Beyond any arguments or spin

The Conservative Party does not need to look into "robocalls" made during the last federal election any further, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.  "It's certainly not something our party condones."  But he told CBC News in New Glasgow, N.S., that he believes the calls directing people to wrong or non-existent polling places were isolated incidents.

Isolated, co-ordinated, funded, well connected incidents in which the perpertrators had access not only to call centres and robo services, but to voters’ lists and could sign off on the expense to the party.

I’m sure the CONs don’t have to look further into this because they know what went on.  It’s the rest of Canada that needs to have the truth brought out.

Ibbitson and Nanos think harper – and that means the Harper party – can survive this if he manages to avoid being directly linked to this very serious scandal.  I disagree.  Look what Adscam did to Paul Martin and the Liberals even when he chose to have his party investigated by an impartial body.  Martin was not found to be involved, but the taint of corruption clung to the entire party.

This may be the one harper can’t shake.  It goes beyond what even the most cynical people excuse of politicians: lining their pockets, favouring pals, abusing public funds.  This hits our sense of what is fair.  We don’t like cheaters.  They leave a really bad taste in our mouth.  We never really trust them after that.  And this goes beyond cheating.  It is the same criminal behavior corrupt governments in other countries engage in to impose their self-serving will on those they are supposed to represent.  Hell, we send observers to such countries to monitor their elections so that they don’t engage in voter suppression.  We send our troops to other countries to fight regimes that practice such corruption.

Pat Martin sees why this could be the scandal Canadians won’t ignore:

“The number of indiscretions has reached critical mass but the difference between this issue and previous indiscretions is that it’s so easy to understand. This is an issue of basic fairness. The in and out scandal was a complicated financial transaction that takes awhile to explain. This one, you know, any school kid could understand. It’s wrong to lie to people for your own self interest. It sullies our democracy. It speaks to a conspiracy to defraud.”

Lawrence Martin also sees the growing “number of indiscretions” as a major problem underlying harper’s and the CONs’ ability to come out of this one relatively unharmed. 
He gives a good list,  Worth the read, to remind us, since there have been so many.

Using Del Mastro and Airshow as spokespersons on this doesn’t help, either.  Del Mastro always carries that bully, oily sheen that naturally causes many to feel the snake oil salesman/repo man has been sent to deal with customers, and Petey?  He can barely cope with the barge of accusations directed at him.  Having someone who is more and more viewed as a liar and an elitist who uses public servants to attempt to sully the reputation of his critics is hardly someone who is credible in saying there’s nothing to see here, folks, we’re just ever so honest and ethical.

The biggest thing harper has going for him is time.  With a majority, he can hope that the economy tanks so much, people will forget about corrupt election practices, but that’ll only work if Canadians keep believing, against all evidence, that the CONs are the best ones to get us out of the mess.  And I don’t think that lie will hold much longer.

Or harper can distract us with another war, but with the economy as it is, will that really work to his benefit?  Again, I doubt it.  Failure in Afghanistan will be even more apparent over the next few years as all Canada has sacrificed in lives and money is shown to have accomplished little long term. 

And there’s the CONs themselves who simply won’t use that time to their advantage.  They have proven in this past year that a majority has snapped the collar on their arrogance and they seem to think they are above all laws.  That simply can’t hold when the rest of Canadians face job cuts, tax increases, threats to benefits and OAS, cuts to services.
You can’t build a stone mansion on a makeshift, wooden foundation.