Harper government past best before date

by Gerry Warner
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
March 11, 2011
The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is past its “best before date.” Way past! It happens to all governments once they've been in for two or three terms. Arrogance sets in. So does complacency, indifference and self-aggrandizing entitlement.
It's an attitude of we're the government so we're automatically right. What do the voters know? Who cares? We, big government, have all the answers. And on and on it goes.
How else can you explain the latest developments in Ottawa where Harper's own speaker, Peter Milliken, ruled twice against the Conservative government this week and pushed his minority government perilously close to being in contempt of Parliament. It doesn't get much worse than that.
In his first ruling, Milliken said there's a case against the government for breach of privilege for not disclosing enough information on the costs of its “tough on crime” agenda. That's the taxpayers' problem, not ours, was the modus operandi on this one. Then there was the ruling that International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda may have misled a Commons committee, a much more serious matter than the first ruling because it could lead to Oda, or the government itself, being found in contempt of Parliament.
This now-infamous case revolves around one little word, “not.” That's the word that was inserted by somebody into a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) document denying $7 million in funding to KIROS, a Christian NGO aid organization. This one is quite bizarre because Oda originally denied knowing anything about the mysteriously inserted no then later said she instructed her staff to do it. But this isn't all. The bizarre part is the “magic pen,” something called an “Auto pen” which can apparently mimic Oda's signature. Now whether the “Auto pen” jumped out of its case and wrote “not” on its own or was guided by some hidden political or bureaucratic hand we simply don't know. And who, other than a politician, would own an “Auto pen? I leave that one to you, gentle reader.
It's not over. Far from it when you consider the disquieting case of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who's been accused of using his important position and Parliamentary letterhead for partisan, political purposes. Seems Kenney issued a House of Commons Certificate emblazoned with the Conservative Party logo to a Chinese restaurant in the nation's capital as a “Minister's award for excellence … for creating an authentic multicultural dining experience.” Tacky, very tacky and with the Conservative Party logo on it no less. This is especially embarrassing for Kenney who's already in hot water for firing an aide for sending out a fundraising letter on parliamentary letterhead to a member of an ethnic community. Some say Kenney is the one that should have been fired.
Then there's the notorious “in-and-out” election financing scheme, which actually hits closer to home than many Kootenay-Columbia voters may realize. Don't ask me to explain the intricacies of “in-and-out.” Seems it had something to do with the Conservatives transferring more than $1 million in the 2006 election from the national campaign budget to 97 local riding budgets, including Kootenay-Columbia, then back to the national campaign budget again to be used for other purposes. Elections Canada has taken a very dim view of this and after almost four years of investigating it has charged four senior Conservative party officials, including two Senators, with violating the Elections Act in the money transfer scheme.
And all of this on the eve of a possible spring election. Prime Minister Harper, never one to back away from a fight, must be sweating blood. Are his dreams of a majority government gone forever? Could Michael Ignatieff's Liberals win a minority? Of course no one in their wildest dreams thinks Ignatieff is capable of a majority. Could Jack Layton boost the NDP's seat total before he passes the torch to the next NDP leader?
And right here in Kootenay-Columbia, Conservative Party members will choose a successor to longtime MP Jim Abbott on March 19. It's been a pretty quiet campaign so far, but things are bound to pick up quickly if an election is called before the end of March.
And interestingly enough the most experienced candidate in the Kootenay-Columbia race so far is three-term Invermere Mayor, former RDEK director and one-time federal Liberal candidate Mark Shmigelsky, who's running for the NDP. Pretty exciting stuff, don't you think.
But not half as exciting as the events in Ottawa.
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