STEPHEN HARPER AT THE G8: HOW TO MAKE A SOW'S EAR OUT OF A SILK PURSE

PRIME MINISTER STPEHEN HARPER AT G8 MEETING IN L'AQUILA

Yesterday at the end of the G8 Conference in L’Aquila, Italy, the Prime Minister once again shot himself in the foot. And once again, his self-inflicted wounds were the result of his rash, nasty, and obsessive propensity to wreak havoc on his opponents, regardless of the occasion, appropriateness, or whether or not what he says is true.

With his wrap-up press conference Harper had his golden opportunity to act as a statesman. All he had to do was put together two or three coherent sentences of no-brainer reflections on the light-weight gabfest of the previous couple of days and he would have been home free. With CanWest and CTV doing the rest of his heavy lifting to drive the message home back in Canada, Harper would have looked positively Prime Ministerial – indeed, no small achievement for such a klutz. It should have been a romp in the park.

Instead, Canada’s Icarus* (or Inspector Clouseau** – take your pick) screwed it up for himself again.
* Read: STEPHEN HARPER: DONE IN BY HUBRIS AND IDEOLOGY
* * Read: PRIME MINISTER HARPER: CANADA'S INSPECTOR CLOSEAU

First of all, in his response to a question at the press conference Harper exhibited his usual class and elegance, vowing not to take “dumb” advice from Parliament budget officer Kevin Page. The courageous Page, increasingly becoming one of Harper’s chief pains in the ass, had earlier in the week stated the obvious – that the Harper government had misread the effect of the Canadian recession on both the economy and government coffers. As a result, said Page, there would be more job losses than previously thought. Furthermore, Page noted the government was now running a “structural deficit” which would preclude a return to surpluses when the economy got better. All of this, he said, pointed to “significant discretionary actions” for the government so that it could rid itself of the red ink.

Harper took Page’s words to mean that the government would have to impose higher taxes and slash programs, all of which said Clouseau, er, Harper, was a “dumb suggestion.” Sounding much like President George H. W. Bush (father of Harper’s pal, young George) when the elder Bush told a crowd on the campaign trail, “Read my lips. No new taxes” (words which later caused him much grief), Harper said, "It will not be the position of our government. We will not be raising the GST or any other tax during or after the recession.”

But it wasn’t enough for Clouseau to merely trash Page. There was little challenge in that, Page being in the PM's mind merely a miserable, lowlife bureaucrat. No, Harper now had to go after a bigger fish like Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff. Without the reporter even hinting of a question about Ignatieff or even mentioning his name, the PM gratuitously accused the Opposition Leader of saying publicly that the G8 should be replaced by a group of nations that do not include Canada.

As he ad-libbed his way through his attack it was clear Harper wanted to keep on message with his party’s earlier attack ads that belittled Iggy’s Canadian credentials. Those ads, you will recall, questioned Ignatieff’s commitment to Canada because he had studied and lectured at some of the best universities abroad, authored well-written books from a world perspective, and reported from war zones far from home. According to Harper and his cronies, Iggy’s background is no match for one whose intellectual pursuits and job experience consists of being of brainwashed in the neocon political science classes of Tom Flanagan at the University of Calgary, or reciting the collected works of Ronald Reagan as chief honcho of the National Citizen's Coalition - surely the lunatic fringe of Conservatism in Canada. Harper said of Ignatieff’s so-called remarks,

"I don't think you go out and throw out ideas like this that are so obviously contrary to a country's interest and nobody else is advocating them. I think it's an irresponsible suggestion, and Mr. Ignatieff is supposed to be a Canadian.”

But alas, Iggy had not said those words and Harper was forced to issue this ignominious apology immediately after the conclusion of the press conference:

"During my press conference I attacked Mr. Ignatieff for some things he had allegedly said about Canada in the G8. I learned shortly after the press conference this was not a quotation of Mr. Ignatieff. I regret the error and I apologize to Mr. Ignatieff for this error."

For a complete transcript of the exchange giving rise to Harper’s statement about Ignatieff and the abject apology, read this very carefully.

