Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

'He drinks espresso'

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, May 25, 2009 12:18pm - 44 Comments

Rick Mercer talks politics, the Mercer Report and those ads.

“Have you gone to the website?” Mercer asks. “They have stuff in there like ‘He lives in a building, not in a house. He drinks espresso. Can regular Canadians understand a guy like that?’I mean, espresso? Really, it’s nothing to do with anything except the guy is well-educated and well-travelled. I don’t think Stephen Harper will be upset if his son is so academically inclined that he can study at Harvard and then could possibly teach at Harvard. I don’t think anybody would say ‘Oh my God, we’ve raised a terrible child. What a terrible road he’s gone down.’ I would think they’d be proud of that. It’s just a bad message.”

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  • avr

    Surely all is hopeless for the Conservatives, now, if Rick Mercer is making fun.

  • Critical Reasoning

    I agree with Mercer that the espresso stuff was pretty stupid.

  • wilson

    It is an issue that he has been absent from the country for almost 40 years. Nothing wrong with self improvement, education, going international etc. But there is a problem with having a PM whose connection with the country is not that strong. It isn’t a put down, it’s just a fact that the guy just has not been in Canada; not for a year or two but decades. At least he isn’t Bob Rae….

    • catherine

      It’s an issue for whom?

      • http://caiti-online.blogspot.com/ Transcanada

        It’s an issue for CONservatives who are trying to resurrect a ad campaign that everyone else thinks is a dud.

        It’s going to be harder for Doug Finley to plead for dollars from the Con base if these ads are the best the Harper brain trust can come up with.

    • Gee

      speaking of “rolling up” aren’t you kind of doing that Wilson? “Almost 40 years”?

  • Critical Reasoning

    Rick Mercer: “It seems to me the only thing we really know about (Michael Ignatieff) is his resume. And if you talk to any Liberals and you ask them any questions about Iggy, that’s what they do, they quote his resume. You say, ‘what does he really think about Afghanistan?’ They’ll say ‘he wrote nineteen books. “You say, ‘what does he think about an auto bailout?’ They’ll say, ‘he used to teach at Harvard.’ “You say, ‘does he have a plan to fight climate change?’ And they’ll say ‘he has a class five driver’s licence.’ “

    • sf

      It’s true. It’s like they think his resume is an encyclopedia about Iggy.

      Q: “what’s iggy’s position on the technology partnership program?”

      A: “see page 125, section 3 on his resume.”

    • http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

      “It seems to me the only thing we really know about (Michael Ignatieff) is his resume.”

      Iggy is all about attitude, feelings and rarely takes a position and stick with it for more than 24 hours. That’s exactly what Obama/Dems did last summer. I wonder if Libs are purposely copying the strategy.

      • Ted

        Kinda reminds me of Harper before December 2005, come to think of it.

        By contrast, Stephen “Sir Flip-a-lot” Harper’s long and growing list of broken promises, abandoned principles, opposition day cancellations, lack of vision/direction/plans and general flip floppery reminds me a lot of Martin at that same time.

    • Kuri

      Yes, this is the real problem. He’s written a lot – and a lot of it was pretty good. Very little of it tells us what he thinks. (Purposely in some cases, which is fair enough, because that was the sort of writing he was doing as a journalist or an academic.) But this guy almost never gives us any simple, unequivocal statements about *what he thinks should be*. And we expect that of people who want to lead the country, because they will have the power to put in place what they think should be. Voters need to know what that is, so they can either endorse it or reject it at the ballot box.

      • Jason

        Except Sir Flip-a-lot gave us a lot of unequivocal statements about *what he thinks should be* and quickly abandoned each and every one of them when he thought it might cost him a vote to keep it or when he thought it wouldn’t cost him a vote to abandon it. Fixed election dates, unelected senators, campaign finance laws, confidence votes only on budgets, no taxes on income trusts, no tax increases, no deficit, no increased spending, not using government money to funnel exclusively into your party’s ridings, “made in Canada” environmental plan, no cuts to the CBC-yes, cuts to the CBC-no, never cuts to the CBC-is anyone looking? big cuts to the CBC, etc etc etc.

