Cultural Warrior, what party portrayed Brian Mulroney as less patriotic, and fanned the flames of fear accepting a Free Trade Association with our American neighbour would reduce us to a colony?
Hint: Same party, same strategy invoked against Reform, Canadian Alliance and now CPC.
The Liberal leader, John Turner, based his national election campaign on fear and hatred of the Americans -- and came fairly close to winning. But when the election was over and Brian Mulroney's Tories had signed the agreement, the Liberals began a long, furtive creep toward the Conservative position. By the time they were returned to power in 1993, with John Turner forgotten and Jean Chrétien the Prime Minister, the Liberals had adopted, without debate, the very policy they had denounced as treason. Having torn the country apart emotionally, turning husbands against wives and parents against children, they simply abandoned the subject. They probably think of it today as a minor incident, another political gimmick that didn't quite work, but surely it left a residue of anti-U.S. distrust. -Robert Fullford
Patrick Muttart used to be the director of strategic communications in the Prime Minister’s office and was the strategist behind Prime Minister Harper’s successful 2006 election, the result of which saw the Conservatives replacing the Liberals in government. Muttart crafted the strategy behind finding accessible voters and “activating” them for the Conservatives with specific policy planks.
Muttart was on the Roy Green show yesterday where he continued the Conservative narrative against the CBC’s affiliation with pollster Frank Graves. Graves came under fire when a column from the Globe’s Lawrence Martin quoted Graves recalling his strategic advice that he gave the Liberals. His advice, to start a “culture war”, wedging against Albertans and Conservatives, depicting them as xenophobic racist homophobes who would vote for Sarah Palin. - Stephen Taylor
I have said every party plays wedge politics for a very long time. Many of us disagree with the current advice and the decision of our public broadcaster to fund a pollster that has made these comments again.
h/t Liberals Started This “Culture War” A Long Time Ago
Previous related posts on Cultural Wars recommended reading.
Cultural Class War Continues: Policy Debate?
Ignatieff's Hidden Agenda
Digging his own Grave(s)
The Liberals Locked Into the Graves Strategy
Let them eat broccoli!