Of course, there is always somebody around to take the fall for the PM on the many occasions he puts his foot in it. This time it was his media mouth piece Dimitri Soudas – who seems to be getting a lot of press these days - what with having to explain the unexplainable, like the case of the missing communion wafer.

Soudas, who because of his yeoman service in taking bullets for his boss should be in line for a permanent job with the Fraser Institute before the summer is out, admitted passing false information about Ignatieff to Harper without substantiation.

In fact, it was former Canadian diplomat Gordon Smith, director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, who made the statement attributed by Harper to Ignatieff. Smith laments Canada’s not taking a leadership role in the G8 and believes the country is losing its importance internationally.

During the same press conference, Harper also displayed his continuing irritation over the wafer fiasco during Holy Communion ceremonies at the funeral of former Governor General Romeo Leblanc. Skipping over the fact that it was highly unusual - to say the least - that as a non-Catholic he should take Holy Communion in a Catholic ceremony, he said,

“First of all, as a Christian, I have never refused communion when offered to me. That's actually pretty important to me. Somebody running an unsubstantiated story that I would stick communion bread in my pocket is really absurd and I think it's a real, frankly, a low point. This is a low moment in journalism, whoever is responsible for this. It's just a terrible story and a ridiculous story and not based on anything, as near as I can tell."

Well, given his negative ads and his record as a campaigner/politician, Harper clearly knows something of ‘low' points. I mean, he’s an expert at low points, having spent a lot of time wallowing amongst low points of his creation himself.

As far as the wafer story not being based on anything, perhaps he should look at the video and see it for himself. Once again it can be found here.

See Also:
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090710/G8_food_090710/20090710?hub=TorontoNewHome
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Harper+apologizes+criticizing+Ignatieff/1778259/story.html

KEVIN LYNCH RESIGNS AFTER A BELLY FULL OF CLOSEAU AND MAN SERVANT KATO

Kevin Lynch

Top Aide Guy Giorno (on the left) with boss Prime Minister Harper (on the right)

Our most recent Clerk of the Privy Council, deputy minister to the Prime Minister, secretary to the Cabinet and head of the public service, Kevin Lynch, has joined the ranks of the genteel unemployed.

Not to worry for him of course. As with all former Clerks of the Privy Council a decent life awaits him – cushy board appointments to august and respected corporations, doting professors and students hanging onto every dull word he enunciates at snore session lectures at great universities, a comfortable pension, etc. And given that one of the retirement gold watches gifted to him by his employer - the government of Canada headed by our very own Inspector Closeau - was an appointment to the Privy Council, Lynch will be able to register in expensive hotels on his future generous expense accounts as the Honourable Kevin Lynch. Life will be good for Lynch. The kid from Cape Breton has done well.

Prime Minister Closeau once again showing the tact and class for which he has become famous was predictably not around to wish Lynch well on his public departure. Instead, he was visiting Afghanistan for a photo-op in the process of taking the scenic route back home from Europe. The story is that Closeau’s fractious relations with the public service caused by the petulance and bully-boy tactics of both the Prime Minister himself and his obnoxious chief of staff Guy Giorno - we shall call him Kato – resulted in such frigid relations with Lynch and other highly placed members of the public service that Lynch could stomach it no longer.

It has been noted in the press - and this is a Harperism if ever I saw one – that the last paragraph of the speaking notes sent out to the Conservative lackeys for regurgitation to all and sundry who may ask questions about Lynch’s departure, reads:

“Upon his retirement, Mr. Lynch will have served as Clerk for three years, four months. Since 1979, the average length of service for a Clerk has been three years, four months.”

Although I am a self-confessed cynic about whatever words are uttered by Closeau I believe that many would agree with my following interpretation of that paragraph:

“Look, we kept him around only for as long as we had to so that it doesn’t look so bad. Now, happily, he’s done.”

The speaking note paragraph is tactless, classless and petty - entirely consistent with the other utterings of Closeau when others got in his way.

