The Conservatives desperately need something good to happen, to remind Canadians why they entrusted them with government in the first place.
Instead, they seem to be morphing into what they and their supporters most despised when they were in opposition. In 2004, the Conservatives condemned the Liberals for waste and mismanagement — the campaign slogan was “Demand Better.”
Talk about the biter bit.
The “lost” $3.1-billion in anti-terror spending revealed by the auditor-general last week and the millions being spent on Economic Action plan ads during the hockey play-offs have allowed the opposition parties to ask whether Stephen Harper can be trusted to govern.
Thomas Mulcair could not normally be confused with a ray of sunshine. But he was as frisky as a colt in Question Period.
“Is the money just in the wrong filing cabinet? Is it hidden in the minister’s [Tony Clement] gazebo? Or is the money in the Banana Stand?” he asked, a somewhat obscure reference to Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand in the cult comedy, Arrested Development.
The New Democratic Party leader is having fun because he knows Mr. Harper has to deal in nuance and nuance doesn’t work in the 30-second answers of Question Period.
Mr. Harper replied the auditor-general said there is no money missing or lost. “There are no red flags,” he said.
But if the money isn’t missing, it isn’t found either – and until the government can say exactly what happened to it, the NDP will raise the subject every day until the next election.
It is hitting the Tories where it hurts and there is no sign of an end to the beating because if the Treasury Board had been able to identify exactly which departments had failed to report their anti-terrorism spending, it would have told the auditor-general.
The Liberals have taken a different tack, but it is one that might prove even more damaging, since it suggests the Conservatives are not only mismanaging taxpayers’ money but wasting it for partisan advantage.
Justin Trudeau, the new Liberal leader, said each Economic Action Plan ad appearing during the hockey play-offs could employ 32 young people in summer jobs.
He managed to reel off a gratuitous insult in the preamble to a question that still had more logic to it than the $113-million that has been spent on useless, indefensible, self-promoting ads since 2009.
“Maybe if the prime minister was more of a people person and got out more … he would have seen that we cannot afford to waste a cent on budget ads when so many young Canadians need our help,” he said.
The response would have had the Stephen Harper of a decade ago turning puce.
“It is obviously important to make sure Canadians understand the measures that have been developed by this Parliament that will benefit them,” the prime minister said.
The rationale for the ads is Canadians need to know about the Canada Jobs Grant contained in the budget, he said — a statement in blatant, if not flagrant, contravention of the fact the ads currently running do not contain actual measures in the budget.
Maybe Mr. Harper should get out more, if he thinks voters believe this is money well spent.
It is not good times for the Conservatives — they seem bewildered and to have lost their way. Even their own partisans are turning agnostic because there’s not much left to believe in.
It’s not too late to turn things around, but they need to give some of those taking a second look at the Liberals better reasons to stick with them.
Original Article
Source: fullcomment.nationalpost.com
Author: John Ivison
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