Scaledown is more of a municipal grass roots site than one of federal politics, however as a past Liberal, past president of the Windsor West Federal Liberal Riding Association. I stopped being a card carrying member years ago. I have many reasons but recent reflection has left me with a conclusion of what was the source and turning point that led to the Liberal downfall.

I believe truly that it was the signing of Kyoto*. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in global warming, I believe there is a correlation to greenhouse gases. What I don’t believe in is the signing of a treaty whose obligations you know damn well you cannot meet. The reason for signing such a treaty was that the signing itself became the ends rather than the means.

I believe that the signing of Kyoto is a display of contempt for the people. That political strategy deemed it was a popular thing to do, that it was rationalized by the belief that its signing would lead to more good than not signing. That the symbolism of signing was more important than trying to meet its obligations

Those who endorsed its signing, knowing it could not possibly be met, while deluding themselves with thoughts that “it could have been theoretically possible had the opposition cooperated” knowing they never do show a contempt for the public

I think that this led to it being easier to dismiss the truth, promises of closing coal fired plants,

I believe it will be part of the next scandal of the false figures of new job creation announcements by the green energy industry.

I believe its leading to the current situation where the Liberal party cannot even recognize the danger or potential negative fallout

Everyone’s looking at Hudack for his stupid samsung deal but its only going to lead to a focus on the fact that Liberals knowingly lied about how many jobs will be created and the fact that they can admit to this lie without even being bothering them. To paraphrase a line in a Hitchens article “EVERYONE KNOWS THE NUMBERS ARE FIXED, BUT THIS TIME THE LIBERALS DIDN’T EVEN TROUBLE TO PRETEND THAT THEY WEREN’T FIXED”. I believe the public will remember the coming show of Liberal contempt for them with these make believe job numbers as they will Hudak’s unbelievably irresponsible statements about the samsung contract

I think the moral of this article is that some of those who dislike our municipal politicians see that contempt for the public in them. When you do see that contempt it outweighs all other factors, it will not allow you to rationalize over it.

Maybe its just a warning for aspiring politicians, as uneducated as the public is, its amazing how they can so accurately get a sense of things.

* I was one of 1000 people attending a Liberal policy convention where Kyoto was adopted into the Liberal Platform. The process was that a show of hands was taken for every item, Anyone opposing a policy needed a show of 50 hands (or 5%) to be able to speak to the issue. I had worked on a 3 page speech for hours opposing the signing of Kyoto, only for the reasoning that we knowingly could not and would not meet its obligations and I could not in good conscious endorse signing a lie. I was the only person in the room that opposed this policy and since I was 49 people short of my 50, I was not allowed to say my prepared statement. At the time my statement had correctly predicted quite a bit of what happened