In the Cat’s view, Canada is a Mommy country, and the Liberal Party is the Mommy party, and so Canada really needs the Liberals to run the government.
The Tories under Harper are definitely the Daddy party, and so their basic value systems are not consistent with the Mommy-country Canada.
Yes, I know that Harper has launched TV ads showing him as a warm and fuzzy kind of guy, dressed in sweaters and talking about how he relates to his kids. But let’s face it, even if you dressed Harper in a tutu and slapped lipstick on him, he would not come across as a Mommy figure!
What about Jack Layton?
Poor Jack.
The Cat sees him as a wannabee Daddy figure, who has the misfortune of leading a gender-confused party. The NDP used to be a Mommy party, but under Jack it has become more militant and strident, and is morphing into a Daddy-like kind of party. Sort of. Maybe. Perhaps. Depends on which day it is ...
As for the Greens?
A variant of the Mommy party. A bit like a slightly dotty aunt, who is fixated on one thing and one thing only: the little green elves hiding at the bottom of the garden.
To find out a bit more about Mommy and Daddy parties, read the following by George (Don’t Think of an Elephant) Lakoff:
“Well, the progressive worldview is modeled on a nurturant parent family. Briefly, it assumes that the world is basically good and can be made better and that one must work toward that. Children are born good; parents can make them better. Nurturing involves empathy, and the responsibility to take care of oneself and others for whom we are responsible. On a larger scale, specific policies follow, such as governmental protection in form of a social safety net and government regulation, universal education (to ensure competence, fairness), civil liberties and equal treatment (fairness and freedom), accountability (derived from trust), public service (from responsibility), open government (from open communication), and the promotion of an economy that benefits all and functions to promote these values, which are traditional progressive values in American politics.
The conservative worldview, the strict father model, assumes that the world is dangerous and difficult and that children are born bad and must be made good. The strict father is the moral authority who supports and defends the family, tells his wife what to do, and teaches his kids right from wrong. The only way to do that is through painful discipline - physical punishment that by adulthood will become internal discipline. The good people are the disciplined people. Once grown, the self-reliant, disciplined children are on their own. Those children who remain dependent (who were spoiled, overly willful, or recalcitrant) should be forced to undergo further discipline or be cut free with no support to face the discipline of the outside world.
So, project this onto the nation and you see that to the right wing, the good citizens are the disciplined ones - those who have already become wealthy or at least self-reliant - and those who are on the way. Social programs, meanwhile, "spoil" people by giving them things they haven't earned and keeping them dependent. The government is there only to protect the nation, maintain order, administer justice (punishment), and to provide for the promotion and orderly conduct of business. In this way, disciplined people become self-reliant. Wealth is a measure of discipline. Taxes beyond the minimum needed for such government take away from the good, disciplined people rewards that they have earned and spend it on those who have not earned it.”
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml
PS Stephane Dion: If you want to figure out how to Frame issues in this election, just read the extract above from Lakoff, and focus on some of the issues he talks about. Maybe then you might be able to come up with some Frames which will dominate the remainder of the election cycle ...
