The psychosis of Conservative campaigning

So you thought Harper would be campaigning in public? That’s hilarious.

It didn’t take long for the leopard to show his spots.

So … now you don’t get into Steve’s political events — in a general election no less — unless you have the Tory logo stamped on your Stanfield’s. (We have Elizabeth Thompson of iPolitics to thank for that little morsel.)

Former Sun News imploder Kory Teneycke is the party’s official inspector of underwear. No logo, no entry. You’re with us or you’re not wanted on the voyage. Democracy Con-style. If you are caught as an infiltrator, Pierre Poilievre will torture you with his CPC lapel pin until you write a cheque to Jenni Byrne.

This is presumably to prevent reporters from blowing their noses while the Great Navigator is asking you to send him five dollars to continue doing Steve’s work. Or it’s to protect him from (heaven forbid) protesters with Stop Harper signs distracting voters while he hands out public money for his real favourite cause: vote buying.

But Kory has help to keep the infidels out. One of my colleagues, Susanna Kelly of Ontario Newswatch, was recently barred from covering a Harper event because the RCMP police sniffer dogs employed to give her the once-over weren’t ready for duty. Her crime? She was twenty minutes early for the event — but forty minutes late for the sniff test.

As I predicted last week, election 2015 is providing wonderful new material for politics as Trivial Pursuit. Harper is calling the Liberal leader ‘Justin’ (oh my God, stop those presses). Harper is using the wife and kids as props at fast-food stops. (Can shaking hands with pandas be far behind?) Then’s there’s that spate of stories from helpful journalists pronouncing that Justin Trudeau is toast — consigned to Boot Hill like Iggy and Dion by Harper’s bone-crushing media machine.

And then there’s the usual stuff about Tom being an opportunist and Steve being the only one who can both kick the office garbage can through the uprights and keep a steady hand on the wheel. The world’s only practitioner of rational rage.

You get the picture. Empty distraction, bull and attack ads. Not a peep about F-35 lies, treacherous cuts to veterans, oil spills, muzzling the public service, slipping cyanide burgers to unions and giving seniors a lump of coal instead of their former Old Age Supplement. The Cons seem to have entered their decadent phase, content to play from a very old script. As if it were still 2006.

READ MORE: http://ipolitics.ca/2015/08/06/so-you-thought-harper-would-be-campaigning-in-public-thats-hilarious/