Vile Conservative politics at Canadian voter expense

Canada’s lopsided mission to Ukraine is cheap Tory politicking: Editorial

Stephen Harper has dispatched a Conservative mission to Ukraine, not a Canadian mission. It’s naked partisanship, and an affront to the electorate.

 

Cheap, shabby Tory politics. That’s the best that can be said about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cynical decision to show the Canadian flag in Ukraine this week by sending a nakedly partisan delegation that includes a Conservative cabinet minister, an unelected Tory senator and two Tory backbench MPs – but not a single representative of the opposition parties.
 

It’s appalling to see the Conservatives exploit Ukraine’s national struggle for their own narrow interest.
 

This petty politicking is an insult to Canadians of every stripe who have been cheering on Ukraine’s reformers, through some dark days. With the Harperites, partisan domestic politics doesn’t end at the water’s edge. In this government’s relentless jockeying for political advantage it never ends at all.
 

After shamelessly courting Canada’s Jewish vote with his “million-dollar shot” photo op in Israel last month, with nary an Arab in his bloated 200-member delegation, Harper is at it again, trying to soak up the Canadian/Ukrainian vote. He has sent a Conservative mission to Ukraine, not a Canadian mission. These lopsided jaunts are an affront to the intelligence not only of Jewish and Ukrainian voters, but also to that of the wider electorate.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/02/27/canadas_lopsided_mission_to_ukraine_is_cheap_tory_politicking_editorial.html