Here's what Daifallah had to say:
Criticism was hurled my way after I claimed Stephen Harper would likely never become Prime Minister of Canada. When the Brault revelations at the Gomery Inquiry came out, Tories were gleefully expecting their man to easily soar to 24 Sussex. Looks like they spoke too soon.
Well Daifallah kind of sounds a little gleefull himself. It kind of sounds like an "I told you so" paragraph. Well who can blame him for being a little vain?
Take stock of what's happened. The government responsible for the biggest or second-biggest corruption scandal in Canadian in history (it's a toss-up between this and Sir John A.'s Pacific railway scandal) has survived a non-confidence vote. They manoeuvred brilliantly in the last three weeks with a PR blitz and some top-notch hardball politics.
Brilliantly? They have recordings of members of Paul Martin's inner circle offering patronage appointments for votes, they've had members from Liberals defect, Paul Martin was put in panick mode, but I guess that's just silly me going ahead and using my stupid memory again. Don't worry I'll be shutting my brain off shortly.
So now there's no election, even though it seemed almost inevitable as late as last weekend. The Tories under Harper are mired in the 25-30% range in most polls. And now the knives are ... well, let's not say they're out, but they're at least being sharpened.
The Tories are mired in the 25% to 30% range? My that is selective reading of polls. Just after the vote a Compass poll showed the Tories at 38% nationally. Weren't most pollsters showing numbers that varied up to 10% every couple of days? Ahum what about all that talk about the "volatile" electorate? But hey there I go again using my head, and that's a dangerous thing.
Let's be clear: The Conservative Party is no further ahead today than when the merger occurred. Amazing, but true. I'm at a loss to explain it other than to say the problem must be Harper himself.
I guess uniting the party that consisted of the most bitterly divided right wing factions after 10 years of political war is not considered an improvement for Daifallah. Or that Harper managed to bring it all together in less than a year. Think of that a political party built in less than a year and ready for an election. The party coming to within striking distance of government... No Daifallah's right, even a monkey could do that.
Harper just doesn't seem to appeal to voters in central Canada. And no, I don't think it is because he's from Alberta. It's just that he's not an appealing person. He comes across as cold and uncaring. Call him charisma-deprived.
This is just funny. Because I don't believe that Harper needs to appeal to voters at all. Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris, that Daifallah loves so much, never really appealed to anyone. It was his policies and his dedication that did. He was not an overly charismatic man at all. He wasn't eloquent, he wasn't inspiring. But he was honest and straightforward and he stuck to his guns.
Harper may not be a beer guzzler, but I don't believe that those that supported Mike Harris and Ralph Klein were only voting for them because of their appearence.
I didn't support Harris because I thought he was charismatic. I supported him because I believed that he would do what he said he will do. And I'm sorry, but I don't see anyone else but Stephen Harper that can provide that leadership on the federal stage right now.
I actually think Harris appealed to a lot of people. He seemed like a laid-back, "aw, shucks!" sorta guy. People like that. That combined with the impression that he did what he said he would do made him popular. No one knows what Harper stands for either, which is another problem.
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