
There seem to be lots of tribes of conservatism and the smell of impending victory is keeping them united. For now.
The Toronto Star says Conservatives are really not Conservative as they define Conservativism.

There seem to be lots of tribes of conservatism and the smell of impending victory is keeping them united. For now.
The Toronto Star says Conservatives are really not Conservative as they define Conservativism.
This has to be among the most foul pro-Hamas propaganda I’ve seen in Canadian media.
It is unfathomable that an editor would allow these words to grace the page of major Canadian newspaper.
Totally and utterly disgusting. https://t.co/6bANgbiscc pic.twitter.com/02i7XLKpOb
— Joe Roberts (@Joe_Roberts01) February 24, 2024
A Stephen Harper tweet was the latest reminder of the depth of Western bias on Israel-Palestine
On Wednesday, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper was in Jerusalem, shaking hands with the butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to his tweet, Harper witnessed “an Israel scarred by the unprovoked horrors of Oct. 7, but also united in its determination to end the threat of Hamas once and for all.”
“Unprovoked.” “Ending the threat of Hamas.” Phrases being repeatedly used to justify the unjustifiable.
Harper’s ahistorical and disingenuous framing of what’s unfolding in Gaza reflects the extent to which what we’re witnessing from the powerful is an attempt to promote a simplistic viewpoint of “good” and “bad.”
I try to ignore Shree Paradkar as one of her racist screeds is pretty much like another but they keep pulling me back in …

Across the country, the top editors in newsrooms continue to disproportionately skew white and male, a new Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) survey has found.
The survey covers 6,035 journalists across 273 newsrooms across the country, with data submitted voluntarily by newsroom staff.
Journalists across the country, according to the survey results, are overwhelmingly white, making up 76 per cent of newsrooms. That number increases for more senior positions — newsroom supervisors are 84 per cent white and majority male.
This is the paper that employs Official Racist Cranks like Shree Paradkar who has never found a thing she couldn’t blame on white people.

OTTAWA — Turns out “no glasses” may have been the right call.
When the team close to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre mulled earlier this year over how to help him connect with Canadians, a debate ensued about whether to ditch the glasses he’d worn for years in favour of a different look.
The Star is getting weirdly obsessive.

The bodies of 1,500 Hamas fighters have been recovered in southern Israel days after a bold and bloody attack that has placed the Israeli government and military onto a war footing.
The toll came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to finalize the composition of an emergency unity government with opposition parties, Israel’s air force continued pounding targets in the Gaza Strip and Hamas, in retaliation, threatened to start executing hostages.
A massacre is a “Bold & Bloody attack” according to the Star, sounds like glorification of terrorism. Won’t somebody think of the raping murdering terrorists!
WATCH: This armed terrorist squad from Gaza was identified on their way to kill Israeli civilians inside of Israeli territory.
We made sure to stop them before they could attack our civilians. pic.twitter.com/8GpQOAji7z
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 10, 2023
Is Pierre Poilievre a pit bull or a golden retriever? We asked Canadians what they think of the Conservative leader — and here’s what they said
The results suggest he’s well-liked by those who think they know him well — but more Canadians feel they don’t, and the impressions they have of him at this point signal challenges ahead.
The research comes at what the Conservatives hope will be a turning point in that respect: the launch of a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to better position him as an alternative to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Frankly the article is a confused mess. Almost as if they’re hoping you won’t dig too deep or make comparisons with Junior.

Pierre Poilievre has avoided talking about gender identity politics. Here’s why he soon may have no choice
Grassroots Conservatives are set to push their party into a political debate around gender identity that their leader has so far tried to avoid, with resolutions on “single-sex spaces” and gender-affirming medical care to be debated at next month’s convention.
OTTAWA — Grassroots Conservatives are set to push their party into a political debate around gender identity that Leader Pierre Poilievre has so far tried to avoid, with resolutions on “single-sex spaces” and gender-affirming medical care to be debated at next month’s party convention.
The resolutions echo some of the themes playing out at the highest levels of U.S. politics, where so-called “bathroom bills,” and bans on medical care for transgender youth are being called an “all-out attack” on the freedoms of LGBTQ+ individuals.
It’s funny how the Star ignores the LGB without the T movement and implies that refusing to sexually mutilate children is a bad thing on account it’s what them barbaric ‘Muricans think.

