In Ottawa, the hockey game is officially over and the blaming game is fully on. But AM radio listeners should take note: the Senators lost because they didn’t have a strategy.
Seriously, why did the Senators work so hard on defence in the regular season? They should have pulled their goalie for every game. Heck, why have players on defence at all? It’s a waste of effort. A real strategy would be to have benched players yelling at the puck as it goes into your net again and again. That way you’ve “set a marker” for the things you will stop in the playoffs. Don’t worry about losing the support of the fans. The strategy is to lose again and again, but let fans know you’re saving the real game for sometime in the future – when you think you might have a chance at winning.
Still think this sounds like a loser strategy? That's because you aren't as smart as Coach Dion.
Take it from the Coach on last night’s Newman show. Liberals are dead against the new immigration rules, he explains, but won’t put enough players on the ice to defeat it … because they’re saving it all for the playoffs:
“Okay. We are against this budget. We are against what they're trying to do about immigration, to give to the minister abusive powers about immigration. We'll vote against unless there are changes. But we'll vote against. But that doesn't mean that an election will come in one week or two weeks. When we vote against something, we are saying to Canadians when an opportunity will come, you will know that if you vote Liberal, you vote against this bad policy and for a party able to replace it by a good policy. Because my duty is not the same than Mr. Layton. Mr. Layton may only protest. I need to replace. When we vote against, it's a marker. Now when will come an election, now it's my decision because Mr. Harper decided to have fixed dates for elections. So I have to decide it in keeping in mind the interests of Canadians to have a progressive government to replace this very right wing government. I have that in mind every day, every night. It's a responsibility that I’m carrying.”
Dion’s strategy is posited on the presumption that Canadians are going to trust his party to a “do-over” after they’ve let Harper score on them again and again. Deep down, Liberals know this is an impossible sell for Canadians, particularly those like immigrant communities who are being hurt badly by Harper’s policies.
To deflect, Dion deliberately mischaracterizes the NDP. But Layton isn't just "protesting." He and every NDP MP are laced-up and on the ice -- voting against the the Harper agenda on immigration. Voting against the budget. Voting against the war. It's called "doing what you said you would." At the end of the day, that's the first, last and only responsibility of a leader.
Score at the end of the second period: Harper: 18, The Rest of Us: 0.
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2 comments:
The day after their unceremonious exit, there are rumours swirling that some Senators have a substance abuse problem. Bad substances lead to a lack of focus which leads to a lot of bad passes and a loss of puck control. Maybe the Liberals have a similar substance abuse problem and that would explain their lack of focus and inability to control the puck.
On the other hand, I guess they would have to have substance to be able to abuse it.
Sadly, the substance is power. Raw unlimited power (and the trivial perks that go along with it).
But unlike the junkie, Liberals don't even know what to do with the substance once they get it -- as they proved for 13 fruitless years for child care, the environment, and decline of ethics in government.
Which is precisely why Canadians are rightly uninterested in giving it back to them.
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