        So which is worse:

        - a leader of the opposition who saw his predecessor knocked out cold by Harper and the media for introducing policy and saw the current PM get elected PM without any policy (until the election in 2005) and so sees it as his advantage to remain a little quite on policy until an election like the current PM did?

        or

        - a Prime Minister who gets elected based on certain promises and principles and then breaks them, flip flops, equivocates, delays, pretends he never made them, makes it all up as he goes along?

        • sf

          I disagree, I think Harper’s government has done whatever they can to stick to their promises.

          Unelected senators: he tried and is still trying, he cannot do it alone
          campaign finance: never in the platform
          confidence votes on budgets: once again, he cannot do it alone, if he cannot get legislation through then he needs confidence
          no tax increases: taxes have decreased almost entirely across the board, you are quoting the only counter-example, which was more of a levelling of tax policy than an increase
          CBC: he has not cut their budget at all
          etc etc

          Your post is disingenuous.

          • Ted

            SF:

            You are either very naive or disingenuous or blind.

            - unelected senators broken promise: Harper appointed an unelected senator on his very first day in office. He “tried” for approximately 23 minutes.

            - confidence votes broken promise: so why did he make the promise in the first place? The platform was crystal clear: no confidence motions unless it is a budget or a fiscal estimate. Period.

            - tax increases: among a whole bunch of smaller ones, Harper increased my personal income taxes in one of his first moves in office so he could pay for his ill-conceived GST cut. Then later that year, he raised taxes on income trusts. If a Liberal did what he did, you would be screaming for the Finance Minister to resign and promising to never hurt seniors by raising taxes on income taxes. Oh, wait. Harper already did that.

            - CBC cuts: after promising not to touch the CBC budget, then promising to cut the CBC budget, then promising not to cut anything from the CBC budget, the Conservative >did indeed announce plans to cut the CBC budget

            etc. etc.

          • nd

            “SF:

            You are either very naive or disingenuous or blind.”

            He’s also stupid.

  • William

    People need a really good reason to toss out an incumbent Gov`t with 60 more seats then their nearest opponent and these recent adverts are giving people a reminder that Iggy is just not reason enough. These ads are not meant for Rick Mercer—-he`s never going to vote Conservative anyway—they are meant for the folks whose assosciation with politics ends with their watching of Mercer and Jon Stewart.

    So don`t expect a big change in the next series of polls one way or the other. But these ads will work and over the next year Iggy`s numbers will decline—the more he defends himself because of his past choices the more people will see him as an elitest and opportunist.

    • catherine

      in other words, the effect of these ads is going to be very subtle, so don’t look for any signs, but they were well worth a million dollars so keep the money flowing.

      • William

        Sure, they were meant to be subtle, and if you inform the people about Iggy`s absenteeism then they are going to work.

    • TJ Cook

      “they are meant for the folks whose assosciation with politics ends with their watching of Mercer and Jon Stewart.”

      From the polling I’ve seen, Jon Stewart’s viewership is overwhelmingly too smart to vote Republican. Presumably this applies north of the border too.

      • Critical Reasoning

        We could use the same sort of specious reasoning to conclude that in the last election, three quarters of Canadian were too smart to vote for the Liberals.

      • William

        I don`t think it is wise to use the political intelligence of the typical Daily Show viewer as a benchmark of ” smartness “. I would think you use other sources as info to enlarge your breadth of knowledge.

      • sf

        The daily show is geared for idiots. But it is funny. But it would take an idiot to use the daily show as a source of news.

        • Ted

          The point of the surveys SF (there have been more than the one linked to) is to show that Jon Stewart viewers are much better informed about the world and current events than the average American. The point of the surveys was not to show that they get their news from the Daily Show.

  • colin lee

    These Conservative attack ads worry me for several reasons. They represent a very low point in Canadian politics whereby a wealthier political party uses its monetary advantage to buy advertising to sway public opinion. The advertising people do a very good job of using out of context comments, inciteful and hateful rhetoric, personal attacks, etc. to sell their message. They’re very good at what they do. Polls seem to indicate the ads have an impact. The ultimate success or failure of the ad campaign will be better measured after the next election. I worry that wealth can be used to take control of our government. I worry that the voting public is ignorant enough to allow advertisers to shape their political views. Come on people! They’re advertisers. Truth or facts are not part of their vocabularies. And on general principles I do not like the kind of low-life gutter politics that these ads symbolize. They remind me of U.S. political campaigns. Disgusting

  • sf

    It’s not a big deal that he drinks espresso. That would help him fit into Italian social gatherings.. But I’d be surprised if he has ever seen the inside of a Tim Horton’s.

