We cats recall mentioning just a little over a week ago that Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was running an inexplicably negative election campaign. This in spite of the fact that the country is in good enough shape for the Tories to be sunny and positive.
Hmmmm.... negativity. Remind you of anyone? Lee Atwater, Alex Castellanos, Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman? The list of Republican attack dogs goes on and on.
Well, now The Globe & Mail has noticed, too. And they believe they know whom to blame for it. "Has U.S.-style 'voter suppression' made it to Canada's election?" they ask.
Seems that pounding voters on the heads about the opposition's inherent awfulness — which Harper is doing — is depressing and wearying, and tends to discourage people from going to the polls.
Consider us cats embarrassed. We'd like to think that American democracy is a wondrous, inspiring export — not something on the level of Japanese nuclear waste water or Africanized killer bees, for heaven's sake. And if the Conservatives' negativity brings them electoral success in a few weeks, we don't know how we'll hold up our heads the next time we visit Montreal.
Yes, we're embarrassed — but not surprised. We cats always knew Stephen Harper had a direct phone line to the RNC. This just proves it.
(IMAGE: The boys, cuddling.)
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