There are nagging questions about Steve Harper at the back of Canadians' minds. They have been reflected by pollsters...and have been part of punditry chattering class commentary since day one of the Harpocracy.
Simply put they are"Why does Harper want a majority so badly and what would he do with it?".
A glimpse of the answers may well be available to us in the aftermath of the election of Harper's ideological soul mate, Brad Wall, as Premier of Saskatchewan. Yesterday, the brand new Fire Wall on the Canadian political scene began his re-making of the Sask government. Mass firings of senior bureaucrats were the order of the day. The only reasoning offered: "There is a time when new government takes over and there is a new direction and new leadership that needs to be provided."
The traditional respect for the impartiality of public servants and the distance between the public service and conservative politicians are always the first victims of conservative majority rule.
Caveat emptor...Stephen Harper.
There's a formula in here
59 minutes ago
4 comments:
It's part of western Canadian heritage. Your only an impartial civil servant in western Canada if you've been appointed by the most recently elected right-wing government.
It also helps explain why Calgary's own Harper has strutted about like he owns the place since the day of his coronation.
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Calvert and Romanow did the exact same thing as Wall when they came into power. They fired the "old" senior bureaucrats and replaced them with more "amenable" ones.
Maybe it is time to recognize that with Mr. Harper there is far less there than meets the eye. When you look back it is kind of obvious, weather it is his tendency to lunge for the throat on small points; his inability to understand that the traditions of the House of Commons are its strength, not just tricks of the last government party; his habit of following Bush and Co around like a groom bringing up the rear of the parade with broom and dustpan; his startling lack of understanding that Climate is big, big, big; or even the dawning realization that he really does see the world as part of Canadian politics, as seen by his comments at international meetings where he speaks of domestic policical concerns the rest of the nation reps have not the slightest knowledge of or interest in. He seems to have passed from conversation such as may be typical in his living room to the national and now the international stage without the slightest sign anything new has penetrated. And he has reacted to the growing swarm of problems like a demented Hamlet who would overcome all by opposing all.But his method has been to grab more and more intimate control of government so that the whole regime has begun to darken and seize up, lit only by the occasional, unprepared and frantic stab at some issue for the most trivial and party based reasons.
We have had the spectacle of our chicken hearted media rushing after him to proclaim what ever he has just said or done as clever; then a long mass of confused chatter from the literati on process and issue manipulation (whatever we do lets agree not to talk about the problems, right, gang), until now everyone has discovered that we have a lot of confusion. The Federal government is visibly sinking in the quicksand generated by a regime that has its hands on the throat of the country but has no plan, no vision, and is not even seen be able to see past the next press release. The country forgave John A because people knew he had a vision, they were for it, and they did not get all that upset when he cut corners.HARPER IS NOT A LEADER. That is the strange message to emerge, ultimately, from the stupid and utterly wasted Conservative attacks on Dion.
But on the other side, it does seem to this writer we are entitled to demand that the Liberals get off their arse and cause an election. It does not matter if they are not ready, if they do not like the endlessly recirculated bathwater of the professional pollsters, or any other small reason. The country is in trouble, it looks like we are heading into quite a lot more of it, and we need a government with courage and vision. We do not have one. To hell with the odds. Everyone knows that Dion has both as well as a completely exasperating personal bedrock that he will stand on no matter what. That is what we need and no one will know better than most of us if the Liberals do not go for it without any more delay. They have the moment; we have the vote.
Harper can't win a majority government because he can't get an urban seat outside of Alberta to save his life. No majority government has ever been formed without seats from Toronto, and before this last election no government has ever been formed on without Toronto seats. They are trying to gerrymand more rural BC and Alberta seats via legislation, Harpocrits, gotta love'em!
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