I read something interesting today about Liberal MP’s thinking about defecting from Iggy and possibly joining Harper’s conservatives. Combined with last week’s news that his Quebect Lt. was stepping down, this started me thinking about what this means in terms of Iggy failing to appropriately address the needs of different areas of the country.
But then I realized that this is really about the Liberal Party as a whole and not just Iggy’s failings. In fact, I realized that the Liberal Party is just like Britney Spears. Let me explain.
Back in the late 90’s Britney was flying high. Everything she did was gold and people thought her reign would last forever. So did she. Remind you of anyone? Yes, the Liberals! They had their heyday in the 90’s and couldn’t seem to lose an election. They even convinced some people that they were Canada’s natural ruling party (as though that term even makes sense in a democracy). Mostly, it seems they managed to convince themselves of that ‘fact.’
Still not convinced? Don’t worry, the analogy goes deeper. What was Britney’s downfall? Cheating on Justin of course. She decided to leave a great dancer with a future for a back up dancer with none--except his own personal ambition. That’s right, K-Fed was just using Britney to get rich, famous and make his own ‘music.’
Now the Liberals are famous for the Chretien-Martin rivalry but I’m going to suggest that this situation is more akin to Dion vs. Iggy. The Liberals started out dating Dion. He was a nerd but a nerd with a plan. Sure he was too humble to really force his will on others and make the plan come to fruition but at least he had a plan and wasn’t in it for himself.
What did the Liberals do? Well, without so much as a Leadership race or even review they dumped Dion and started dating Iggy (He is hotter, I’ll give them that). The problem is Iggy is just as much of a nerd as Dion ever was except he doesn’t have a plan. Worse, he really is just driven by his own ambition (you can tell because he doesn’t have a plan for Canada just a plan for him becoming Prime Minister). Like K-fed, Iggy is using the Liberals to get famous and release a hip-hop album.... I mean, become Prime Minister.
What does this mean? Well, I think it means that a lot (not all, of course) of the Liberal MPs are backstabbing assholes and a nerd like Iggy should have known that they’d stab him in the back too.
I was about to sign off here but I just checked the ‘news’ sites again it seems those MPs that were threatening to defect have been given plum critics positions in the shadow cabinet. What a surprise. But this does remind me of Britney’s latest CD: Circus
G-Unit out!
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Haha, love the analogy.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't particularly happy with Dion when he was the Liberal Party leader either. Looking back though, I think he was a smarter choice than this guy. Iggy spoke at UWO last year and I remember listening to him and thinking, "What does this guy have to offer this country?". He was incredibly arrogant and for all his talk about the future of the country, he never mentioned a single idea. It was just this self-assuredness about being the next Prime Minister. It's frustrating because between him and Harper, it's picking the lesser of the two evils.
at least Dion had a plan for the future of this country right? An Iggy without ideas is part of the reason the Liberals should have had a leadership race -- it would have forced all the candidates (including) Iggy to articulate their plans and if Iggy couldn't he would have lost again.
ReplyDeleteI was also going to say something about how in Canada, unlike the US, we aren't forced to vote for one of two parties. But you're right that really only two white men have a realistic shot at becoming the next PM.
The more I think about it the more I think Canada needs some form of proportional representation so people aren't forced to 'strategically' vote to keep Harper or Iggy out of the PMs house. We need a system that lets people vote for the party or candidate whose values most closely match their own.
I have this feeling that 45% of Liberal support is actually 'the best shot at defeating Harper' support.