POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY PRESTON MANNING IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
Another pathetic secular sermon from Preston Manning.
The preacher has never quite been left behind by the
manipulative, career politician, having blended into an unpleasant Right Wing
identity with roots in Texas and the Midwest.
I recall a few years ago, as CBC Radio was quietly adjusting
to unpleasant new realities in Ottawa determining its destiny, Manning received
a brief show called "This I Believe."
Each spot was introduced by Manning's scratchy, whiny little
voice and featured a notable Canadian giving a little lesson or sermon about
something he or she believed.
It was pure dreck, annoyingly sentimental and at the same
time virtually meaningless to anyone not sharing the person's love for this or
that often trivial notion.
Interestingly, the idea was lifted - lock, stock, barrel,
and even the very words of the title - from the United States.
And that source, the United States, remains an enchanted one
to Preston Manning, despite all of his protestations about Canada.
He is the self-appointed president of a self-created think
tank, which just happens to be paid for by American oil money.
He is the man most responsible for Stephen Harper's rise to
destructive power, having selected him as a protégé many years ago.
And just like the American Right Wing they both so
desperately admire, Manning wallows in a strange pool of vague religiosity,
patriotic kitsch, and homespun notions which softens and disguises his
relentless drive to push the people of Canada in a direction they really don't
want to go, towards American interests, American values, American special
interests, and American hypocrisy.
Readers may enjoy:
http://chuckmancartoons.blogspot.ca/2009/09/canadas-harper-vision-thing-flag-over.html
