It appears as if our newly confirmed prime minister didn't want to waste any time in re-establishing a dubious legacy when he decided to spit in the eye and slap the faces of the electors who decided to forget his past transgressions by offering him his long sought after majority status in the House of Commons.
It didn't even take our renewed PM a week before he ridiculed the electorate by appointing Josee Verner, Larry Smith and Fabian Manning to the Senate, the place from which they resigned in order to run as Conservative candidates in the federal election. They were rejected by the voters, but they lead the charmed life as part of Harper's inner circle. So back they go into the red chamber.
As expected, Saskatchewan's MPs and electorate are being taken for granted. MP Gerry Ritz returns to his box seat as agriculture minister, Lynne Yelich is returned as the minister of state for western economic diversification, which we didn't really think was a cabinet position, but apparently it is, and of course it would be difficult, even for Mr. Harper to give that particular post to an easterner. The resource ministry went to an easterner though, even though the majority of Canada's resource riches are found in the west. It's like handing the ocean's and fisheries cabinet position to an MP from Alberta.
But we digress.
The insults continued with the appointment of 39 cabinet ministers, one of the largest cabinets in Canadian history. They all come with inflated paycheques and expense allowances even though very few of them will ever be called upon to make anything resembling executive decisions since those are all reserved for the Prime Minister's Office.
This is the new government that has vowed to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board, whether the farmers and the CWB board of directors approve of it or not.
This is the PMO that will orchestrate the demise of the gun registry and will pretty well give themselves carte blanche to do whatever they decide is a good thing to do, with or without the participation of the rest of the House of Commons.
We were prepared to give Harper and his team the benefit of some doubt entering into this new era with a somewhat comfortable majority, but it seems as if roughshod is the only element of management he appears to understand, and that is unfortunate because we believed he was capable of so much more.
It seems from this corner that PM Harper is dead set on ensuring that he serves just four more years, unless of course, he decides to change his established election date legislation. At that point, he will have been in the driver's seat long enough and will probably be happy to turn a decimated party that is bereft of spirit and morale over to a beleaguered successor, similar in manner to what was left of the old Progressive Conservative Party that was destroyed by Brian Mulroney who left the mess for Kim Campbell to clean up. This is not dissimilar to other doubtful legacies that were left in the wake of Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien on the Liberal side of the House, once they decided they had done enough damage and it was time to depart.
We can hardly wait for the directives that will come down from on high regarding Senate reform, no doubt being led by Verner, Smith and Manning who will follow the directives of the PMO.
Sham in and Sham out, but no Sham Wow.
