Oceania has never been at war with Eurasia

We’ve already learned from the Conservative campaign manager that “campaigns are campaigns” and now we get another lesson from Stephen Harper himself: any promises made before the last election don’t count.

A cynical person would say given Harper’s record on staffers becoming lobbyists, appointing unelected Senators, putting unelected people in cabinet, accepting floor crossers, and a host of other promises from the most recent campaign they’ve already broken, apparently promises from the last election don’t count either.

But they’d just be forgetting the first rule: campaigns are campaigns.

The second rule came from Mr. Harper today. You may remember the Tories had promised at one time (not all that long ago really) that if they formed a government they would stop charging GST on the portion of gas prices above 85 cents.

Peter McKay still thought it was a swell idea, but Harper laid the smack down firmly.

From the Globe:

At one time, the Conservatives had said they would stop charging GST on the portion of gas prices above 85 cents.

However, Mr. Harper said Wednesday that promise was “two elections ago” and had given way to the planned broader GST reduction.

So, there you go. Take note, Tory bloggers. Your leader has spoken. You can no longer bring up any Liberal campaign promises made before November 2005. The word “red book” is now verboten. No more “you promised child care in 1993” because hey, that was like five elections ago. Dido the eliminate the GST promise. Just pretend it never happened.

And Oceania is not at war with Eurasia. Oceania has never been at war with Eurasia.

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