Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Starbucks swilling Conservatives

Warren Kinsella blogged during the campaign on his theory that the Conservatives ran a campaign for the Tim Hortons-crowd, while the Liberals appealed to the Starbucks swilling elite.

Said Warren:

"It was about us (the people at hockey rinks, holding cups from Tim's or Coffee Time) versus the elites (the ones who have never been on public transit, and who read the Sunday Times at Starbucks). "

Now I don't drink coffee, and think paying $5 for a cup is stupid. But I think Warren was right, to a point. The Conservatives played to the everyman with easy to digest, palatable sounding policies. The Liberals, well...their messaging was a trainwreck, and while their policies were often good they weren't as easy to break-down.
That's where Scott Reid fell to pieces, discussing certain beverages and food stuffs as he tried to explain why the Liberal day care plan was better. Stephen Harper had the easyto digest soundbite for his "plan": "There are thousands of day care specialists in Canada today. They're called Mom and Dad."

His plan wasn't better, but his messaging was. The irony, of course, is that some of the Liberal policies were actually more beneficial for the Timmy's crowd, while, for example, the Conservative tax cuts were significantly more beneficial to the Starbucks crowd.

But enough seriousness. This was meant to be a post in jest, because it trurns out that the Conservative leadership actually are part of that infamous Starbucks-swilling elite. Scandal! Warren himself discovered this picture of PM-designate Harper enjoying the bourgeois beverage:


And now, in the G&M, I see Conservative cabinet hopeful James Moore, while also preaching the gospel according to Tim Horton, actually worships at the altar of the Starbuckian one as well:

Now there's a man that loves his coffee! And how many more Conservative MPs are closet Starbucks drinkers? Canadians want to know! They could at least drink Second Cup, a proudly Canadian company. Myself, I'll stick with Canada Dry Ginger Ale. A working man's ale. The champagne of ginger ales. Owned by a UK company. Ah, crap.

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16 comments:

Tarkwell Robotico said...

Guilty! Starbucks has the best tea in the mass market (followed by McDonalds). Tim Horton's sucks.

Penelope Persons said...

I have indulged myself in one or two of those lattes, myself, when I'm in funds, although transit is a bit of a luxury. Mostly I rely on my feet. I wonder what that makes me? One of "those low income latte swilling.....???"

Great Pix, BCer!!

Anonymous said...

Now this is f'in scary man..Harper is a Regular Guy! http://www.wildduckdiary.com/wordpress/2006/01/31/harpers-braintrust/
Oh ya but I can see your point too; he may not be a multimillionare lawyer from QC, but he drinks the odd starbucks.. RUN FOR THE HILLS MAN, this guy scares the crap outta me!

Red Tory said...

This whole latté sipping liberal elite thing is total bullshit. I happen to hate Starbucks coffee. It's awful imho. I'll take Tims any day. And I will go out of my way to patronize a "Second Cup" or local establishment if possible. We have a Starbucks not far from where I live and the folks who congregate there are hardly "elite" unless that group is comprised of mall workers on their break, retired vets, teens skipping class and people you'd expect to find at the local Lions or Elks Club.

ainge lotusland said...

chucker, youre a teatard! the best mass market tea is a brand called mighty leaf, and it's carried by tons of places here.

also, bc'er, i think you have to redirect the props on the harperbucks picture. bza of http://bzathoughts.blogspot.com scanned that very jpeg you are hosting (although its not like its hard to find a hard copy of macleans), as well as bringing the matter to my attention around the time i initially posted it.

i dont think bza got enough props for this. i declare feb 1st international kissing bza's ass day.

Anonymous said...

How is Harper a regular guy? Everyone keeps saying this, but how many regular guys alternate their careers between being a MP and leading a right-wing lobbying group? Even Stockwell freaking Day did some manual labour jobs before he moved into politics.

Anonymous said...

"How is Harper a regular guy? Everyone keeps saying this, but how many regular guys alternate their careers between being a MP and leading a right-wing lobbying group? Even Stockwell freaking Day did some manual labour jobs before he moved into politics."

*Yawn. Uhh, the election is over, buddy. Those ads didn't work, and now that we're all aware (again) that Harper led the NCC, it still has the same effect as it did before.

Zero.

Furthermore, at least Mr. Harper wasn't some out of touch Multi-Gazillionaire for Quebec who's sole desire was to obtain power for the sake of obtaining power. You Liberals support some weird people.

Jeff said...

Angela, I'd happily give bza a hat-tip but I took a look through his blog and didn't see the pic there. As I mentioned I found it on Kinsella's site, who didn't cite a souurce.

And Chris...

You Liberals support some weird people.

Stockwell Day. 'nuff said. :)

Anonymous said...

Rahim Jaffer owns a Timothy's.

In fact, he was opening it when his assistant impersonated him on the Radio.

Red Tory said...

Harper did try to hammer home that “regular guy” thing during the campaign in terms of being middle class and not rich (an obvious dig at Paul Martin), but he’s not exactly the sort of person you’d want to share a beer with. Unless you enjoy hanging out with insurance actuaries and presuming he even drinks…

I see Angela is another one of these “rebels” who thinks that capital letters are utterly dispensable. Does that make them anti-capitalist?

ainge lotusland said...

it isnt a rebellion so much as laziness. i do a lot of typing involving things like apostrophes, capital letters and semicolons, but none of it is for you.

my rebelliousness is clearly manifested in the badly-drawn cigarette i made on ms paint. come on.

Tarkwell Robotico said...

Angela,

No such brand of tea in Quebec called mighty leaf.

In the interest of national unity and bridging the partisan divide, please forward a sampling to me.

Just to offend everyone even more:

McDonald's makes a good cup of tea.

The secret is really hot water.

Anonymous said...

"Stockwell Day. 'nuff said. :)"

Yeah, well, I've never supported Day blindly just because he was a Tory. As a matter of fact, he makes me laugh my ass off. Tories are much more critical of their party, however, than bleeding heart Liberals are. It wasn't until Martin lost the election that I started to see Liberals saying what we've been saying all along.

But yeah, I got the point. Walked right into that one, hehehe.

Let's just hope the Alberta wing of the party keeps its damned mouth shut for a very, veeery long time. Specifically Rob Anders. Being a Progressive Conservative (Blue Tory though, which actually, should be my name! Wonder what Red Tory would think?), these Reformers somewhat make me nervous about their actual loyalty to the party. We'll see how upset some of them get over being turned down for cabinet.

And by the way, Harper MUST defend the Canada Health Act. Klein, needs to be put into his weird ol' place again.

Anonymous said...

Well, Tims is owned by a US firm and Canada Dry brand is owned by a UK firm. So, what is really Canadian ??

Jeff said...

So, what is really Canadian ??

Well, I Am Canadian.

Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

We should have gotten that Joe Canadian guy from Molson's for the Liberal commercials. Heck, we could have used have the original script unchanged:

Hey, I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader....
I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled....
and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada,
although I'm certain they're really really nice.

I have a Prime Minister, not a president.
I speak English and French, not American.

And I pronounce it 'about', not 'a boot'.

I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack.
I believe in peace keeping, not policing,
diversity, not assimilation,

and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch,
and it is pronounced 'zed' not 'zee', 'zed' !!!!

Canada is the second largest landmass!
The first nation of hockey!
and the best part of North America

My name is Joe!!
And I am Canadian!!!

Tarkwell Robotico said...

A.L. Van Houtte is Canadian.

Does business across North America.

Why does no one know about it in Toronto??????? Navel gazers!