Gloria In Extremis: Manufacturing Dissent

Gloria Galloway continues her one-woman campaign to create a movement to force Stephen Harper out of the Conservative leadership, with inflammatory articles and headlines that conceal the true nature of the petty disputes within the party:

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is presiding over a house divided, with some supporters leaping to his defence and other party members lining up behind those who have called for his resignation.

Who's calling for his head? MPs? National council members?

How about some unnamed e-mailers?

Pierre Rémillard, one of the four authors of the controversial letter and the Conservative candidate in the Quebec riding of Jeanne-Le Ber, agreed the response has been mixed. He and the other dissenters have started a weblog to record the comments of party members.

"There are some MPs from Alberta who wrote to us, and some zealots, clearly, who said we are Liberals hiding in Conservative clothing," Mr. Rémillard said yesterday. "But I think the overwhelming majority of support we received clearly outclassed those negative e-mails that we got."

As a result, Mr. Rémillard said, he believes the movement to push out Mr. Harper is approaching. Some dissent has even been logged in Mr. Harper's province of Alberta.

Mr. Rémillard said a source inside the party has told him that 20 of the 75 people nominated by the Conservatives in Quebec are no longer running. He has asked Josée Verner, the party's Quebec lieutenant, for an accounting of who is still in the race and whether they support Mr. Harper.

Hints, rumours, insinuations and innuendo is all Gloria Galloway can come up with, all from the mouth of one disgruntled former candidate. The last claim about mass defections of candidates in Quebec is especialy ludicrous; if candidates had been dropping off in such large numbers, someone else would have reported it by now other than just her. It is extremely unlikely that they would all have held back until now to quit.

There is always a measure of discontent with the leadership, no matter how well things are going, in any political party. It is irresponsible for journalists, no matter how hostile they may be, to create stories where none exist. But then, the Globe and Mail has hardly been a source of responsible journalism lately.

Source: The Globe and Mail