Homegrown Hooey

Silly season has now given way to the lethal hunting season.  While the negative ads on Dion were certainly effective at the time, they were also one of the key reasons voter turnout reached an all-time Canadian low.  I recall blogging back then and saying that Canadians wouldn’t buy it, that they were looking for something better from their politicians.  I was wrong.But here I am again, hoping that this time citizens won’t buy into such a negative manipulation of the political system.  And let me be clear, much as I despise it, I’m aware that all parties do it.  What’s unique about the negative ads put out by the Conservatives on Dion, and now Ignatieff, is that they are being promoted in that space between elections.  They know very well that such negative fare will result in lower voter turnout when the time comes, but if it means they can frame their opponent enough to win power, well so be it.What’s troubling about this new set of ads is their premise.  Conservatives, in ads approved by Stephen Harper, are attempting to paint Michael Ignatieff as something of a self-serving interloper who spent most of his life outside of Canada and has only returned to be PM.  “He just doesn’t get Canada” is the premise … and it’s dumb.Supposedly, they mean then that Harper does get it; if you grow up in Canada, you are best equipped to lead the country.  But after three years of parliamentary dysfunction, regional dislocation and an increasing loss of prestige in the world, how does this prove that living here for a lifetime makes you a better leader?The issue is not one of being homegrown or not; it’s a question of capacity and vision.  Stephen Harper has talked about “separatists”, “traitors”, and accused citizens for being “unCanadian” for questioning his policies.  Is that the kind of Canada we believe in?  Jack Layton would never say such things; he’s too good a public official for that.  And I know many in Stephen Harper’s caucus who recoil at these kinds of labels as well.  They want power, yes, but not at such cost.By promoting such negative ads in a time between elections and during a season of economic travail, the needs of the majority of Canadians are being passed over for naked political purpose.  I just hope that these practices don’t enter the Canadian lexicon and become regular Canadian political custom.  I would say the same thing if Jack Layton or Gilles Duceppe were the victims of such ads.  It demeans all of us and I’m angry about it (as you can probably tell).  It’s Harper’s Homegrown Hooey and it’s an elixir you are best to avoid. Though admittedly a Liberal, I have attempted in these blogs to be as fair as I can, to a greater or lesser degree.  It’s hard to stay that way when you witness these ads. Right now only 5% of the stimulus money has gone out the doors at a time that 1.4 million Canadians are out of work and less than half of them qualify for Employment Insurance.  That is the story.  Negative ads at a time like this are the most unCanadian things I can think of.