If the Conservatives don’t get that message, their time in power will soon end. And if they maintain their silence, they will complete their time in office as living proof of Bryce MacKasey’s theory about the best working girls.
The latest evidence that Canada’s prime minister is an amoral political narcissist rather than a leader — or a conservative — is his craven handling of the Mike and Nigel Affair.
First there was that Stalinist-style fake news event — the televised Tory caucus meeting where Stephen Harper displayed his usual crisis demeanour: the blameless boss yet again disappointed by calamitous underlings.
He never mentioned the principals in this scandal. He never offered a shred of evidence for what really happened here. He didn’t do a thing except blow smoke. And I don’t have to tell you that the press were allowed no questions. That’s right — not allowed. So how could those trained Tory seals bark for the cameras, to their shame and at their peril? Like their boss, they have forgotten their constituents.
(It was actually reminiscent of the day Harper went in front of the cameras right after being found in contempt of Parliament and, remarkably, never mentioned it.)
Then, with the opposition going into battle formation over a PMO that is beginning to smell like a three-days-dead flounder, the prime minister decamped to Peru. Never mind that we already have free trade agreements with all four of the countries whose leaders he will meet in Lima: Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
This trip was simple desertion in the face of danger and discomfort. It was classic Harper evasion at its greasiest based on the fond hope that the fumigators would have the stench under control by the time he gets back. I guess it’s better than proroguing. And it’s always amusing to see how much of the government’s muck John Baird can shovel with a straight face.
But it’s not what leaders do. Leaders stand their ground — provided they have any ground to stand on.
Real conservatives care a lot about truthfulness. Consistent lying isn’t truthfulness. Nor is explanation-shopping. Nor is marketing on the public dime. The government backbench should start thinking about that.
Consider the prime minister’s ride down the slippery pole of changing stories. When the Mike and Nigel story first broke, the PM’s chief of staff was practically canonized — you know, a saintly friend paying back improperly-claimed taxpayers’ money that a semi-penitent Conservative senator could not repay himself. Why, Pierre Poilievre himself said it. So it had to be true, right?
Then Dubious Duffy morphed into Bad Duffy when he contradicted Nigel Wright’s version of that $90,000 cheque. Out of caucus he went. Next, when it became obvious the St. Nigel story was coming across as bogus stigmata, the PM’s “full support” turned into blaming his former chief-of-staff. It was all Nigel’s fault now and the PM knew absolutely nothing about anything. I am sure Laureen, the kids and Marjory LeBreton believe that.
Stephen Harper has forgotten that real conservatives care about values lived, not values espoused. They detest dishonesty, sleaziness and abuse of office. All three of those traits drip from the PMO/Senate scandal like poison from a boil. Before scurrying away to an insignificant Perrier-fest in Peru, the prime minister failed to drain that abscess.
What he left for others to deal with is akin to the fiasco that brought Stephen Harper to power — the Ad Sponsorship Scandal. Though the amounts of money involved are vastly different, both stories involve the corruption of public institutions.
In the case of Adscam, Crown corporations were used to funnel public money to Liberal party friends, often for little or no work. At this moment in time, the Prime Minister’s Office appears to have interfered in an audit and subsidized an abuse of office by nullifying a Senate sanction.
Meanwhile, over at the Senate, the powerful Board of Internal Economy cooked the Deloitte audit so that Duffy looked less culpable of abusing his housing allowance than did senators Brazeau and Harb. So does the PM call in the Mounties, announce an inquiry, or make public the infamous cheque?
No, he goes to Peru. He leaves the investigation of a sleazy and possibly illegal deal touching his own office in dubious hands. It is to be judged by the very same body that has already disgraced itself by airbrushing the Deloitte audit of Senator Duffy’s expenses. No wonder Duffy said he was happy about that. The moment the sub-committee of the Senate’s Board of Internal Economy handed out a redacted version of Duffy’s case is the moment the investigators should have become the investigated.
The backbench of the Conservative party is suddenly important again — if they dare to be. They have got to stand up and be counted. It is one thing to have caved in to a personality cult based on a vision of discipline somewhere between vindictiveness and sheer intimidation. But it is another to be constantly going back to their constituents defending Stephen Harper values rather than Conservative values. The gap between the two is widening and the PMO/Senate scandal could turn it into a chasm.
There is little doubt the political ground is shifting in Canada based on the entry into the national leadership equation of Justin Trudeau, as well as the PM’s abysmal record on big files and thuggish way of doing business. Overbearing bullies have a way of wearing out their welcome.
The latest CROP poll shows Trudeau with a commanding 10 point lead over the NDP in Quebec and Mr. Harper reduced to single digits. The Liberals are also ahead of the Conservatives at the national level. And that is the irony.
While some backbench Tories might think that supporting Harper is a loyalty issue, they should ponder his trip to Peru. He left his own people in the lurch. He washed his hands of those who had done his bidding. He did the same thing with Preston Manning when he decided not to run in 1997 because he didn’t think Reform could win.
If Conservative numbers go south on the rise of either the Liberals or the NDP, the authoritarian sphinx now running the country will be gone like a ghost. And while he finds a new Peru, others will be left to face the political mess of a Canada based on Harper values.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca
Author: Michael Harris
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