Harper’s flying monkeys (and the man behind the curtain)

By Montreal Simon

I must admit it is getting a bit grim out there. Fall has finally arrived, it’s getting colder and darker, the skies over this ghastly Harperland are filled with flying monkeys.

Stephen Harper is a frenzy urging them on to destroy his enemies, with his poisonous wedge issues.

And of course this is a living nightmare.

Less than two months ago they were fitting him out for his political coffin, he was being battered by the Duffy scandal and growing less popular with every passing day.

Now he’s back, and gunning for another majority.

But the way he clawed his way back in the polls, should make it only more clear to more Canadians why he isn’t fit to be a Canadian prime minister…

For he was brought back from the dead by the grotesque Australian flying dingo Lynton Crosby. Who is pulling his strings and running his campaign.

If you still need proof that Australian miracle worker Lynton Crosby is firmly in charge of the Conservative campaign, look no further than what you haven’t seen in the past two weeks: any evidence of Jenni Byrne’s continued presence on the planet, or any further snafus from the hyperactive social media campaign kids.

Everything is transpiring according to the playbook, and Crosby — who probably can’t believe his luck in landing so soon on one wedge issue in the niqab controversy — is actively looking for other flashpoints to divide the voters.

The ghastly morphing attack monster has been able to use even the death of this poor Syrian child…

To fan fears of a refugee invasion.

And he has been able to turn this campaign into the niqab election …

Ben Powless

He has given Stephen Harper a new lease on life, and smothered, at least temporarily, the NDP’s support in Quebec.

Even though as Naheed Nenshi said on the Evan Solomon show, those wedge issues couldn’t be more disgusting and dangerous.

Stephen Harper is playing a “dangerous” political game with his position on the niqab and “dog whistle politics” when he speaks about the Syrian refugee crisis, said Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

“This is unbelievably dangerous stuff,” Nenshi said. “I spoke with a group of mayors and councillors from all over Alberta last week, and in my speech with all of these people from small town Alberta, I stood up and said this is disgusting and it is time for us to say stop it—to say this is enough,” Nenshi said.

And even though the niqab controversy couldn’t be more of a non-issue.

Since 2011, two women have been denied the ability to take the citizenship oath without removing their face covering, Sonia Lesage, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada told the CBC.

But the good news is that because it is such a non-issue, it will begin to subside after the last debate in Montreal tomorrow. It will be overtaken by other more important issues.

And even if this is the situation:

So, with just over two weeks to go, this campaign is on the cusp of breaking. Harper, with wedge issues in tow, will begin to move within striking distance of a majority government. Left-centre voters — who can’t understand how Harper could possibly be winning, and who will do anything at all to prevent him from winning — will start to line up behind the most viable option.

And we may have to vote strategically as we never have before. We have never been in a better position to do that as that Nanos poll also shows:

When asked to pick their second choice for preferred prime minister:

39 per cent of those who picked Harper first said they had no second choice
50 per cent of those who picked Trudeau first said Mulcair would be their second choice
59 per cent of those who picked Mulcair first said Trudeau would be their second choice.

With large numbers of Liberal and NDP supporters prepared to shift their vote if that’s what it takes to stop Harper.

Which only shows you how strong that movement is …

And when you look at the latest CBC Poll Tracker results, you can see that Harper is nowhere near another majority.

Justin Trudeau has more momentum than he has, both the Liberals and the NDP have deeper pools of voters to draw on than Harper, who has almost drained his shallower one.

So if the monster can be constrained …