If we want to win the next election, besides having the right platform and the right, smart leader, we need to make some important tactical moves.
We need to dismantle the Liberal “mediacracy”. We must take this weapon out of our opponents’ hands. We must create our own presence in the information space. If the CBC is sold to Liberals, we should use bloggers, Tweets, any sort of online channels in sufficient quantities to make our voice heard.
We need to understand who we are marching against. Justin Trudeau is not a simple fruit to pick. He is definitely a man of dubious principles, he is shameless and cynical; but it doesn’t mean he is not smart. He knows very well what he can and cannot get away with. But the most dangerous trait of his is that he has the talent of being liked, and it is not just because of his handsome appearance. In the democratic society which, just as Facebook, is all driven by “likes”, this may make him hard to dismantle.
Did you have a kid in your high school that seemed to be popular, more popular than you no matter what he did and no matter what you did? Popular for no apparent reason? Justin Trudeau is this kind of a kid. When caught red-handed when doing something improper, he doesn’t even apologize. He just makes this naughty smile of a spoiled kid, as if saying: “Look at me! Look how cute I am. Will you, seriously, be angry with me?” And this simple trick, believe it or not, saves him from many and many a spanking that he very much deserves. It is a thing of human psychology: if a person genuinely behaves as if he is innocent, people start to believe it.
Criticizing him is useless. People know very well who they are dealing with. He remains in power because (a) they are under the spell of his irrational charm, and (b) there is no alternative to him. Neither Scheer nor O’Toole are viable contenders, and they know it. It is amazing, isn’t it: Trudeau, after a very serious wrongdoing, threatens a new election, and the newly appointed Leader of the Official Opposition, who should be all radiating with eagerness to throw his glove at the incumbent PM, is trying to avoid it.
Trudeau’s reaction to the COVID pandemic gave him a lot of credit. No one of the Conservatives would be able to stretch the helping hand to the people beset by the need and fear without any second thought, without reckoning how much it will cost. This was a popular move by him; people agree that the government is a big thing and it, not them with their tiny pockets, should take the hardships of the global disaster. But let’s not make JT more demonic than he is. He never does anything to his detriment, and the money doesn’t appear from nowhere. The payback time will come, and then he will immediately become bad like a bad Santa who wants his gifts returned. As soon as we resolve factor (b), factor (a) will remove itself. He is already close to the critical mass.
One other important factor to be included in the campaign, but possibly after winning a majority, is the reform of the electoral system. Trudeau tried to toy with it, not seriously as everything he does; and it is hard to understand why he would need to reform a system that repeatedly propels Liberals into power. But the Conservatives must reform it. We must move away from the “Rep by Pop” (Representation by Population) system under which Ontario alone, or even GTA alone, can elect us a Prime Minister, which indeed happened many times. Never mind they have more people living there. Canada is diverse and all regions, not just the GTA, have the right to be duly represented. The Americans have long realized this. If they used the Rep by Pop system, then the president could be elected by California and Texas single-handedly, while the small but politically significant 13 original states, such as New Hampshire or Rhode Island, might not even bother going to the polls. This is not fair. A true leader of this great country must have the support of all provinces, not just “the one that matters”. The West, even though less populous, is important economically, making a great contribution to our country’s wealth. This should cure the threat of Western alienation and Wexit.
How should the new Conservative Party of Canada look upon the questions of social progressiveness? In my next post, I will discuss the matters of tolerance, diversity, and more. . .