Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
Both can be true. Whether PP is a fascist or not, he is using fascist rhetoric. That's the whole point of this debate. There are three questions we have to ask ourselves:
Why is he doing it?
What are the consequences of it?
Is it acceptable for the PM of this country to use fascist tactics and rhetoric?
|
Good questions
Why is he doing it? - two options the last two leaders of the party who didn’t dog whistle to these groups were turfed. His path to being a PM requires the support of the far right coming back to the PC from the PPC or he believes it. I think he is more of a political opportunist then anything.
What are the consequences - That depends on how far right Ontario and Quebec are and who holds the balance of power in the Conservative Party. In the Conservative Party votes for leader are weighted based on riding to prevent Alberta from controlling the party. This leads to smaller numbers of Ontario/Quebec conservatives being disproportionately powerful. So are these groups like Take Back Alberta or are they more like Doug Ford conservatives. If they are Doug Ford types you’d expect center right governing with Nationalist rhetoric and no real threats to Canada and essentially Harperesc policies. The government would be well within the boundaries of Canadian norms.
If TBA types control the party than there is a greater risk of rhetoric becoming policy. We will see when the campaign trial hits as if you look at Alberta outside of the APP the UCP is following its campaigned on items fairly well. So if the policies being proposed line up with the rhetoric we should believe them. If the policies are moderated we should also believe them.
One other thing that a person could do is look at who recieved first ballot votes in the last conservative rate and who was to the right and left of PP. This would be a datapoint on the political make up of the party.
To the last question I would answer No, but….. both the Liberals and the Cons routinely weaponized in and out groups and declare the out groups as morally deficient. So of the traditional governing parties I don’t think you have a choice of a person who governs in good faith. I haven’t paid enough attention to Singh but he currently blocks a lot of the investigations that are required of the liberals in committees so he isn’t clean either. No good options becomes the answer to that question.