Conservative Parties on this continent are playing the political game to win and they do not care how they win. The reason is they realize the Conservative Consensus is eroding and they are trying to reverse that. They will not succeed but that will not stop them from trying. It will only make them try harder.
I have stated several times in this space that progressive parties must copy some of these tactics if they wish to put the Conservative Consensus behind us before it cause more damage to the economies and societies of North America.
I know such a suggestion make progressive uneasy because they do not want to "stoop" to that level. Progressives believe that if they lose with honour they can claim a moral victory. What crap, the only reality is you lost and progress away from the Conservative Consensus is delayed some more.
Although I appreciate the positive style of the current Liberal Party I would say that I would not be too upset if they began to attack the policies proposals of the Conservative Party and that they become relentless in doing so. Do not stoop to personal attacks or scandal mongering but relentlessly question how the Conservatives will address many of the big issues of the day and/or pick their policy choices apart. It is a failure to do so that contributed to allowing Doug Ford and Jason Kenney to be elected.
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(FYI: Link to your NDP article from 2009 is broken.) Justin Trudeau is a boxer, as we all know, and has said that he sees boxing as a metaphor for politics. I sadly think his Achilles' heel is his tragic naivete: he is fighting by Queensberry rules, while the other side brings nuclear weapons to a street fight. That other side also has the refs (the media) on the take.
There is a line in the Simon & Garfunkel song aptly titled "The Boxer," that describes perfectly the trap of political untruths he and the Liberals often find themselves caught in: "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." No facts seem to be getting through because the Conservatives and NDP have already flooded the zone with lies. They fight dirty and the Liberals expect truth to win out over the din.
Don't be surprised about the dirtbag leftists of the NDP either, as they are in line with the ruthless Bernie Bro contingent that sabotaged Hillary Clinton and enabled Trump's victory, out of a tantrum that the Democrats didn't select their chosen messiah Bernie Sanders. It's called horseshoe politics or pincer warfare. They have never gotten over Justin Trudeau stealing the brass ring in 2015, as though it's his fault that Jack Layton died before his Faustian bargain of "Nacht Harper, uns" could be realized. They've been attacking him nonstop ever since, and have now stooped to an abhorrent level of unleashing their vitriol against Margaret Trudeau.
One would hope this sort of thing would backfire, but not as long as 1) it goes unreported by the mainstream press, and 2) it gets framed as a "deflection" tactic, while the NDP-CPC strange bedfellows coalition shouts loudly about "Liberal corruption" being the absolute worst thing in the world.
I'm not so sure if aggressive but factual criticism of policies is even effective anymore. Politics has become nothing but personal attacks, outrage-mongering, betrayals of convenience, and trolling sh!tposts that feed the base desire for gladiator spectacle and the media ratings machine. I'm sure the Liberals would love to argue about policy, but that's hard to do when you're being tag-teamed by opponents who are being rewarded for beating up a man's mentally ill mother.
Link fixed.
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