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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Another great piece from Michael Harris

Harper, his jailbirds and the march toward demockery.


Stephen Harper’s dead-end campaign for re-election hit a few potholes in the road this week: an unwanted photo-op of Dean Del Mastro being led off to jail in shackles; a really dumb TV performance from Kory Teneycke; and a weird internecine battle among Tories over the use of the PM’s name for fundraising.'

First to the man who said “I am Peterborough,” without realizing the he is not really in the league of Louis the Sun King. Dean Del Mastro is an albatross around the neck of an already ethics-challenged Conservative party. The appropriately nicknamed Cons are simply debasing the base. The PM appointed Del Mastro his government’s spokesman on ethical and electoral matters. That’s akin putting Dr. Arthur Porter in charge of something really important like CSIS oversight…. Wait, Harper did that too!

Despite having fled Canadian corruption charges, Porter is still a Canadian Privy Councillor, courtesy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s stellar judgment of people. At least Panama is paying the good doctor’s room and board behind bars while he fights extradition to Canada on a clutch of criminal charges.

Harper also appointed Del Mastro as his parliamentary secretary, and kept him in that position even while he knew Del Mastro was under investigation by Elections Canada. Given his personal selection of Porter, Bruce Carson, Patrick Brazeau and Del Mastro, it’s a fair question: does this PM have an infatuation for jailbirds?

Some people felt sympathy when they saw that indelible image of ‘Deano in Chains’ leaving the courtroom. You know, it’s probably not the snap for this year’s Christmas card. But as the great American poet Wallace Stevens observed, sentimentality is a failure of feeling.'

The real scandal in this matter is a jail sentence more suited to a parking-ticket deadbeat than someone who has lied and cheated his way into a seat in parliament.

This is the guy who felt so little remorse after his conviction for cheating in the 2008 election that he referred to the judge’s verdict as her “opinion.”

READ MORE: http://ipolitics.ca/2015/06/28/the-misadventures-of-harper-and-his-jailbirds/


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