“Have you ever gotten the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
-Johnny Rotten (From the Sex Pistols last American gig.)
That’s how we Canadians should feel. The Conservatives said they were going to bring change to government. (More specifically a positive change...) But it seems the best they could muster was a case of the “Same Old Shit…” After day one, a remarkably poor example of that change has already been made.
Given the fuss about Belinda Stronach crossing the floor to join the Liberals, and Stephen Harper declaring that would never be tolerated in The Conservative ranks, you’d figure that he’d mean it.
But apparently not, Harper’s first day in office started by announcing his cabinet, and in that cabinet was a former Liberal that his party enticed over with the promise of a ministry. Keep in mind that this is a man that was elected as a Liberal only two weeks earlier. Question: What’s the difference between Belinda Stronach and David Emerson?
Answer: NOTHING.
But that wasn’t enough. Then he announced that a current sitting senator with no House of Commons privileges would become a minister as well, a man who has no accountability in the House. Zero, Ziltch, Nada, None…
Well-played Mr. Harper… You sure suckered a lot of people. Nice change. I can’t wait to see your anti corruption legislation. That should be a hoot.
3 comments:
Harper hubris, or Does Harper have a tin ear?
The conventional wisdom now seems to be that Stephen Harper is a political genius, of the same ilk as Napoleon, or Churchill, or – pick your favourite. But what if Harper’s cabinet-making is not a politically astute move by at all, but simply a sign that he has a political tin ear?
After all, sometimes the past is predicator of the future: in 2004 he misread the electorate with some of his comments about the Liberals – especially Martin – and his premature triumph speeches about the West taking over. And in Parliament he has sounded a bit screechy and overly self-righteous. Then there are those stories about him being a one-man-band, who does not need a mentor because, one observer says he said, he never met anyone as smart as he is ....
So, perhaps this was just Harper being Harper, and marching to his own discordant band?
If so, wait until the second Act: gonna be a lot of fun for Libs and NDP, and a lot of buyer’s remorse by many voters in Ontario ....
And meanwhile, the Bloc will crouch in the wings, nursing its wounds, and waiting for the right time to take Harper down – when he is under a cloud of intolerance or stupidity, but before he cements himself into Quebec as Mulroney Junior. Best get rid of him soon, before he becomes a real threat to the Bloc ...
So wait for the right moment, and the ganging up by the three parties who each have good reasons for taking him out of his new digs at Sussex, and who – between them – hold the balance of power.
After all, Harper arranged a mob-lynching of Martin with all three parties deciding to put in the knife on that particular Ides of May. Having shown the way, I wonder if Harper fears that this time the other three parties will cooperate to bring him down?
Better than even chance, I think; and probably before summer ends, too.....
Maybe Harper should let those renovations take place at Sussex Drive before he moves in: might save him having to move twice, eh?
What’s the difference between Belinda Stronach and David Emerson?
Ummm...Belinda has a nicer rack?
Myself, I see the next two to three years as a period of flying under the radar for the Conservatives. The best way for them to form a majority is to do the absolute bare minimum, while still managing to keep the ship afloat. I mean, it took the Liberals doing something grossly unjust to eventually bring them down. All Harper has to do to move toward true Parliamentary dominance is to say "Look, just chill out for a few years, keep your mouths shut, and answer all queries with as much vagueness and ambiguity as posible." He'll have his 150+1 and then some. I believe the electorate is more likely to vote for what doesn't bother them than what inspires them. Take my MP for example, Maclean's Mag named him the laziest MP in Ottawa on a track record of sloppy attendance, poor riding committment, and gennerally doing dick all. He's won two consecutive victories since then. One of them was against a Priest, with a massive amount of respect for his work in the labour movement, who ran as an NDP (shades of Tommy Douglas perhaps) candidate.
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