If you are following Canadian politics, you will know things are getting really heated up north of the border, and the Stephen Harper Conservative government may fall. It started with the Fiscal Update and what was said by Flaherty, the Finance Minister. What Flaherty said was he would cut funding to opposition parties to save money for the government, and offer the economy of Canada nothing to stimulate it. This enraged the Opposition and began the talks to unite and defeat the Conservatives.
So Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided to use the economic crisis to play politics and destroy his oppponent. What the Prime Minister also did to achieve his agenda was issue word for word emails of what exactly for its supporters to say, one such email for the Montreal area can be read here.
The Conservatives are revving up their party machine to try to win the high stakes game of political chicken they triggered with the tabling of their fiscal update Thursday. While Liberals, New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois discuss ways to form a coalition government, the Conservatives are calling on their grassroots members to bombard radio stations, newspapers and the internet with messages backing the Conservative position.
For those uncertain what to say, the Conservatives are providing handy dandy talking points and convenient lists of local radio stations, newspapers and all of their coordinates.
Here's an example for those in the Montreal area.
You see the Harper Government has been working closely with Republicans for years with regards to messaging and how to achieve its goals. This is especially true with regards to using talk radio, letters to the editor, and using its supporters to pose as "regular Canadians", but have exact quotes in hand to reflet exactly what the Prime Minister wants Canadians to believe.
How did the press get the emails, there could be two scenarios. One the Prime Minister's office is in panic mode, it didn't expect all three parties to unite and be willing to defeat the government right after an election, but Harper pushed his luck too far. Second, someone inside the party isn't happy with handling of the crisis.
Fellow Kossack and blogger,
Buckdog also has the an email fromt the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff telling its supporters the talking points.
You all may remember the Primaries and what happened in Ohio when the Prime Minister's office "leaked" to the media "leaked" that Obama would ignore his pledge to rework the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), it was not proven that the Prime Minister's Office tried to interfere with the US Presidential Election, well this is sweet justice, to see the PMO caught red handed during the Harper Government's biggest crisis to date.
For more background into the crisis in Ottawa, Katie O'Mally of McClean's Magazine (Canadian version of Time Mag), has some more details into the chaos in the Prime Minister's Office.chaos in the Prime Minister's Office
Here are the Talking Points Posted on macleans.ca for all to see.
Is anyone else outraged by what the Opposition Parties are doing in Ottawa?
We’re not even two months removed from the last election, and a group of backroom politicians are going to pick who the Prime Minister is. Canadians didn’t vote for this person. We don’t even know who this person will be.
Not a single voter voted for a Liberal-NDP coalition. Certainly not a single voter voted for the Liberals to form a coalition with the separatists in the Bloc.
Add – what’s worse the Liberals even promised that there wouldn’t be a coalition with the NDP – this is all about power, all about money and they don’t even want to face the voters
This is what bothers me the most. The Conservatives won the election. The Opposition keeps saying that the Conservatives have to respect the will of the voters that this is a minority and so on.
...how about Liberals, NDP and Bloc respecting the will of the voters when they said "YOU LOSE".
And what’s this going to do to the economy. I’m sorry, I don’t care how desperate the Liberals are – giving socialists (Jack Layton) and separatists (Gilles Duceppe) a veto over every decision in government – that is a recipe for total economic disaster.
Here is what is bothering me about all of this backroom opposition coalition talk.
Sure it bothers me that parties Canadian rejected are trying to seize power through the back door.
But how more phony could these guys be?
I mean, I follow the news, virtually every single day you have Harper or Flaherty out there telegraphing exactly what they plan to do with the economy. And not once did you hear the Liberals, NDP or separatists talking about toppling the government in response.
No – do you know what set this off. When Flaherty said he was going to take taxpayer-funded subsidies away from the opposition. Now there is a reason to try and overturn an election– because the Conservatives the audacity to say "Hey, it’s a recession, maybe you should take your nose out of the trough."
And I wish the media would be more clear on this point – the opposition aren’t being singled out by this fact the Conservatives stand to lose the most money of all. The only difference is that Canadians are voluntarily giving money the Conservatives, so they don’t need taxpayer handouts. The only reason the opposition would be hurt more is because nobody wants to donate to them. They should be putting their efforts towards fixing that problem.
I don’t want another election. But what I want even less is a surprise backroom Prime Minister whom I never even had the opportunity to vote for or against. What an insult to democracy.
UPDATE: The Prime Minister's office secretly taped an NDP caucus meeting yesterday and released it to the press this afternoon.
But the Conservatives were not just playing defence.
They covertly taped an NDP conference call in which Leader Jack Layton spoke of plotting with the Bloc Quebecois to bring down the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper even before the economic update.
After waiting a day, the Prime Minister's Office released the tape and pointed to it as proof of an NDP-Bloc conspiracy hatched long before the government produced its fall financial blueprint.
NDP looking into persuing charges against the PMO.
SECOND UPDATE: COALITION DEAL REACHED!!!
http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/