A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
If you’ve been following federal politics in Canada, you may have seen the TV ad the Harper government put out earlier this summer.
Mike Duffy (left) and Stephen Harper, who appointed him to Canada’s Senate and welcomed his presence at Conservative Party fundraisers, during better times.
It is the one that begins with a shot of harper at his desk, seemingly working away late into the day on the issues at hand.
“Most of the decisions you have to make in this job are hard ones,” says Harper in a voice over for the ad. “You have to confront issues you never expected,” he continues over an old photo of him shaking hands when then-Senator Mike Duffy, who is now fighting criminal charges in court.
“You can’t be bound by ideology (and) you don’t have the luxury of only making popular choices,” adds what we are given to believe is our hands-on, hard-working prime minister before he gets up and turns off the office lights to the line; “And on a good day you get to go home feeling you lived up to the job.”
Based on testimony coming out at the Duffy trial in recent weeks from Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright and the former legal counsel to the Prime Minister’s Office Ben Perrin, the portrait of Harper painted in this ad is a steaming pile of crap.
The real picture, if the sworn testimony of Harper’s ex-senior aids can be believed, is of a prime minister sitting around the office as if the lights are out for him the whole time he is there. It is a picture of a Harper who is hardly the hands on, micro manager we have long been led to believe and who is hardly involved in making the hard decisions on issues facing his office and the nation.
If the issue of who paid back to the Canadian people the $90,000 in allegedly wrongful expense claims made by Duffy is any example – and if we take Harper at his word that he had no idea that his then chief of staff Nigel Wright paid it – then we have a portrait of prime minister out to lunch while unelected bureaucrats are running the ship.
During all of the days and weeks so far of the Duffy trial, there have been those of us out there waiting for a “smoking gun” to emerge – in others some evidence showing that Harper knew Wright cut the cheque to Duffy.
So far – and now, fortunately for Harper and company, the trial is on hold until November when the election is over – no such evidence has emerged. That means Harper can continue doing his clueless three monkeys thing – ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil – each and every time a reporter asks him he knew about the cheque deal. And Harper supporters can go on attacking reporters for making way too big a deal over 90,000 bucks.
Harper turning off the office lights after ‘a job well done.’
But the smoking gun and the amount of money involved misses a far more disturbing revelation – that Stephen Harper is leaving decisions on key issues like alleged acts of criminal fraud and bribery involving a senator he appointed and had flying across the country, speaking at fundraisers for his Conservative Party, to a cabal of high-priced staffers in the PMO.
And keep in mind, the Duffy mess began making front-page and top-of-the-broadcast news across Canada before the cheque was even signed and as testimony shows, it consumed a good deal of time in the office as staffers worked on ways to sweep the mess away. So if Harper wasn’t in the know and completely on top of the way that one was worked out, Canadians can rightly ask how many others issues over the past 10 years he hasn’t been on top of.
Just as Toto pulled back the curtain on a bogus Wizard of Oz, the Duffy trial has exposed the bogus leadership of a prime minister who is letting faceless bureaucrats do the hard work. Quite a contrast from the micro manager and control freak so many of us thought Harper was, isn’t it?
Maybe Harper can turn out the office lights at the end of the day and go home feeling good about all that.
Fortunately, Canadian voters have the opportunity to turn out the lights on Harper and his government this October.
See the Harper ad referenced above by clicking on – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yyirlby_ow .
Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary.
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Pocket change, paid back to avoid an embarrassment. What about the billions of taxpayers’ money wasted by the Liberal skullduggery of Adscam, and then the McWynnety power plant closure?? Funny how the higher magnitude “indiscretions” get no attention at all and are swept under the rug of public scrutiny, all in favour of straining a gnat which someone with a plank in his own eye pointed out. When the sights are set on the so-called Harper government, it’s been open-season for a long time now. I’ll admit, most certainly, that there is a definite trait of stubbornness which will most likely lead to the Conservatives’ undoing this October, with or without a “split vote” from the Lefties. If they were more “progressive”, they would see the need, for instance, of examining the “taboo” marijuana issue, in light of the importance of revolutionizing the pharmaceutical industry; which would involve better health and a regulated product for overall safety while removing the criminal element and generating untold revenues to assist the ailing economy. If the U.S. is to be emulated, often to the dismay of many, then “some” States’ blue(green?)prints should be followed, for the betterment of our own country. The knowledge is there and the opportunity is there, but they’re letting it slip away, while Health Canada and potential legislative changes are stuck in the glue of a Stone Age paranoia. But hey, let’s still not forget that Mr. Harper’s team DID bring about ‘some’ good… >> http://cotmblog.com/2015/01/13/harper-government-accomplishments-2012-2015/ Their political epitaph might not be so dark, when the accounts are all in and the next generation’s history books are written.
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How convenient that the trial is now adjourned until after the election. It is VERY hard to believe that someone who both his supporters and opponents say is a control freak who ruled with an iron fist, knew nothing. On the other hand, if he did know nothing, as he claims, who was steering the ship? What a joke. How convenient that none of his lackeys bothered to read Emails from their boss as your previous article noted. If anyone had a message from the boss they would be idiots not to read it.
Meanwhile, the ads worrying about Trudeau’s hair continue. Has anyone else noticed how carefully they avoid using the name “Trudeau” in the ads? The name seems to scare them. It does have connotations for many Canadians. It’s always “Justin”. Do the other parties disrespectfully refer to Harper as “Stevie”? Even the print on the so called job application shows “Justin” in bold print while “Trudeau” is so faint as to be barely visible. I must give them credit for their professionalism in attack ads. They are trying every ploy, even subliminal ones, to defame the other parties. The other parties have lots of REAL data to use against the Conservatives because they have readily provided it themselves and none of it imaginary. Even Harper’s ethics manager is in jail!
Perhaps those ads where Harper is alone late at night in his office are real. He is either dozing or hiding from the reality around him.
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