Manufactured Issues Backfiring On P.C.s

In a desperate attempt at slowing the downward spiral they have suffered the past several weeks, Progressive party members and supporters have tried their best to find something – anything – that will stick on their number one contender for the brass ring, the Wildrose party.

Bogged down by the weight of allegations of doctor intimidation, the money-for-nothing committee and their refusal to pay back the dough they received for no work (made worse by their half-assed flip-flop shot at redemption by deciding to pay a small sliver of the overall tab), corruption, unpopular laws, the Gary Mar affair, and on and on, when the smallest of morsels finally gets thrown their way, they do their best to pump it up to gigantic proportions.

Judging by the general public, the efforts have not only failed, but have backfired. Pathetic attempts to equate the level of importance between the bad placement of a bus graphic with pressuring lower levels of government into ‘playing ball’ have come off as weak.

Trying to turn Rob Anderson’s parking adventure into a newsworthy item in hopes of deflecting attention away from a fifth deficit budget in a row has failed, and actually worked to make the Tories look petty. Instead of generating buzz about the ‘audacity’ of Anderson to park in Premier Redford’s space, or causing the masses to question if Anderson did it on purpose (one blogger, scrambling to create dirt on the Wildrose, assumes this and then tries hard to fabricate a ‘Diva’ image of the Airdrie MLA), what people want to know is why Alison Redford’s parking space was empty in the first place.

Wasn’t there a vote on her Budget? She tells Albertans what an amazing and vital document it is and expects us to sing its praises, yet she couldn’t be bothered to show up. Real life leadership, indeed.

The public is aware that while Wildrose attacks on the Progressive party have been primarily policy-based or topical regarding important issues such as allegations of corruption, the P.C.’s have very little to target in return. So they rely on what they perceive as P.R. missteps to make headlines.

Do they really expect voters to forget about years of quid-pro-quo arrangements with regional governments and our slide back onto debt because Rob Anderson called Alison Redford ‘spineless’?

Are we to ignore the government’s flip-flop on the health care inquiry or the committee paybacks because a Wildrose MLA parked in a space that should have been taken by the Premier’s vehicle to begin with?

Is years of the Culture of Corruption, intrusive nanny-state laws, and defence of an anti-oilsands company supposed to be overlooked because of a picture on a bus?

Did they really believe Alberta voters to be so naïve as to buy into such transparent apples-to-oranges comparisons?