Stephen Harper has now cast himself in the role of Dear Leader, looking out for the best interests of his beloved people.
Increasingly, Harper has been using the language of war to explain the toxic atmosphere on Parliament Hill and the sometimes impulsive actions of his government.
He is walking softly, carrying what he apparently thinks is a very big stick.
Recently he purred to CTV’s Steve Murphy about the benefits of his nasty ad campaign attacking Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. The ads were a kind of pre-emptive strike against the Ig, aimed at exposing and rooting out eradicating the influence of a “foreign element” in our midst.
The Harpoon, as he has become known to many, told Murphy that in truth – the ads had saved us all from an unnecessary election. He said that they had merely pointed out to the nation that Iggy was “just visiting” after spending 34 of his 60 years outside Canada.
The implication of course, is two-fold: one – Ignatieff is a kind of fifth colummist who refused to cooperate with Harper’s government – and two – Iggy is unfit to lead the country. (Possibly he’s right).
Mr. Harper quietly explained to Mr. Murphy that Canadians ought to be aware the ads had simply used Mr. Ignatieff’s own words to warn him against forcing a summer election:
“Those ads are built around his own record, his own words, on his own motives and his own statements on the country”.
As weapons in a pre-emptive strike, Harper insisted the ads were highly effective as a warning to Ignatieff that if he didn’t fall into line, there would be harsher attacks in the future. Harper was grim but firm. The ads may have looked like an attack…but they were really just an exercise in self defence, aimed at securing stability in Ottawa and preventing chaos in the nation.
Harper said the ads ran at a time when the Liberals were not co-operating in the operation of Parliament.
“My preference would be for the opposition to work with the government. The Opposition has not chosen that path until very recently. I do think the people want to see the parties work together. But, certainly if the parties aren’t going to work together, the Conservative Party won’t unilaterally disarm.”
The end result of the attack ad bombardment was – Harper insisted – an unconditional surrender by Ignatieff after which the country breathed a huge sigh of relief.
What the surrender meant in practice of course was that Canadians woke up to find a Liberal/Conservative Coalition Government in charge.
You didn’t mention one of the many noxious roots desperately needing to be hacked out of the Ottawa night-soil, the Office of Governor-General. It is painful enough to witness her pretty swanning around doing absolutely nothing for ordinary Canadians, but intolerable that she has a dangerous combination of real power with no grasp of reality, which is probably why our HAH (heavily-armed humanitarians) in Afghanistan love her, they have the same delusions. And why a spiv like Harper wouldn’t think twice about manipulating her.
Why wouldn’t she have told Harper-the-coward to get back to work instead of proroguing parliament? She could have broken with her history of political-patsyism by acting on behalf of Canadians, not the PM.
She could have responded to the clear message that Canadians don’t want more elections than necessary, they want politicians to work responsibly together, not fart around wasting time and running for cover when politically threatened.
The GG office also intervened in 1990 to allow “Suitcase” Mulroney to pack additional toadies the Senate to ensure the passage of GST legislation in 1990.
Good help is hard to find.