From The Sublime To The Ridiculous

      Ho Leigh Chit. As if the Martinets hadn't done themselves enough damage (and made themselves look slightly more desperate than Paris Hilton begging the Wizard for a brain), it looks like they're burning all their bridges, and the earth around those bridges, and salting the earth and the water within a 500 mile radius. I'll let Paul Wells tell you the tale. This is a COLOSSAL political blunder for soooo many reasons:

(1)  Those few seats in Alberta (and in BC) in which Liberals are hanging on by the skin of their increasingly-sweaty teeth will suffer the nasty backlash of simplistically accusing the popular Ralph Klein of trying "to dismantle" public health care. This will be seen as ugliest of ugly demonizations, and it will backfire. It looks like Martin and his advisors have just signed Anne McLellan's death warrant (to say nothing of those very few Liberals with a chance in Alberta), and the Martinets can't afford to lose any more seats.

(2)  It's one thing if one level of government "seeps" into another, as we've seen the natural events of provincial government contaminating the federal election prospects in Ontario; it's quite another when one level of government, in this case the Feds, campaigns AGAINST another level of government. This is not going to play well at all. It never, ever, ever does. (And let's not forget to mention that if Mr Klein was perceived by the Liberals to be such a threat to public health care, why didn't the Martinets make such insistences earlier?) Anyone who didn't see the Liberal strategy as that of fear-mongering before will now see it in spades.

(3)  For all intents and purposes, this sort of attack is stigmatizing Alberta (and playing to the "all Albertans are just a bunch of displaced hick-Texans that don't give a shit about Canada, anyway" choir). That may play in small numbers, but this takes the degree of smear to a whole new level. So much for uniting Canada, Mr Martin-- you're playing upon regionalistic divisions for cheap political gain.

(4)  Fathom, just fathom, if you now can, that the Martinets, by some stroke of Floridian luck, end up with a government, minority or majority. Alberta is one of the HAVE provinces. It holds great sway and already has a track record for making things difficult for the Feds when it sees its "Haved-ness" being played against its own interests. On an issue like health care, there are three provinces the Feds absolutely must be able to keep on side: Ontario, BC, and Alberta. The Feds and Alberta have been cranky-gusses with one another for a bit, but the Martinets have now declared open war by deciding to figure Ralph Klein as He Who Would Destroy Health Care In Canada. For those not attune to such matters, Alberta is like a Permanent Member of the U.N. Security Council. It has the clout to reject federal dicta if it wants, and it has the nerve and the financial capacity to go in its own direction (or to make life hell for any government). So, does one antagonize Alberta? No. Or at least the wise do not. Even if the Martinets win, look for payback shortly after the election. And make no mistake, there WILL be payback. There always is.

(5)  Martin's desperate attempt to make this a Health Care Crusade has demonstrated all-too-well his inability to be politic and prudent when it comes to dealing with serious and complex matters. Canadians tend not to vote for crusaders (ask John Turner after the 1988 election); they vote usually for managers, to the point they usually vote for politicians they don't personally like but that they respect for the managerial cool. (Trudeau, at least in image, was the exception: he could cast both airs at the same time.) Team Martin has just set up the situation for Martin to look even less Prime Ministerial than he already does.

Long and the short: the Herlers have made yet another monumental blunder by pressing too hard in their zeal and their desperation. They've moved from demonization to outright fear-mongering, and as much as I find Mr Klein objectionable, going after Klein and Harper as if they were Sauron and Saruman is so profoundly unwise that it boggles the already perturbed mind. This is pathetically, pathetically, pathetically stupid. Gee, Mr Martin, when you're low in the polls, make sure you go out and alienate even more people. And while you're at it, congele the support of your major opponent. Oh my God. Let's just shatter even the faintest remains of cooperation into a fine white powder.

      You see, Mr Martin, this is why so much of Canada is reacting so negatively to you, long after the Sponsorship Scandal and such has thinned in effectiveness. It's the simple and basic fact that you don't seem to know how to play nice with the other children, and that you don't seem to have an iota of political sense. Political sense, by the way, doesn't just mean knowing how to play to the cameras or how to get to the top. It's about knowing HOW TO GET THINGS DONE. And all you've been demonstrating is that you don't know how to get things done, not even get yourself elected after a historically huge lead in the polls. I'll give you this, though. If you're going to go down, you're going to go down in a blaze of previously unimaginable political idiocy. Look out the window, Mr Martin. I think you'll see Birnam Wood is moving, you inveterate asshat.