‘Distractions’ finding Harper team on shaky ground

When it rains it pours or so it must feel to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives as the many accumulated clouds on their horizon finally give way to a perfect storm.

By now the Prime Minister probably wants voters to forget that he ever mused about his hope for an Ontario Conservative trifecta made up of Ontario’s Tim Hudak, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and himself.

The last thing Harper needs as he tries to control the damage of a spending scandal in the Senate was another hit on the law-and-order image of the conservative movement.

In his book, drug allegations involving Toronto’s leading municipal Conservatives almost certainly qualify as an additional “distraction” — to use the word he chose last week to describe the Senate crisis.

The fact is that, over the past three months, Harper’s agenda has featured more so-called distractions than anything else.

Creaky wheels in the PMO and in the cabinet; cracks in caucus solidarity and public opinion turbulence have become hallmarks of the ongoing federal season.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s 2013 budget played to tepid reviews. He has been battling a painful illness. In the lead-up to a mid-term shuffle there has been unprecedented speculation as to his future role in the government.

For different reasons, outgoing Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright — who both played strategic roles on Harper’s economic watch — are simultaneously out of the picture.

For the first time since Harper became leader, some elements of the religious right have waged open war on his leadership. That comes on the heels of a public collision between the prime minister’s parliamentary lieutenants and the social conservative wing of his caucus over the abortion issue. That clash has morphed into a larger internal battle over the democratic rights of government MPs.

An early attempt to clip the wings of Justin Trudeau seems to have backfired. Polls suggest that the latest Liberal leader is less vulnerable to the black magic of Conservative spin doctors than his predecessors.

In yet another first, the prime minister lost a seat to a byelection earlier this month and, in the process, his only Newfoundland-and-Labrador minister. Peter Penashue had initially resigned over 2011 election spending violations.

On the same general theme, a federal court judge found that fraudulent phone calls to non-Conservative voters in the last election were part of a systemic attempt to prevent them from voting. While last week’s ruling did not point the finger at the Conservatives, it did conclude that whoever was behind the manoeuvre accessed the party’s data bank.

If there ever was a time when the government needed to change the channel it would be now, but Harper does not have a lot of alternative programming to offer.

On the Senate, his hands are tied by his own reference to the Supreme Court. Its ruling on Senate reform could be at least a year away.

A bill to deal with some of the issues raised by the robocall controversy was hastily withdrawn in the face of a government caucus backlash a few weeks ago. The next version will be scrutinized under the critical light of the recent court’s ruling.

On the economic front, the outcome of the trade negotiations with the European Union, as well as the future of the Keystone pipeline in the United States, remain uncertain.

As for the faltering caucus solidarity, suffice it to say that it is a rare shuffle that does not make for more malcontents on the government benches.

Harper’s government would normally limp its way to the summer recess and then regroup for a recast. But when the House rises in a few weeks, the prime minister will initially be jumping from the frying pan of question period to what could be the fire of a national Conservative convention.

In the best-case scenario, it will be a while before Harper and his team can reasonably feel that they are home and dry again.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Chantal Hébert