- Election Dirty Tricks - Wow! Well Knock me Down and Call Me Dick

Harper dismisses robo-call scandal as ‘smear campaign’ by sore losers, Steven Chase, 29 Feb.'12 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-dismisses-robo-call-scandal-as-smear-campaign-by-sore-losers/article2354253/
Excerpt Posted: 8:05 PM on February 29, 2012

In a Comment to a G&M article last 26 March, I pointed out the similarities between Stephen Harper and Richard Nixon - see below:

Stephen Harper = Richard Nixon

How not 'Right' can I be.

Oh, and by the way did I mention.

The Con position as expounded by Harper of 'prove it' sounds a lot like the "If it's not in Hansard, it didn't happen" approach of by-gone days.

Also, the deeper logic that Harper and the Con's are using and have used every time they have waylaid Canadian Democracy, is

"We were elected.

Even if there were by-elections in these riding [and you can betcha there won't be, neither will there be a Royal Commission] we would win again.

So, Canadian Democracy be dam[redacted]ed"

Even if Harper and the Con's were reduced to a minority they would not simply walk away from power.

If you want to understand what Harper is capable of, look at what he did last time in Dec.'08:

When faced with non-confidence in Dec.'08 and losing power:
"we will fight it with every means that we have"
(In Parliament on 2 Dec.'08 and Peter McKay this is in Hansard),

Best to just let them do whatever they want and pray that after they have had their way with us a dragon slayer to come along some day.

Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html
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- Harper: “Let me be perfectly clear . . . " - Déjà vu Nixon
Posted: 12:10 PM on March 26, 2011
Liberal campaign, Ignatieff rules out coalition, Jane Taber, Mar. 26, 2011
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ignatieff-rules-out-coalition/article1958015/

Harper: “Let me be perfectly clear . . . "

That reminds me of Richard M. Nixon

The parallels between Harper and Nixon are scary, when you think about it

"but when the president does it that means that it is not illegal"
Richard Nixon,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvyDn1TPr8

It's scary how close that is to

Harper " I make the rules"
(cbc, August 26, 2010)

How about

[Nixon] "We disagree on that.

I did not commit, in my view, an impeachable offence. Now, the House has ruled overwhelmingly that I did. . . . "
(David Frost's interview with Richard Nixon broadcast in May 1977)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/sep/07/greatinterviews1

Sound just like Harper's denial of his government's Canadian brand of Impeachment

"And I pledge to you tonight, from this office, that I will do everything in my power to ensure that the guilty are brought to justice and that such abuses are purged from our political processes in the years to come . . . "
Nixon's First Watergate Speech. (30 April 1973) - http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon
(there's a parallel there somewhere, the irony's certainly there)

The first use I could find of “Let me be perfectly clear . . . ":

"and I want to make this particularly clear, that no contributor to this fund, no contributor to any of my campaigns, has ever received any consideration that he would not have received as an ordinary constituent."
(http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixoncheckers.html)

Applicable - you judge

Oh and by the way, did I mention

“He lied this morning,” Duceppe said of Harper. “He should own up.”
(Montreal Gazette, 26 Mar.'11)

Look for Harper looking right into the camera and with the double 'V' signs saying

"I am not a liar"

[Perhaps Harper will do it for us in Question Period tomorrow]