Stephen Harper is Very Upset? I’m Angry.

Stephen Harper said he was very upset, but he didn’t look it did he.  He sat in front of his caucus with his smarmy half smile while the media shouted questions at him. 

He didn’t answer them.

They were shown the door.

You’ll be pleased to know that I am upset too, Stephen.  I’m not upset with the Senate or certain Senators, or even with Nigel Wright per se, I’m upset with you Stephen Harper.

There are a lot of people like me in Canada, some of them are busily scraping blue bumper stickers off of their cars this week.  I don’t have a blue bumper sticker, or an orange one, or even a red or green one, but I do have a Canadian Flag on the antenna of my car.

That flag is in tatters, much like my country.  About one third of the flag is missing, the remaining two thirds represents to me, the two thirds of Canadians who did not vote for the Harper Party in the last General Election.

You know, Stephen, when you were in Opposition, you stood in the House of Commons, the House owned by the People of Canada, and you ranted about omnibus bills.  You said that the ruling Liberals would soon be able to table one bill per session because of their abuse of omnibus bills.  After your Party was elected, you subjected us to the largest omnibus bills in Canadian History.

When you were in Opposition, you railed against the use of Time Allocation to limit debate in the House of Commons and yet you and your Party have used this same tool to limit debate more often than any other Government in the History of Canada.

Stephen, when you were campaigning you said a lot of things.  You promised honesty and accountability.  You promised that you would not appoint a Senator who was not elected.  You promised a lot of things and the only ones that you have delivered ended up twisted into parodies of themselves.

You created an Ethics Commissioner who makes rulings behind closed doors and puts those rulings into sealed envelopes.  A Parliamentary Budget Officer who actually tried to do his job and was stonewalled and blocked by the very Party that appointed him.

I could go on and on but I won’t.

You have shown yourself to be as bad if not worse than any Political Leader that you have held up to ridicule.  You have offered up empty promises and promptly walked away from them when you were elected.

That just makes you a politician, and as I said earlier, the same kind you ridiculed in the past.

And now you have your scandal, the Senate Scandal.

Do you remember the Sponsorship Scandal?  Do you remember chastising Jean Chretien for not knowing what his Chief of Staff in the PMO was doing?

Why won’t you apply the same standards to yourself? 

The trouble may have started in the Senate, Stephen, but the Scandal is in the PMO, and higher.

This all started with Mike Duffy.  An unelected Senator appointed by you, Stephen Harper.  Not satisfied with $135,000.00 tax free he helped himself to a housing allowance on top of that.  When this was investigated Mike Duffy felt guilty I guess, and ran to the PMO office to get bailed out. 

This is when your man, Nigel Wright in the presence of two lawyers made a deal to pay Mike’s debt.  Your man, Your Chief of Staff in Your PMO.

You said that Jean Chretien should have known what his right hand was doing, what about Stephen Harper?

The Duffy Situation is its own little sideshow, the Scandal belongs to you, Stephen. 

When this story broke you said that Nigel had done an honourable thing and that he had your full support.  You and the Harper Party applauded Mike Duffy for his leadership in repaying the $90,000.00.

And now you are upset.

Well we’re angry.

You applauded Mike Duffy who appears to have committed fraud for his leadership in paying back his ill gotten gains.  You applauded Nigel Wright for doing an honourable thing that may very well have been illegal.  You may very well been part of the sanitization of the Report on Mike Duffy’s expenses, but I can’t show that.

You couldn’t even be bothered to answer one question about this Scandal in the PMO until you were some 5,700 kilometers away from Ottawa visiting Peru.

For a man who questions the leadership abilities of others, your actions speak volumes.  Or should I say your lack of actions.

What happened to “Bend the rules, you will be punished; break the law, you will be charged; abuse the public trust, you will go to prison”?

Mike Duffy walked out of the caucus, you didn’t fire him.

Nigel Wright handed in his resignation, you didn’t fire him.

You haven’t punished anyone, you haven’t asked the RCMP to investigate anyone, all you did was run away to South America without taking one question.

Some leader.

Maybe you should take your own long walk in the snow, or better yet on a short pier.

BC