The Parting Of The Waters

Let's have a little talk about the rapidly increasing number of Principled Conservatives who think that supporting Justin Trudeau is the new super-cool thing to do. (I really hate how everything is all about him, everywhere, but the point has to be made.)

Last week, a random musing by Le Petit Prince about how raising tariffs was bad caused the National Post's cup to run over at the prospect of Trudeau reinventing libertarianism. You can almost feel Den Tandt quivering with anticipation. Granted, the Liberals had just got done giving relatively pro-liberty candidate Martha Hall Findlay a crushing 6% of support in the leadership race vs. Trudeau's 80% (which is to say, the Liberal voting base that elected Trudeau wants no part of pro-liberty ideas) but we're not going to let a little thing like that bother us.

Then we had this motion of last week that tried to give MP's the right to defy their party whips and make statements regarding abortion or whatever to their heart's content. This, despite the fact that Trudeau tweeted earlier that he believed a woman's right to choose was a fundamental right.

I could write this off as a ploy, but that's not going to do a bloody thing here because a) as I've seen, the people supporting Trudeau now will point out that Harper hasn't been exactly helpful on these issues, and b) it's Trudeau, so nobody will care to point out the contradiction, more so than would be the case for your average Liberal.

No, I know what this is; this is intended to give people who would otherwise support Harper because "well, who else is there?" an excuse to stay home. Trudeau is saying, "I'm gonna win anyway, so here's a reason for you to justify your own lack of involvement in the next election."

I must confess, I had wondered why the "backbench revolution" was taking place now....after all the years of relatively quiet grumbling....but I think the reason has become quite clear. :P

Don't expect these people to admit it in a moment of weakness, though. Officially, the explanation is the chickens coming home to roost after years of not being true to conservative principles. Never mind that you could have said the same thing during the Martin years......the Dion years.....the Ignatieff years......the Rae years......

For the record, the NDP is completely hooped as well. What with their base fuming over having jettisoned "socialism" from the party constitution, the post mortem after the coming red-tinged bloodbath is going to be exactly the same. We all just forgot the true meaning of Christmas. 

"Oh, but Mr. J, the Quebeckers are never going to go for Trudeau after what his father did, just like all those social conservatives.....uhhhh......well, how about all those libertarians who were outraged at the, uh.....War Measures Act, and, ummmm.....oh! I know! The West! The West will *never* forgive Trudeau for the National Energy Program, even though Trudeau.....supports the Keystone Pipeline.....awww, dammit."

Yup. You see it now, don't you? With single statements, this guy is picking off whole chunks of the voting base. How come Ignatieff never thought of stuff like this? (Probably because he had the wrong last name!) Somehow, people are going to find in themselves a sudden courage to vote Liberal, when they never could before! The waters will part, and we will be led to the promised land!

Am I angry? Am I upset? Nope.

This proves, more than anything any Liberal can do, that we cannot rely on conservative principles to win elections. Because when a Justin Trudeau shows up, Principled Conservatives bolt like scalded dogs. And it doesn't matter whether they're putting principle ahead of party, or whether they're just so mad at Harper that they're relishing this chance to pay him back in kind.

They are banking on the same inevitability of his victory that 80% of the Liberal voting base banked on, so exactly what the hell is the difference between them and the Liberals?

Oh, I am so glad that we can finally dispense with the dreary, pointless debate of Who Is A Conservative, and the attendant debate over conservative principles. On behalf of all the CPC hacks out there, I'd like to say thanks to all these stalwart Principled Conservatives gleefully rubbing their hands together in anticipation of Harper finally getting his for making this possible.

You know what, even the last provincial election makes sense now! When we were ahead in the polls, Hudak was a really principled conservative, and as soon as he lost, we needed to get back to conservative principles! But the only way Hudak *is* ever going to "get back to conservative principles" is.....if he wins! LOL!