Rumors persist that Lynch’s vast knowledge of the workings of government and policy – derived from more than 30 years in the public service - frequently angered Closeau and some of the Neanderthals in the cabinet. That sounds reasonable. I can see both Closeau and his government having trouble abiding intelligent people. It is further reported that the behavior of Closeau and his man servant Kato have pissed off the upper echelons of several important ministries, not to mention the whole Conservative party – including its MPs.

It is also widely rumored that Kato (Giorno, in case you are confused) was the brain behind the Closeau’s fiscal update and the attempted suffocation of opposition parties late last year. Apparently Kato's proposals were met with strenuous objections from Lynch. This too likely hastened Lynch’s departure. In addition, the recruitment by the Ignatieff Liberals of Kevin Chan who had worked closely with Lynch over the years also likely spooked both Kato and Closeau.

But even more troubling than the departure of such a qualified and experienced public servant from the most important public service job in the country is the question, where does that leave Canadians who are fighting their way through these economic troubled times? What happens to the stimulus? We all know that the Closeau Conservatives really don’t believe in stimulus spending, unless it is into the coffers of their pals.

Does Lynch’s departure mean that the likes of Closeau, Kato, the hapless creationist Stockwell Day, the portly motor-mouth Jason Kenney and their ilk are going to be less constrained from enacting their neocon ideology? It is reported that Lynch bent over backwards to make the Prime Minister look good – at times even sacrificing his own reputation in the process. But apparently it wasn’t enough to keep his bosses happy. Does Lynch’s resignation mean that all Closeau and Kato want at the top of the public service are kowtowing yes men that do their ideological bidding come hell or high water (as Paul Martin likes to say)?

As Sarah Palin would say, "You betcha!"

See Also: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/05/07/kevin-lynch-retires050709.html
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/05/07/lynchwouters-your-talking-points-and-how-lynch-announced-his-retirement/http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/94626

PRIME MINISTER HARPER: CANADA'S INSPECTOR CLOSEAU

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

When you add up all of his screw ups, backtracking, gaffes, stupid moves, ignorance, stupidly blind ideology, excesses, self destructive meanness, vulgarity – and this is by no means a comprehensive list – it is hard to believe he was ever elected, let alone be the Prime Minister of Canada for more than three years. His record is atrocious. His incompetence alone is staggering.

Foreign policy wise, his administration has seen only failure. Consider this:

- On Afghanistan, it took him years to figure out that our sacrifices of blood and money were for naught. He had read no history on the region and blindly followed a course dictated to him by his arch-rightist American friends. With no more weaponry than jingoism and bravado – that is almost literally true – he led the Canadian people into the hopeless quicksand of one of the most inhospitable regions on earth where failure was inevitable. Only recently did he get it through his head the futility of it all - after 117 and counting deaths of young Canadians, and costs to the Canadian taxpayer of 15 billion – and counting.

- On China, he makes nice with the Dalai Lama, insults or ignores the leadership of one of the most economically dynamic countries on earth, and harps (excuse the pun) at them on human rights for most of his three years in office. In addition, he fails to see or learn that if there is one thing that unites most Chinese people it is that Tibet is part of China and none of anybody else’s business. Finally, it dawns on him – hey, my China policy may not be wise - perhaps it would be better to cozy up to one of the strongest economies in the world. And so he sends – don’t laugh – one of his best and brightest to make amends - the redoubtable creationist and jet ski operator, Stockwell Day.

- Within the last week or so, he stumbled into the bad blood of the almost 100 year-old Turkish - Armenian nastiness. Turkey and Armenia are still at odds over the nature of that dispute and their borders are closed. No doubt there will be a reconciliation of a kind in the years ahead, but such is not yet the case. Harper decided to get into the fray by terming Turkey’s actions against the Armenians as genocide, which prompted Turkey to immediately recall its Ambassador to Canada. Turkey is one of the two or three most important Islamic nations in the world and has been friendly to the West. It is also pivotal in the search for international security and has a population of seventy-one million people. Yet, Harper pissed Turkey off!

