Shut Up And Listen 214

Mr. Dithers & His Three Friends Address The Nation

Well, well, well, we have ourselves a nice, historic occasion as Prime Minister Paul Martin is about to go on TV and address the nation. This is quite uncommon for a prime minister to do and it's the first time that one has done so because their government is basically falling apart. His speech will be followed by responses from the three opposition leaders. I will write this column as I watch the speeches. Hey, I've done it to the Americans numerous times and it's only fair to do it to these assholes.

He's on. His style seems to be very honest and frank as he addresses the sponsorship scandal and his role within it. Oh, he accepts responsibility as he was finance minister at the time, but guess what? He's not actually going to take responsibility even though he's sorry. Oh no, he's just listing all of the things he's done to deal with the situation aka the Gomery Inquiry. This is basically just him grasping at straws in an effort to make his government look better. Sure, it was a Liberal government that did it, but those people are all gone now. He's cleaned the place up (except for himself, of course).

Heh. He has described the sponsorship scandal as an "unjustifiable mess" rather than, you know, flat-out corruption that was nothing less than criminal.

Now he's deflecting election talk and is blaming the opposition parties for all of their talk about it. It's stopping the government from doing its job. But he's ready to face an election if he's forced to deal with one even though he would prefer Justice Gomery's report to come out first. Jesus, he just promised that he will call an election within thirty days after the report is released. He's basically making it look like he's thinking clearly while putting the opposition in a rash position. How can they actually force an election now without looking like idiots?

He just played the legacy card, citing his father's political experience as for why he's such a good civil servant and all. He's like Bush, basically. Heh.

Overall, I think the speech was rather well done. He hit all the right notes and made a nice promise with the election promise. But there is a concern that the final report won't be released until December 15, which means he would probably call an election in early January. That's a ways off, but I honestly think that is for the best. It's the rational, reasoned response.

And now . . . Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservatives live (as Paul Martin was on tape). He's on the attack right away. Calling it a "sad spectacle" and that he is just stalling for time and confusing the issues. The strange thing is that by saying that addressing the Gomery and election issues, Martin was addressing the issues that are pressing currently--the issues brought up by the opposition nearly every day in question period.

Hold on, Harper! Now he's blaming Martin for calling the election last year before anything on the scandal was heard, but how could Martin govern much longer as a leader who assumed responsibility after the previous prime minister had retired? He had to call an election.

Harper is hitting on some good points as he does attack the Liberals for their fuck-ups, and their corruption. He is also playing it smart by switching between English and French, and by saying the sponsorship scandal was not a Quebec scandal, but a Liberal scandal that happened in Quebec. He's definitely trying to win over the Quebec vote. It's rather shameless how much he's pandering for Quebec, as Quebec pretty much despises Harper. It's amusing in a sad way.

He does make a good point: Martin's speech was not about Canada or saving Canada, but about saving Martin and the Liberal party. That is true.

*sigh* He's campaigning now, the dumb fucker. It's lame. This isn't a response, but a stump speech. If he was going to do this, he should have hidden it better.

Next up is Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc Québécois. He is, of course, speaking just in French. And he's starting off strong. He's referencing the previous time a PM addressed the nation like this: in 1995 when Chrétien addressed Canada before the last Quebec referendum on separation. Basically, he spoke out to save Canada, while Martin is speaking out to save the Liberals. Duceppe is much better at this than Harper, because Duceppe is able to both campaign and attack at the same time. He's throwing in some nice anti-government sentiments and almost seems to be pushing for some separatism.

Wow, he's speaking on English. He's partly repeating Harper about the "not a Quebec scandal, but a Liberal scandal" line. He's rather on the attack. He's practically frothing at the mouth to take down the government it seems, and this is probably the first time that the Bloc are being seen as rational across the nation. There's a certain brutal sense here that Harper lacked because he was more concerned with winning votes and gaining popularity than actually addressing the problems. Duceppe has the luxury to be more direct and brutal, I think, because he is of a regional party.

Jack Layton of the NDP is coming up now and I'm hoping to see him be passionate and pissed off. That's the NDP leader I want to see.

Oh god, he's tame. He's weak and he's calm and he's trying to play to the people. He actually thinks the NDP has a chance in an upcoming election and is basically doing the Harper method of speech when he should be following Duceppe's example. He's also trying to push his issues into the speech and while I think they are relevant, they just don't seem to be appropriate. Especially because he's doing it in such a calm, soothing tone. It's weird.

He's finally touching on the scandal, and his words are strong, but it's not reflected in his voice. He's got the ideas, dammit, but where's the heart? This is not how an opposition party leader should be acting--especially since the NDP is a protest party whether it likes it or not.

He's also switching between English and French. Funny how Paul Martin didn't do that, unless maybe a French version was aired in Quebec. I wonder how that will affect any election . . .

Layton said some good stuff, but just didn't sell it to me. He did leave the door open to an alliance between the Liberals and NDP as the NDP wants to hear the results of the inquiry before passing judgement as well.

Peter Mansbridge (CBC's main news guy) just brought up a good point: all of the opposition leaders read from prepared speeches that didn't really respond to Martin's speech directly, which is interesting. In my political leadership in Canada class this year, we saw a video of Pierre Trudeau addressing the nation over the October Crisis where he put the War Measures Act into effect, which was followed by Tommy Douglas, the leader of the NDP's response, which he did entirely on the spot. I think maybe all three speeches would have been stronger if they actually addressed the speech more. They could have used bits and pieces of prepared stuff, while still adjusting to what Martin said.

Upon reflection, I think Gilles Duceppe was the strongest of all four. How sad is it when the separatist is the one making sense? Martin's speech, while actually pretty good, stunk of desperation and a sad attempt to hold onto power for just a while more. Harper had a chance to come across really well, but blew it by turning a critique into a stump speech. Layton could have done better than Duceppe as the NDP isn't a regional party and could have gained more support across the nation, but blew it, in my eyes, with his calm demeanour. There are times to be calm and there are times to raise hell. He obviously didn't get the memo. That just left Duceppe who played the angry victim quite well and probably impressed a lot of Canadians. Overall, a weak showing from three of the four speakers. Oh, yes, because we want to make one of these idiots prime minister and on the hurry-up too.

I hope that they do wait for an election though. I don't care if it's until January basically, as I don't think the Liberals are actually going to do anything to fuck things up now. Hell, this is the best time to have the Liberals in power as they're so concerned with getting voted out that they will be watching their asses more than ever. They can't risk doing anything that could make them look any worse. But knowing Stephen Harper, we'll have an election called in early May because he's a fucking douche with the brain of . . . well, a douche.