If Justin Trudeau wants to curb extremism in politics, he should start here
As Justin Trudeau prepares his cabinet ministers’ marching orders, he should consider putting a new item on the list — resurrecting the per-vote subsidy for federal political parties.
Currently, parties are financially dependent on donors, who are often moved to give in response to emotional messaging. That’s why the parties focus on identity politics — why we hear so much about abortion rights, gun laws and “Liberal censorship.” It’s why we see fundraising notes from the Conservatives warning “Canada’s democracy is in danger.”
… Changing the way parties are financed by adopting a per-vote subsidy — and reducing contribution limits for political donations — could be part of the solution.

Pierre Poilievre wants to look like a hot, strapping man of the people. He won’t. It can’t be done. But the advisers of the federal Conservative Party leader demanded a makeover and events unfolded.
They got rid of his glasses — whether due to contacts or surgery we don’t know — and gave him T-shirts to wear under unstructured (stretchy, unlined) blazers, jeans, and summertime Tom Cruise-style aviators.
Now he looks like a man who forgot his glasses and had to assemble a vacation wardrobe after the airline lost his luggage.

Anthony Furey is a media pundit with deeply right-wing views. Why doesn’t he want to talk about that now?
“… Write about however many columns you want,” he said in the interview. “I’m not running for mayor to talk about my columns. I’m running for mayor to talk about the issues that matter to the people of Toronto and for my passion for this city.”
But ignoring Furey’s columns would mean ignoring essentially his entire professional life. Pundit is the only real job he’s ever had. It would also mean turning a blind eye to years of high-profile commentary some believe has been, at times, actively harmful to vulnerable communities in the country.”

In attacking David Johnston, Pierre Poilievre borrows a disgraceful tactic from Donald Trump
The best way to disrupt an investigation is to discredit the investigators.
Pierre Poilievre didn’t write that playbook. He borrowed it from Donald Trump.
No, this isn’t another hyperbolic comparison between American Trumpies and Canadian Tories. The similarities are eerie, but for one significant exception:
In the U.S., most American media called out Trump’s wilful distortions of how democracy works. In Canada, many in the media are repeating the canards from the Conservative leader about democracy, integrity and impartiality — largely uncritically — while dismissing David Johnston’s report on foreign interference in our elections.

Poilievre mum on Tory MP’s ‘illegal refugees’ comment, calls for Roxham Road closure
OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for the closure of the Roxham Road irregular border crossing but side-stepping questions about a Tory MP denying help to a family who used it to enter the country.
Poilievre told reporters today he is in favour of legal immigration but can understand the desperation that leads migrants to cross into Canada through the unofficial entry point south of Montreal.

Toronto man used COVID-relief money to import Donald Trump-branded gun parts through the mail
A Toronto man who used COVID-relief funds to buy and illegally import gun parts from the southern United States — including a Donald Trump-branded semi-automatic pistol — is now looking at a penitentiary sentence.
Last fall, on the eve of trial, Devon Pelley pleaded guilty to 10 firearm importation and gun possession charges laid after the Canada Border Services Agency and Ontario Provincial Police in October 2020 intercepted packages containing four firearm slides and barrels, sent by the mail from Alpharetta, a city in northern Georgia, to a fictitious person at a budget hotel on Queen Street West in Toronto.
OMG! It has Trump on it!
The perp imported one Trump gun not multiple Trump gun parts.
This is terrible bull shit reporting.
He spoke to me and 2 other outlets after Belgium and spoke to us and 3 other outlets tonight PHOTO FROM TONIGHT! https://t.co/JveGkM8qdF pic.twitter.com/HAk9aKuHlL— Kaylyn Kyle (@KaylynKyle) November 27, 2022

“Everything feels broken in the lives of ordinary Canadians.” It has become Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s mantra. He won the leadership of his party by promising to make Canada the freest nation on earth. Now he’s running to form the next government by promising to fix what he and his followers feel is broken.
Strong brands focus on and consistently reinforce a message that taps into the hopes, dreams and aspirations of their target market. They insert themselves in the conversation of the moment by aligning their narrative with the zeitgeist. But capturing hearts and minds can’t always be about sunshine, rainbows and lollipops — some are competing with the leading brand, or they’re in the opposition. So they tap into a different set of feelings: fear, anger and frustration.