The Manning Centre for Building Democracy

[Marian]

A couple of years ago I read an article in the Globe (actually a column by Jeffrey Simpson) on a 'foundation' that was dedicated to changing the political climate in Canada by shifting public debates to the right. If I were a journalist, that's a story that I would want to pursue. Is this foundation up and running? Is it funding bloggers and other bozos? Is there money?

[sooey]

Gawd. I don't know that you'd even have to fund them. Harper comes from behind the scenes. For instance, I don't even know what Thomas Flanagan, the architect of this government, looks like.

[Marian]

I remember discovering (without much surprise) that several prominent on-campus conservatives were being funded by the party. It just stands to reason.

[Marian]

Why else would one go to so much trouble to screw one's self... Or err mess things up for one's self? It's not usually in the little guy's/gal's interest to push hard for oligarchy.

[Marian]

Hey, it does exist. It's here:Manning Centre

[fenderbender]

Why don't he call it CanadaManPower?

[sooey]

Oh please, Larry O'Brien, do share your thoughts about the challenges of municipal politics:

http://www.manningcentre.ca/en/gallery

I see Stephen Taylor of the Blogging Tories, there, as well.

[Marian]

Alternate titles: The Manning Centre for stifling dissent
The Manning Centre for legitimizing double think
The Manning Centre for making all news Foxy
The Manning Centre for taking critical thinking out back and shooting it in the head

I confess that I did not come up with all of these (or any really) I had very enthusiastic help.

[sooey]

Here's a link to the Lying Scum Institute:

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/

[Marian]

This is how the Globe and Mail described the Manning Centre when it was in its infancy in 2005:
"Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning and a small group of friends have raised an initial $10-million from wealthy Albertans to launch a new non-political institution designed to promote conservative ideas in Canada...The aim of those supporting the Manning centre is to have conservative political forces win two of every three elections by changing the way Canadians view public issues, instead of losing two out of three, or three out of four, as conservative parties have done throughout Canadian history."

[sooey]

The fucking Globe, eh? It really gets a pass on its Conservative pandering.

[Marian]

Actually, that story was very useful. I think we should thank them.

[Marian]

It's right up there with this story in terms of its usefulness.

[sooey]

Enh. The dumbassed fuckwits are preaching to the converted anyway. Only other Conservatives believe the horseshit they hear on hate radio like CFRA.

[Marian]

It's supposed to do to Canada what the conservatives have done to politics in the US. From the same column:

"Those who conceived the need for the centre have been influenced by the tremendous success of U.S. conservatives. In particular, they are familiar with The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, a book published last year by The Economist's John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge.
After the crushing defeat of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, U.S. conservatives regrouped in a variety of think-tanks, civic action groups, universities and religious institutions. Wealthy financiers came to their aid, spending billions over the years supporting sympathetic magazines, direct-mail fundraising, newsletters, conferences, special projects and, of course, Republican candidates.
Through institutions from the National Review and The Weekly Standard, to Stanford University's Hoover Institution, to the American Enterprise Institute and Cato Institute, to massive direct-mail organizations, to the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family, U.S. conservatives supported the Republican Party. In the past three decades, Republicans have replaced Democrats as the country's governing majority party.
The Manning centre does not plan to support political candidates. Everything else that conservatives have done in the U.S. provides possibilities for what Mr. Manning and his associates dream of accomplishing in Canada. As one friend said, "Our objective will be to build an infrastructure to further democratic conservative thought."
The political right already has a number of non-party vehicles in Canada, including the U.S.-influenced magazine Western Standard; the editorial and comment pages of the National Post; think-tanks such as the Fraser Institute and the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies (and, quite often these days, the C. D. Howe Institute); a handful of oft-published and quoted academics; scattered hotline radio and television hosts; and some of the editorial pages of the CanWest newspaper chain.
But these are deemed insufficient by Mr. Manning and his friends, who yearn for a more elaborate conservative infrastructure to disseminate conservative ideas, train people in the practical arts of political mobilization, and think about ways of introducing more democracy into Canadian affairs."