Chretien advises Dion to bring the Conservatives down now.

I just saw the same interview. I think that M. Dion must go very soon. The question is what will be the trigger? The budget, or an opposition day non confidence vote. Leadership is a justifiable trigger. I know that there are polls that show Harper as being more acceptable, but when the truth about his leadership (dictatorship) is out the the Main Stream Media then Canadians will recognize the differences. I for one will be happy to support him. I also am happy to support my local candidate.

It is reported McKenzie King observed that he woke up each morning wondering what he would have to do that day to keep "…this country together."  Today one could wonder if the current PM, Mr. Harper, wakes up wondering about similar themes, or the foreign policy, or the fate of troops serving in distant Asia, or what is best for the country, or the stature of Canada in the world, or the wisdom of shredding the health system, the Canada Wheat Board, or the politics oftax cuts for the rich, or some new ways to ensure that nobody in government or connected to it ever says anything Harper has not approved. Would he gravitate toward the policy preferences of a King?

But what if this student of  Strauss, the all time totalitarian,  is still the faithful student, what if he has not lost any of the Straussian devotion to deceit in the service of power, he just supresses discussion of it.

In that case he would wake up wondering what he should do that day to hold onto power, to the complete exclusion in priority of all other matters.

The trouble is that Mr. Harpers conduct of government, his drive for  control as PM, even exceeding the wide powers that a PM  already has, and his ferocious assault on any public servant who even tries to do their job against his wishes, suggest that the Straussian is still very much with us.

In that case Mr. Dion who is a straight ahead democratic  and rational politician  concerned with the best interests of the nation and apparently not capable or at least not willing to function by deceit and stealth, is at a great disadvantage. Just compare, in the imagination, what the two camps led by these different men, will come up with in political campaign ads.  I fear we are about to see if almost all of the people can be deceived some of the time, like during an election.

Thanks to Scott for pointing out the story; it is an interesting perspective that I would agree with as well (although the story is unverified). Vastly too much credibility is given to the CPoC evade- deny-and-manufacture story machine that is the PMO… too much credibility is taken from the opposition for not bringing it to a halt (think torture, chalk river, lumber sellout, collapsing manufacturing in Ontario, axing enviroment Canada etc etc etc._ On the topic of unverified BigLib asks, Can we trust something out of CTV… I also ask, can we trust media chains so near bankruptcy that they cannot afford research or to simply verify - either directly from the source or with independent third parties? I don’t blame the media and do not fault them for not having a minute to call a source directly (no one is being paid to verify)… I just put the story in the context of "not-verified rumour". Cheers, Coffee

That said, I don?t doubt that if Chretien has spoke to Dion about this, he would be urging Dion to pull the trigger. Ah, Harper is pulling Liberal strings here, make no mistake. Having liberals caving in on Afghanistan, pray tell, beyond platitudes, what’s so different about the liberals? Maybe they can recycle, jobs, jobs, jobs, as their campaign slogan - that worked for Chretien in 93, or out of Afghanistan 2009, I mean 2011, I mean never, but please ignore our rhetoric because we just want to get elected because we have the best interest of liberals, oops, I mean nation at heart.

janfromthebruce,

"Maybe they can recycle, jobs, jobs, jobs, as their campaign slogan - that worked for Chretien in 93"

-  Please get the facts right. It was Mulroney who shouted jobs, jobs, jobs in 1984.