GOLDSTEIN: Our politicians actually do think we're stupid
Politicians will say and do anything to get elected, happily contradicting their previous positions on a moment's notice
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Between the death bed repentances of the federal Liberal leadership contenders trashing the political legacy of the Trudeau government they’re part of, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford insisting he needs a new election mandate to take on U.S. President Donald Trump on tariffs, the conclusion is inescapable.
It’s that yes, our politicians really do believe voters have the memories of goldfish and are easily manipulated by political propaganda.
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GOLDSTEIN: Our politicians actually do think we're stupid Back to video
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How else to explain Liberal leadership hopefuls Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould telling us the Trudeau government policies they were vigorously defending a couple of weeks ago were in fact bad for the country and they knew it all along?
How Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s signature national carbon tax, far from being the Holy Grail of fighting climate change, was in fact a failed public policy in need of reform. (Freeland)
How the Liberals overspent and overtaxed the middle class. (Carney)
How the Liberals’ capital gains tax reforms they said were necessary to fund social programs, in order to prevent Canada from falling into a dystopian nightmare, were in fact a bad idea that should be killed. (Freeland)
How the Liberals lost touch with the public and are no longer trusted because they failed to engage it on issues people actually cared about. (Gould)
How Carney can possibly keep a straight face when he describes himself as a political “outsider?”
Ditto for Freeland who, part of the Liberal elite until her recent falling out with Trudeau, is now re-imagining herself as the defender of the Liberal party’s grassroots.
The root cause of these multiple conversions on the road to Damascus and increasingly bizarre statements is, of course, the demands of cabinet and caucus solidarity within an incumbent government and the power of the prime minister’s office.
But that doesn’t make what’s happening any more credible as far as voters are concerned.
To the contrary, all it does is re-enforce the widely-held belief that politicians will say and do anything to get elected with a straight face, happily contradicting their previous positions on a moment’s notice, if they think it will lead to more votes.
Meanwhile in Ontario, Ford, with a straight face, insists he had to call an early provincial election for Feb. 27 – almost a year-and-a-half before his current mandate runs out.
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Why? To replace his existing majority government with another majority government that will say and do the same things he’s doing now – including trashing Trump.
Why the Ford government needs the political distraction of an election right now – requiring Ontario taxpayers to shell out about $145 million to run it (the cost of the last one in 2022) – is being asked by people across the political spectrum.
The answer is political opportunism on display, which Ford is doing for himself, not for his province or his country.
The Leader of the Progressive Conservatives, is displaying the same tone-deaf arrogance former Ontario Liberal premier David Peterson did when he torched his own political career by calling an unnecessary early election in 1990, which replaced his then-Liberal majority government with an NDP majority government led by Bob Rae.
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Granted, it’s not likely to happen again – both the NDP and Liberal opposition parties in Ontario are political train wrecks at the moment, which Ford is obviously relying on in a bid to secure his third consecutive majority government, a rarity in modern-day politics.
But the fact Ford is likely to succeed in this gambit doesn’t make it right.
What it does mean is that Ford, like the contenders for the federal Liberal leadership in Ottawa, will say and do anything he feels will enhance his political career.
Liberal, Tory same old story.
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