Blogs are full of advice for Dion and the Liberals regarding the response to the Throne Speech. Harper has sensed blood in the water, and has thrown down a Harperistic gauntlet: vote against my speech, and I call an election. Vote for my speech, and you must vote for all the bits of legislation I intend tabling in months to come ...
Some bloggers - and some Liberals - seem to be afraid. Harper has bullied them so much, out thought them so often, out argued them so many times, that they are cowed. They fear him, have accepted his own self-definition as the mighty man of the moment, and are marching to his tune with Pavlovian precision.
The net effect?
Dion and the Liberals are coming across as wimps.
Afraid of Harper.
Afraid of the Bloc.
Afraid of their own shadows.
Harper and his new Tories succeeded in defining Dion as indecisive and ineffective. Dion and the Liberals aided him by responding ineffectually to the many attacks.
Now Harper and his party are defining Dion and the Liberals as fearful, afraid, timorous.
And it is working.
The Cat says it is time to learn from past mistakes.
Confront the bully, on each and every occasion.
Including an early election if the Throne Speech does not meet Liberal values.
