Not Worth My Time, Or Yours ...

Back in Toronto. NYC was a great time, for all sorts of reasons. More on that in a future post.

For now, instead of holding forth at length on the whole "dump Harper" nonsense going around (because it really is nonsense, and counter-productive at that - hence the title for this post), here is an excerpt from what Paul Wells has to say at his blog:

... Still, it may be time to remind everyone about the relative scale of things. I googled a couple dozen of the dehors-Harper petition signatories, and by and large, they either (a) are so insignificant as to be un-google-able; (b) seem to have been fond of Belinda Stronach a couple of years ago (this doesn't in any way detract from their right to criticize the leader, but it gives the rest of us permission to giggle about their judgement); (c) seem disproportionately to be under 30. Again, it is a beautiful thing to be under 30. I love all Canadians under 30 without distinction or reserve. But sometimes you haven't seen as much as you think you've seen and you haven't learned as much as you thought you knew.

I'm just going to add a few more comments for the time being:

1. I wouldn't lump every person who backed Belinda in with the crew who are now demanding that Harper resign. Many of them - and, most likely, a vast majority of those who were her grass-roots supporters in the CPC, and who don't feel the need to be reminded how important they are - are not the ones trying to save this village by burning it down.

2. That said, it is a funny old coincidence, isn't it? It should give you pause for thought for a number of reasons, and here's one: I'm surprised that some of these people, who seem to be in the red-ish wing of the Party, couldn't take a lesson from - yes - Joe Clark. Granted, Mulroney (and others) were working to undermine him, but he didn't crawl off and quit, or hop across the aisle for a cabinet post from Trudeau - he fought it out at the '83 Tory convention. And then, when his dream of being PM was effectively taken away for good, he didn't quit, and he (and the vast majority of his supporters) didn't go moaning & groaning to the press, no matter how low in the polls the Mulroney government went in the years to come. For all one might fault him, Clark deserves credit for that - he showed more spine and dedication than that shown by Stronach, or that now being shown by some of her former supporters.

3. Funny headline / story in the Globe today. (The story may be behind a subscriber wall; if so, it's essentially saying that the Martin govt. is not going to re-introduce corporate tax cuts, as it is unwilling to risk a defeat in the House, which would result in an election.) It makes me wonder: If the Libs are so convinced that Stephen Harper is their ticket to a majority government, why are they still walking on eggshells about a fall election, to the point where they're making sure the NDP support stays bought?

More later.