Re-branding the Conservatives? Shortening the Name Should Do the Trick!

Update #1: This post was first published early on May 16th, 2013. Later that day Mike Duffy left the Conservative caucus of Senators. And early on May 19th, we learned that Harper's advisor Nigel Wright (the Bay Street fellow who "gave" Duffy 90 grand) also left the Conservative-fold. Both are mentioned in the post below as being part of the Conservative Clan, but apparently they are no longer. This is not to suggest, however, that the worst of the Conservatives have left the roost. In fact, I predict that as the years go by Canadians will learn just how morally bankrupt the majority of these Cons really are.

Update #2: On August 13th 2013, Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin was ordered to pay back another obscene amount she had taken from our tax dollars - over $120,000!! She still remains in the Senate, however, collecting her $135,000 a year job that we finance so that she can continue to fundraise for the Conservative Party.

Update #3: On August 19th 2013, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that he will be proroguing Parliament for the third time since 2008. This time, he is using this extremely rare move (for all other PMs, not him) in the hope that the Senate Scandal he created will have lost its importance in the minds of Canadian voters. I feel it is up to the Canadian Media to take our Prime Minister to task for this affront to Canadian democracy.

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After two years of a Conservative majority government, it is clear that more and more Canadians are getting fed up with the brand known as “conservatism.” At the time of this writing, they stand at 29% in the polls, which is 10% less than they had in the last election in May, 2011.

Several journalists have recently opined that the Harper legacy thus far is mostly one of nastiness and bullying. Others have said that this federal government has very little to do with true conservatism, and much more to do with promoting a laissez faire corporate agenda. Some suggest they need a re-branding.

I want to make the case that this government needs to keep the name … well, at least part of the name!

It cannot have escaped too many Canadians lately that many people refer to our federal government as the Harper Cons, or simply The Cons for short.

I began to ponder why the term Cons is so common today any time our government is being discussed. After all, I do not remember the same ubiquitous usage of The Chretien Libs or The Libs.

So why do so many of us call our government The Cons?

After a brief reflection, I think I know why.

It has nothing to do with the fact that the Conservative Party of Canada has had to filter from its ranks con men like Patrick Brazeau, Bruce Carson and Rahim Jaffer. Indeed, the likes of Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright suggest that this party still includes plenty of cons.

No, I am not pointing to the word con, but I am thinking about the prefix con.

There appears to have been some ancient wisdom in choosing what words would begin with the prefix con. Read on.

Since 2006 I have been confused about the condescending attitude of the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers. After all, they are the only government in our history to be charged with contempt of Parliament. They even confine Parliament with tricks like prorogation.

Indeed, our entire democracy is constrained by many of Harper’s policies. Think about how he constricts the media to five questions for his rare press conferences!

This government takes a contrarian position on climate change, and then expects us to conform to their agenda or they call us eco-terrorists. They conceal their true plans for environmental assessment, choosing to allow contamination of our fresh water through contentious massive omnibus budget bills.

What is up with their desire to contradict what our scientists are trying to say anyway? I am like most Canadians – I want to know what the scientists find out.

The Robocall debacle suggests the Cons like to conspire. Harper has quietly been trying to block a Robocall inquiry – fortunately for us, the judges seem to be onto their contriving.

They have been successful in confiscating collective bargaining rights  - lest we forget the Air Canada employees?

They like to connive - where did all our money go during the G20 Billion Dollar spending spree?

They conjure up lie after lie – I for one recall the Cons wanted the governing Libs to de-regulate our banking system. They contort our history by denigrating our peacekeeper reputation and the UN.  (Celebrating the War of 1812? Now that’s simply contumelious.)

Peter Mackay’s confabulation around the true costs of the F-35 jets comes to mind.

Controverting the rights of Palestinians is nothing John Baird should be proud of.

It is all about the prefix con.

Yes, it is right there in the word conservative, staring right at us, and it is also in so many other words that somehow seem to be associated with each other, connected in some manner that point to some essence of the prefix con.

Contemporary conservatism, by extension, appears to share some of this essence.

It really can make a person wonder about the etymology of all those words beginning with the prefix con.

I suppose what I am saying is that rather than calling the Harper Government “conservative,” they should simply be called The Cons.