Please Advise! Is Canada in for a New Era of Dirty Political Tricks?

[Editor’s note: Steve Burgess is an accredited spin doctor with a PhD in Centrifugal Rhetoric from the University of SASE, situated on the lovely campus of PO Box 7650, Cayman Islands. In this space he dispenses PR advice to politicians, the rich and famous, the troubled and well-heeled, the wealthy and gullible.]

Dear Dr. Steve,

The Canadaland website recently detailed a failed plot to entrap former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi in a sting where he would be recorded accepting cash from men posing as corrupt Russian oligarchs.

Does this mean a new era of dirty tricks has come to this country?

Signed,

RF

Dear Ratty,

Frankly Dr. Steve is a bit embarrassed. Surely we as a nation can do better than this. As dirty tricks go this one ranks with calling the grocery store to ask if they have Robin Hood in a five-pound bag.

The plan detailed by Canadaland carried the grand code name “Operation Peacock,” rather than the more fitting Operation Cock-Up. As a scheme it had all the sophistication of Nirvana's Nevermind album cover — attach a $20 bill to a fishing line, toss it into the mayor's office, add some balalaika music, press “record,” and action! It seemed foolproof. Alas, somebody must have tipped the mayor off. According to admitted organizer David Wallace, when the plotters offered to set up a meeting with the big-money Russians, “He wouldn’t bite. Mayor Nenshi turned out not to want a dime.”

It isn't just Canadians who should be insulted by this flimsy scam. Think of the Russians. These are the tricksters who helped put a corrupt, bloated poison toad in the White House, and it's being implied that they couldn't beguile the mayor of Calgary? It's a slur on their bad name. One might even come to believe Russian schemes are not infallible, were it not for their recent triumphant conquest of Kyiv.

Political skullduggery is certainly nothing new. As a Renaissance art it was described by Niccolo Machiavelli, who believed that deceit was an essential tool for any successful ruler. Machiavelli might well have approved of a break-in at the Watergate Hotel, or a loopy conspiracy theory about voting machines, or perhaps even an attempt by a leader to claim a political opponent had run over his foot in a Save-on-Foods parking lot.

Machiavelli however lived in an age before closed circuit TV cameras. Were he alive today he might have advised Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum to be more cautious when filing police reports. You're better off making claims about Jewish space lasers, which are somewhat harder to check.

With McCallum's trial for public mischief now underway we are getting some insight into down-and-dirty local political tactics. Debi Johnstone, the driver in the alleged foot-smushing incident, testified that during her argument with McCallum she called him “a scaly-faced mother-f***er.”

It's important to note that the question of whether McCallum is in fact a scaly-faced mo-fo is not at issue in the trial. The judge will properly disregard any issues pertaining to complexion or the absence of an effective skin-care routine. But Johnstone's testimony does offer heartening evidence that not everyone hides behind anonymous Twitter accounts when referring to opponents as scaly-faced mo-fos. There are still some old-school hecklers out there.

Sadly, the issue of political dirty tricks is starting to look irrelevant. Dirty tricks and ugly accusations are predicated on a political system in which such scurrilous accusations might make a candidate less attractive. Recent events have suggested this assumption no longer holds.

Exhibit A: Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker. The Walker campaign has produced more unsavoury revelations than a drain snake in a public toilet. The former star NFL running back denied having secret children while preaching about morality, denied paying for abortions while opposing abortion, falsely claimed to be a cop while waving a toy badge, falsely claimed to be a college graduate, falsely claimed to run a chain of hospitals, admitted to domestic violence, and once described in detail his desire to murder a man who was late in delivering a vehicle to him. He has been endorsed by Donald Trump and why not? Walker's political philosophy comes straight from his amoral role model: “When you're a star, they let you do it.”

More to the point, Walker has a very real chance of winning a Senate seat next week. What do dirty tricks mean in a political environment like that? When the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ron DeSantis demonstrate that the most vile and despicable actions and sentiments have become political coin of the realm, what hope do dirty tricksters have? You can't smear a landfill.

As Dr. Steve has recommended before, the tactics must shift. Now unscrupulous campaign operatives must spread new lies, accusing opponents of behaving with common decency, acknowledging the humanity of diverse people, and rejecting hatred and fear as the twin pillars of public policy. Paint them as mensches. Let them try to deny it.

Even so, Dr. Steve is marking down “scaly-faced mo-fo” and filing it away for future use. That's gold.