As the backlash from the turmoil in the Chinese economy hits Canada, the odious Stephen Harper and his Conservatives face a bumpy election ride.
According to The Guardian last week:
Official figures showed last week that Canada’s economy has now slipped into recession, having recorded two successive quarters of negative growth and confirming the weakness that the prime minister, Stephen Harper – who is fighting a tough re-election battle, has been reluctant to confront.Even after the official statistics were published, Harper insisted Canada was an island of stability amid the global economic turmoil, and refused to use the term recession. He says: “I think it’s more important to describe the reality of the situation, rather than to have labels.”
You have to love Harper's shifty double-talk: “I think it’s more important to describe the reality of the situation, rather than to have labels.” Priceless. Listen carefully, you simpering, posturing half-wit: the reality of the situation is that Canada is officially in recession. Let me spell it out for you, you dolt: ...Canada recorded its second straight quarter of economic contraction, meeting economists’ definition of a recession. That's not a label, you mendacious twerp, it's a fact.But things have taken a sharp downward turn on other fronts:
A Toronto businessman who ran for parliament with Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s party is out of the race, after being caught on video urinating into a coffee cup. The news about Jerry Bance, who was filmed while working as an appliance repairman, capped a bad week for Harper, who faces re-election as Canada has entered a recession.The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation used hidden cameras in 2012 to record Bance peeing into the cup and pouring it down the sink while on a service call. The homeowner was in the next room.
Bance runs an appliance repair company; the CBC was reporting on home repair companies.
Bance had been running in a Toronto district in the 19 October election, but a Conservative party spokesman said on Monday: “Mr Bance is no longer a candidate.”
Bance said in a statement he “deeply regrets” the incident and it does not reflect who he is as person or professional.
And for your viewing, ahem...pleasure:Why is it that every single time some seedy douche-cannon of a politician is caught behaving abominably, we always, without fail, get this formulaic '...does not reflect who I am as a person or a professional...' horseshit?
The truth is so glaringly, obviously the opposite. The way someone behaves is exactly that: a reflection of who they are, personally and professionally. To suggest otherwise is fatuous.
Tom Mulcair, leader of the opposition New Democrats, knows an open goal when he sees one. He said, responding to the Bance imbroglio:
“He must be someone who is adept at Stephen Harper’s trickle-down theory of economics,” Mulcair said, adding "I guess that this was one mugshot that Canadians weren't expecting from the Conservatives". The hashtag #peegate is trending on Twitter.In the unlikely event that the barely literate Harper is familiar with Shakespeare, he will be recalling this line from Hamlet:
When sorrows come, they come not single spies But in battalions. Because yet another candidate for Harper's rebarbative Conservatives has fallen on his stupid face: The Conservative campaign has dropped another Toronto candidate over offensive and embarrassing online videos.Tim Dutaud, who was running for the Tories in Toronto-Danforth, was forced out Monday after he was identified as a man known as the UniCaller in prank YouTube videos that included him pretending to orgasm while on the phone with a female customer service representative and mocking people with mental disabilities.
Charming. Let me guess: not a reflection of who you are as a person yadyadyadyadyadya? Got it.But anything that contributes to the downfall of Harper and his party of grifters, crooks, crackpots and dolts is good news, as far as I'm concerned. I'm very fond of Canada and its people. They deserve a lot better.