That's what you get, Shakespeare wrote, when first you practice to deceive. One lie follows another. That's certainly what happened in the Prime Minister's Office. Michael Harris writes:
It is becoming increasingly obvious that NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair had it right: the CPC code of conduct is not taken from the Bible or some list of sacrosanct conservative principles. It’s taken from the Criminal Code. Canada has returned to the Mulroney era, when everything was okay unless it was illegal — notwithstanding Judge William Parker’s ruling in the Sinclair Stevens case. Even the appearance of conflict, the judge wrote, had to be avoided to maintain public trust in the system. Canadians now trust discount sushi more than they do Parliament under Harper.
And despite Wright’s vaunted reputation as an upright man, his defence of his actions in the Duffy affair displays the same ethical bankruptcy and dizzying sense of entitlement that emanated from the very heart of Stephen Harper’s office. This is David Dingwall’s chewing gum to the power of ten. When asked by Donald Bayne why he lied to the PM about his payout to Duffy, Wright said it wasn’t a “bad misrepresentation.” That euphemism could stop a charging rhino.
What it comes down to -- and Jack Layton warned us of this long ago -- is that you can't take Stephen Harper at his word:
Bottom line? Canadians can’t trust a single statement from a party that thinks perception is reality and actively promotes falsehoods when they are deemed to be in the government’s interest. And if you doubt that, consider the absurdity of the conflict between the testimony of Nigel Wright and the RCMP statement of former Harper PMO legal counsel Benjamin Perrin.
Mr. Harper keeps insisting that this election is about leadership. But a leader you can't trust is no leader. And a leader who insists that, when he does something it's legal, is merely the ghost of Richard Nixon. In the end, Nixon became entangled in his own web.
15 comments:
Perhaps the phrasing of this sounds familiar, Owen.
"Stephen Harper, you just cant trust him!"
Enough said.......
That's what this election is all about, Rural -- despite Harper's attempts to change the channel.
Also on trust Owen, Nietzche said " It's not that you have lied, it's that I don't believe you anymore."
And that's the point, Pam. Up to this point, Harper has been able to sell falsehoods. Now people have stopped buying.
A real and lasting Snowcrash.
YES! Owen, and ain't it great!
If you're right, Steve, there's a revolution coming.
Steve is a leader alright he is leading the conservative caucus down the dark and rancid halls of criminal corruption and complete disregard for the Laws Of The Land. If he gets ensnared which looks like it is going to happen due to Perrin's testimony and statements to the RCMP conflicting in the worst possible way with Nigella's testimony [Perjury?] the fact that Novak knew it is unfathomable that Steve did not...
The whole thing is looking more and more Nixonian, Mogs.
of everthing Harper has done it looks like a parking ticket is going to bring him down
Yet St Jack never seemed to have any problem with teaming up to help him first come to power and then stay in power because they had common cause in wanting to destroy the Liberal party once and for all leaving their respective parties as the only two options. The only party that never stopped warning us Harper's danger of the two current main opposition parties was the Liberals, and instead of stopping Harper Layton equated him with the Libs making him appear to be no worse and in the mainstream after all. So forgive me if I find using his words now about how Harper couldn't be trusted a bit hard to swallow.
I wrote at iPolitics in this thread that I WISH it was the criminal code they followed, but it isn't, it is the word of the Lord God Harper and the Code of Omerta in what he truly says and does. The only consideration given to the criminal code is in how to circumvent taking the fall whenever any exposure to their breaking it shows up, and given how it looks like they have the senior level of the RCMP in their pocket, that sadly has become the new reality in Harperland.
This was EXACTLY what I kept warning about, why I kept trying to get dippers to see the Libs were far less dangerous even if you believed in all their supposed corruption being true than ever letting Harper at the PMO. I showed how the Grewal affair in particular showed just how much respect for the criminal code and the rule of law Harper really had, namely zero, and if he was willing to go that far as to fake evidence of Lib Ministers supposedly bribing his MP with Senate seats for votes via editing, what would he do with the powers of a PM, even a minority PM, or Gods help us a majority PM? Well, we finally have seen the true iceberg tip in all of this, and I am convinced that this really only the tip of the full truth that will only have a chance of coming out with the expulsion of Harper from power.
One of my main reasons these days for supporting Trudeau and the Libs in that position is that Trudeau has already proven he knows how to fix up and clean up after disaster ruins a national organization. Consider where the Libs were after 2011 and the universally agreed on expectation they were out of consideration as a serious option for several elections at the minimum assuming they could survive at all. Then Trudeau runs, wins the leadership, and within 2 years brings the party to serious contesting for power as the next government in this election, repairs the broken on the ground infrastructure and the riding/Constituency level, and unlike his two predecessors figured out how to rebuild the fundraising machinery of the Libs to make it second only to the Harper machine, this while in third place and after what happened in 2011.
If that isn't enough to not just show leadership skills but the right kind of leadership skills to follow in the wake of Harper, what does? Oh, and it clearly took a lot more than his name and link to his father to do all this, these were massive institutional challenges within his party and he managed it despite all the snickering and cheap shots at his youth, hair, mother, and name. Mulcair clearly has never had to deal with such, and that makes him the wrong man for the job in my view leaving aside any other issues which I could point to.
There are a lot of Dippers who blame Layton for Harper's rise, Scotian. Or perhaps -- like you -- they're ex-Dippers.
John Ibbitison said during an interview on the CBC the other day, that Harper refuses to take orders from anybody, Steve. It appears that he ignored the advice of his lawyer and refused to take note of the constitution. That's a big parking meter.
One caveat:
I was never a Dipper, I was always a uncommitted swing voter. It is my wife who is the ex-Dipper, and she was hardcore Dipper back in the day.
In that case, Scotian, I suspect that -- like your wife -- there are a lot of former Dippers around.
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