|
Riding straight to the gates of Hell |
|
|
|
Written by Al Hollingsworth
|
|
Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
- Abraham Lincoln
An old departed friend, Gordon Hatcher, once warned me, “put a devil on horseback and he’ll ride straight to hell.” I think of my former sidekick every time I see the face or hear the voice of Stephen Harper. Because he validates Gordon’s assertion.
It is sad, terribly sad, to characterize our prime minister as a “devil” but what else can be said, given the almost satanic tactics he employs.
I’ve always somewhat believed in reincarnation, wondering at times if some of the nasty people in our history would came back. Methinks Richard Nixon did, missing Washington this time around and landing in Ottawa.
Nixon, like Harper, liked to play with tapes.
What Harper did to Stephane Dion was vicious and unconscionable. I think of the gentlemen, and the one woman, who have graced the office of Prime Minister of Canada. While I may not have shared their political views, I respected them for the office they held, and as our elected leader - even Brian Mulroney, known then as “Lyin’ Brian”. Today, it’s “Cryin’Brian”. I stray.
I have not one ounce of respect for Stephen Harper and the gutter politics he practices. What kind of a human being sets out to intentionally discredit and destroy his opponent? He has taken character assassination to a new level - a level that makes me gag.
Little wonder young people want no part of the political process, and so many decent upstanding Canadians refuse to stand for office.
Harper’s latest guttersnipe action has him, or his aides, pouring over old video clips of Michael Ignatieff’s speeches and interviews from his past career as a journalist, author and public intellectual. The purpose, to find potentially embarrassing remarks that can be used in their garbage ads they send out in prime time.
What does the “progressive” element, the Red Tories, of the Conservative Party think of Harper and his attack ad mentality? Privately, Peter MacKay must cringe with his boss’s antics. I would love to be a fly on the wall when Peter and his dad, Elmer sit down on weekends and discuss the goings on in Ottawa.
Our country is, along with Harper, going to hell in a hand basket and he is, as Ignatieff points out, “wasting time with tapes of me. It’s a joke.”
Unfortunately a sad, very sad joke. And Michael Ignatieff is not the only victim. We all are.
(Al Hollingsworth is a retired journalist and broadcaster)
|
