Blogger Dennis Earl is a 39-year old graduate of Mohawk College TV Broadcasting Program. He detailed the postings of an unknown Harper extremist who appear to be a political operative with a mission to destroy whoever is in Harper’s path.
He called media reporters “lying pieces of s—”, and now best symbolizes an extremely biased but unknown partisan hidden in an Ontario Conservative party base.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was not having a very good week. Former chief of staff Nigel Wright just concluded five days of testimony at Senator Mike Duffy’s bribery trial which revealed a whole lot of collusion from various members of the Conservative party including the inner circle of the PMO.
Instead of being asked by reporters about his election platform, he’s being grilled on a daily basis about his involvement in the scandal which has led to routine deflection, outright denial and robotic, easily discredited talking points.
But a self-styled farmer from Etobicoke, a suburban town dissolved in 1998 and absorbed into Toronto, who claims to be Earl Cowan came to Harper’s rescue.
Who’s that, you ask? It’s this guy. After another round of tough questioning from the press, Cowan went right up to a pack of reporters and let them have it. He downplayed the significance of Senator Duffy’s questionable expenses and, in an infamous moment, referred to them collectively as “lying pieces of s—”.
As a result, he’s become known as the “Angry Con”, the unfortunate face of an increasingly corrupt, authoritarian, and right-wing government. Parody accounts have already started popping up on Twitter.
So, who is this maniac, anyway? Well, according to his LinkedIn page, he’s a farmer from Etobicoke.
MacLean’s Magazine reported last year that he was the heckler who told then-Toronto Mayoral candidate Olivia Chow to go “back to China” because, he claimed, she wasn’t Canadian. And on Facebook, he’s had plenty to say about Sun Media stories particularly when they involve Conservatives he supports.
As it turns out, he’s long been a proud defender of Mike Duffy and Stephen Harper. In an October 22, 2013 Facebook posting, he wrote:
“If we had honest media in Canada the Prime Minister would not have to waste his time on trivial issues. We want Senators to have residences in the areas they represent, and they must also have residences in Ottawa to attend sittings of the Senate. Duffy claimed the best residence as an expense. He did nothing wrong… We have the government that we deserve.”
While complaining about pipeline protesters in another posting on October 23, he played the role of Conservative apologist.
A week later on October 30, Cowan claimed:
“Our Prime Minister Harper is doing an excellent job of governing Canada, and our Senator Duffy has not done much wrong…no serious person pays any attention to this silly affair.”
For some reason the comment (also seen on the defunct sunnewsnetwork.ca website, like all his publicly available Facebook offerings) was posted three times.
Besides being a diehard Harper and Duffy supporter, Cowan is also a major fan of the Ford family.
When Rob & Doug Ford were about to do their one & only broadcast for the now-defunct Sun News Network on November 14, he exalted: “This breaks the Toronto Star’s strangle hold on the truth.” He has a real problem with the CBC, too.
Three days later, he complained about the “the Toronto Council Lynch Mob” and how their “attacks” would “hurt the whole city”.
On December 16th, in response to a Sun News article about then-Mayor Rob Ford dancing with a church choir, while directly addressing a fellow commenter, he claimed:
“To John Nador: I have, actually, spent time with criminals, crack, and pot users, and drunks, and I once had Christmas dinner with a drug dealer. He was cold. Next week we celebrate the birthday of a guy who hung with tax collectors, questionable women, and Samaritans. Do you relate to the words: ‘unctuous fool’?”
On May 1, 2014, regarding Rob Ford’s numerous drug addictions, he suggested:
“Put all Toronto politicians and media people into rehab somewhere in Greenland, and let Rob Ford run the city.”
Cowan also defended Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson (he called him Phil “Anderson”) on December 19, 2013, criticized the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to strike down our antiquated & dangerous prostitution laws on December 20 and defended the use of robocalls during elections on April 24, 2014:
“Robo-calls are an excellent way for politicians to speak directly to the voters, without being censored, distorted and ignored by the Media Party.”
On April 25, Cowan posted this incoherent rant about the Canadian Senate comparing it to a fire department that “sit[s]around doing nothing except waste money until the day your house is on fire!”, and noting that the “only consistency” about five listed Prime Ministers (“Diefenbaker, Trudeau, Mulroney, Chretien, and Harper”) is “they were all better than Hitler, Stalin and Mao, so the Senate never had to act.”
Curious how he includes two Liberal PMs.
“The Senate works pretty well now,” he continues, “it is cheap insurance against tyranny but the important thing is that after they are appointed Senators must be independent of the Government, and that means no restrictions on them.”
So, why does he support Harper when he doesn’t believe in an independent Senate?
Anyway, because of privacy settings, it’s not certain if Cowan is still active on Facebook. Only his comments on Sun News articles are visible and the last one was posted in early February.
Regardless, if this is the kind of supporter who gets vetted and approved for Conservative campaign events, the Harper Administration should be very worried about its reelection prospects.
