The blame game begins: "Harper diverts flag flap to defence minister"

[tuvor]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday that it was his defence minister, and not himself, who ended the practice of lowering Parliament's flags to half-mast when soldiers are killed in Afghanistan.

The comment appeared to be an attempt by Harper to deflect opposition attacks and public criticism over the flag controversy, as well as his decision to bar the media from CFB Trenton on Tuesday for the repatriation ceremony of the remains of four soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Harper placed the decision on whether flags are lowered on the Peace Tower in the court of Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, a retired brigadier general, when he was asked again to reconsider the change in policy.

"The minister of national defence, who is a 30-years veteran of the military, has taken the decision, a decision which tries to balance the interests of public honour and private grief and which tries to make sure that all deaths are treated and honoured equally in this country," said Harper. The flag was not lowered for military deaths in past wars.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=50e371ed-ae60-446c-8418-8eb6b7138d09&k=43863

[Bassic]

1. Well, this is their first major mistake in my view.

They've pissed off the media a couple of times, so I expect to see little support for their agenda in the future. Except from Puffy Duffy of course. I guess it's also a good thing Don Cherry usually limits himself to sports.

[daleo]

2. Harper will alienate his cabinet and caucus this way

Which is fine with me. But this shows a very inept leadership style - grab all the glory when things go well, and blame ministers when things start to heat up. This does not inspire personal loyalty.

[Spazito]

3. Having just moved to the heart of conservatism, Alberta, I have

found the newspaper coverage, especially the letters, on this issue very interesting. Harper's decision on the flag and the media blackout is not going over well. Faux Con MPs are hearing from their constituents and it seems thumbs down is winning over thumbs up, lol.

[tuvor]

4. Are you in Edmonton?

It's the Liberal oasis in Alberta, more or less.

At least it was when I lived there.

[Spazito]

5. Right next door to it, St. Albert, but the papers with the columnists,

letters, etc, I referenced were from Edmonton. It is, relatively speaking, a somewhat liberal enclave compared to the rest of Alberta and, I suspect, so is St. Albert.

[tuvor]

6. That sounds about right.

Much of my family lives there. They're not particularly liberal, nor are they Harper-bots.

But my general recollection is that Edmonton was fairly liberal in its thinking.

[CHIMO]

7. I Am Sure

That you will enjoy the Gazette.

http://www.stalbertgazette.com/news/2006/0426/ed.htm

Hope that you enjoy the green and the trees.

[Spazito]

9. I am loving it and the FREE paper delivered right to my lobby!

I walk out my patio door and, in less than a minute, I am in the park with many kilometres of walkway. There is lots of green space which I also love.

Edited to add: The editorial you linked to had one particular paragraph that stood out for me:

Yet to limit the nation’s mourning to one day out of a calendar year, particularly as Canadian soldiers continue to die overseas, ignores the forces current commitment and sacrifice. For the first time since the Korean War, the country’s soldiers are dying regularly on the battlefield and yet, there is no symbolic gesture from our government acknowledging that sacrifice. Harper is always quick to issue statements mourning our country’s loss, yet he refuses to offer a simple gesture that could easily state to citizens and the rest of the world "Our country grieves."

[Canuck55]

8. I'm in the Okanagan Valley...

...majority is retired folks. It's been a Conservative bastion for years, hell they elected Stockwell Day in Peachland because he rode a seadoo 900 feet from a rental dock to a beach (in a wetsuit in summer ffs, its the friggin' Okanagan).

Despite this the LTE's in both the local free & pay dailies have been outright indignation to not cover it.

[Spazito]

10. LOL re Stockwell "Doris" Day, I remember that episode well...

That is good news about the response in the Okanagan re Harper's decision. It is a big 'oops' for sure.

[Canuck55]

11. The seeds of change are planted here finally though...

For decades the Valley here has lost its brightest young progressive minds to the lower mainland or Alberta or Ontario or Australia or the U.S. etc... Post-Sec. Job Op's have drained constantly. We finally have a UBC satellite campus here since they took over the old Okanagan College University. The trend lately has been for more and more to set-up here in the Valley following post-sec. It's shifting slowly left in the Valley here, but i think it will be countered by the baby-boomers retiring, its not a myth, and they really seem to love the OK Valley, the housing market here currently is top 5 in Canada if not Top 2 at times behind Calgary.

I've personally argued with Ron Cannan unofficially on 4 occasions while he was City Councillor in Kelowna. Colin Mayes in OK-Shuswap & Betty Hinton in Kamloops are still locked in, but Stocky & Cannan would be vulnerable if they called the election for June/July.

[Spazito]

12. That's very good news! I used to live in the West Kootenay

and it went NDP this last election. There was a scandal related to the faux Con candidate but he would have lost even without it this time.