attempt to shame them into changing their minds on the imprisoned activists, I also believe that backing down would be morally reprehensible.

Former Foreign Affairs minister, John Baird, has called on PMJT to travel to Riyadh to smooth things over....uh--- no.

The Tweets were ill-advised, but they were not wrong. They reflect our stand on Saudi human rights abuses. Sure, the government has not similarly called out all of the other rights-abusing regimes in the world. Does that mean that we should back down on calling out this one? Absolutely not.

You took a stand. Bad timing. Wrong platform. But you hold your ground. Just this weekend a Saudi air strike took out a group of Yemeni school kids on the way back from a picnic and we're gonna start sniveling to them, begging for what? Oil they've already said won't be affected by this dispute?

There is no need to escalate. We don't want to jeopardize the captives, but at the same time, we should not be apologizing for speaking our truth. Maybe apologize for doing it publicly, on such an informal platform, without regard to typical diplomatic protocols, but no-- we should not be stooping before the Prince of Saud and calling him our 'ally'. We are trading partners, with mutually beneficially business interests. We are not friends with the Saudis, I hope. And it bothers me that because this blunder was made by a Liberal government, so many conservatives are willing to yield our values to mend fences with an evil regime.

I am getting to the point where I loathe Justin Trudeau, but this is bigger than him. His government made a mistake and now, on behalf of Canadians, they have to own it. To grovel before the Saudis is to betray our values and while Justin Trudeau doesn't reflect my values most of the time, right now, he represents Canada. Canada believes in human rights. We cannot apologize for that.

canadianna