As to the treatment of newcomers to Canada, Harper and his ideological soul-mate and spear carrier Jason Kenney continue to tell new Canadians that the Conservatives welcome them to join their party and that they understand them and want them to feel at home in the party and the country. They say this at the same time as beating the drum for Citizenship Act changes requiring new Canadians to be knowledgable in English or French before they acquire citizenship. They also throw every conceivable roadblock in front of an innocent Sudanese Canadian who has spent the better part of a decade being jailed and tortured in his former homeland and who wishes to return to his daughters in Montreal. This is not the treatment that new Canadians have in mind from a party that expects to recruit them.

As to the human rights that for years he seems to have cherished only when within earshot of the Chinese, Harper’s government has been notorious for having a deaf ear when it comes to Canadian citizens incarcerated in foreign jurisdictions. At the moment, the most notorious case is that of Omar Khadr, who has spent the last several years in Bush’s concentration camp in Guantanamo. Soon to be 23, Khadr was captured by the Americans in Afghanistan at the age of 15. Charges against him have been dropped three times and currently are suspended. Khadr is the only western citizen still incarcerated in that hellhole. The Federal Court recently ruled that international law required the Canadian government to demand Khadr’s return to Canada. Harper wants to appeal.

Also in the area of human rights, there is the case of former Red Deer, Alberta resident and Canadian citizen, 51 year-old Ronald Smith. Granted, Smith is no prize. He has been on death row in Montana since 1983 for shooting two young men to death in cold blood. But Canada does not have the death penalty and the tradition – indeed the legal duty - has been that the Canadian government make representations to the foreign authority to help its citizen avoid the death penalty. Harper abandoned that practice. The Federal Court has told Harper to do his job and help save Smith from execution. So far, Harper says no dice. So much for Harper and human rights.

On the economy, during the election campaign when all hell was breaking loose, Harper was encouraging Canadians to buy stocks. In December when he made his economic statement, he did not see the need for stimulus spending because everything was hunky-dory. His view changed drastically in a few days time. Who did he take his economics courses from? Herbert Hoover? R. B. Bennett? Jim Cramer?

Politically, Harper’s judgment may be charitably described to be dismally and obviously, hopeless. Consider this:

- Harper had a speechwriter in his employ who plagiarized one of the most important speeches he ever gave in his career. It was the speech Harper gave to Parliament when he argued for Canada to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq, no less! Smart dude! as his pal Bush would say.

- He and his jolly band of neocons organized attack ads on Stephane Dion that probably gave the Liberals a couple of points in the last election – particularly the one that had the puffin defecating on Dion’s shoulder. Real Classy!

- Fighting for some seats in Quebec, he forgot or, more likely didn’t know the importance of culture to Quebecers and took a shot at the province’s struggling artists during the election campaign. He thereby destroyed any chance of a breakthrough for his party in La Belle Province and succeeded in sealing his political coffin there for all time. Brilliant!

- And then there is his on-again, off-again relationship with former Prime Minister Mulroney. Mulroney as we all know is going through his winter of discontent. At the moment, he is under a cloud and how long that lasts is anybody’s guess. But he did win two successive majorities for the Tories, and rewarded countless of their numbers. Does he really deserve to be a pariah amongst the Conservatives? Does Harper’s PMO really have to provide snippets of information to the press that makes the life of Brian even more miserable than need be? Even when the actions have the inevitable result of starting a war within the Conservative Party and the caucus itself? Harper and his minions must think so. Good move!

- And then there is the coalition. There was only one thing that Harper could have done to unite the opposition enough to threaten his position and destroy his equilibrium. And he did it. In the tradition of the giants of totalitarians he tried to get rid of – literally – the parliamentary opposition parties by depriving them of money. They fought back and bloody near threw him out. This near-death experience for both the opposition and Harper as it turned out, changed the dynamics and led to a quick leadership change in the Liberal Party. It also united the Grits for the first time in almost a generation. All of this makes Harper’s life miserable until he either leaves or is defeated, one of which will be sure to happen within the next 6 or so months. Clever indeed!

Does it get worse? Indeed it is. Harper’s favorite media instrument for communicating to the public is Fox News.