  • http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

    Don’t be ridiculous, he’s driven across the country. He’s probably rrrrrolled up the rim more often than you have, sf.

  • Ted

    Has Harper ever been inside a Tim’s… without a photographer beside him?

  • Kuri

    I’ve seen the inside of a Tim Horton’s. I’ve tasted the coffee. It’s mediocre. There. I said it. The free advertising this company has recieved through mindless patriotism is ridiculous. The only thing good about Tim Horton’s is that they are a reliable place to find a relatively clean public washroom when taking a long road trip.

  • Critical Reasoning

    Iggy drove across the country – once. I have no idea how old sf is, but I’d bet money that sf has rolled up the rim at least 10 times more often than Iggy (I’m a sucker for a safe bet).

  • http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

    Well, you’re probably right. But Iggy’s probably won more prizes. : )

  • sf

    You’re probably right.

    Funny enough I prefer Second Cup or Timothy’s coffee, although Timmy’s coffee is not bad. I do pop into Tim Horton’s once in a while for chili, sandwiches, donuts, and coffee.

    I don’t like Starbucks though, the coffee is too strong, and their selection of snacks is weak, so I guess I’m not a cosmopolitan :-)

    I don’t think it’s a big deal that Iggy has been away and that he likes espresso, but I’m in Well’s camp that it is an election issue and that Iggy has shown himself to be unaware and somewhat indifferent to the realities in Canada, such as his comments about the Quebec/ROC issues and his comments about some of the industries in Canada and so on.

  • Ted

    If you don’t think it’s a big deal that Iggy has been away and that he likes espresso, why mention it?

    If it is an election issue, why mention any of it now?

  • http://bcinto.blogspot.com BCer in Toronto

    Actually Ted, I was fine when I just knew Michael had been away for awhile. But toss in this espresso thing on top, well, I may need to re-evaluate my allegiances here…

  • sf

    Espresso is the perfect metaphor for the general purpose of the ads, which is to drive home the fact that Iggy’s experience are far from the experiences of a typical Canadian. Funny they call these attack ads when the attacks are so light and nuanced. It’s not an insult to say he drinks espresso, it’s just a way of saying this might not be the guy you want to vote for.

    So it’s not actually the espresso itself, it’s the fact that 19 out of 20 Canadians never touch the stuff because it’s not a part of our culture, and some Canadians would not even know what an espresso looked like. Go to Italy and there are espressos everywhere, same goes for a lot of European places.

    It’s just one more way of pointing out he’s not been around.

  • kc

    Sf
    You’re such an obvious clown. If the libs or anyone caught Sh satisfying a secret curry fetish would you appreciate adds poiting this out? ” SH – not a real Canadian, he eats foreign food”! Besides i drink far too many Americanos [ long expressos to you'] in a day and don’t appreciate a twit like you insinuating i’m unCanadian. Man, did your elevator get stuck around 1955 or so?

  • http://bcinto.blogspot.com BCer in Toronto

    Stephen Harper loves him some Starbucks. I mean, how often do we see him smile like that?

  • http://dougsamu.wordpress.com/ dougrogers

    :-) That’s a Café Americano.

  • http://dougsamu.wordpress.com/ dougrogers

    :-) That’s a Café Americano.

  • http://www2.macleans.ca/category/blogs/national/inside-the-queensway/ Kady O'Malley

    They also do not have date squares on the menu, which is downright unCanadian. Second Cup forever!

  • sf

    True, that’s why I prefer Timothy’s or Second Cup. The coffee is cheaper at Tim Horton’s though.

  • Paul Wells

    So really, it’s odd that they’d bother with the good washrooms if they’re not serving the date squares.

  • sf

    If they started serving date squares then the truck drivers would stop coming :-) Too dainty.

  • SirjohnEh

    Not that odd really if you think about how hard it would be to keep a place’s washroom that clean if you sold about 5 thousand date squares a day.

    We could probly dump the date square talk though now huh.

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