PM needs to show respect on the job

[ConcernedCanuk]

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PM needs to show respect on the job

May 22, 2006. 01:00 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be out on the road for much of this week, just as his government seems to be entering a new, tougher period.

Harper will travel to London, Ont., Vancouver and Victoria, B.C., by week's end, putting distance between himself and an increasingly nasty climate on Parliament Hill.

/snip/

Facing a precarious Commons vote on the future of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan last Wednesday, Harper angrily pre-empted the result by announcing in advance that he would unilaterally extend the troops' mandate for a year, with or without Parliament's support. (He won the vote, as it turned out, with the help of some Liberals.)

Confronting the Commons committee defeat a day earlier of Gwyn Morgan, his chosen candidate for a new public appointments chief, the Prime Minister declared he'd just put the whole reform on hold until he had a majority government, when he could force it through Parliament.




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"the Prime Minister declared he'd just put the whole reform on hold until he had a majority government, when he could force it through Parliament"

now that's scary

We will be truly in trouble if indeed Harper ever gets a majority

I hope enough of us Canuks are waking to the error of putting him in power in the first place

[Spazito]

1. Wow, that's a pretty scathing article

I didn't think Harper could control his vindictive, immature, arrogant nature for very long and he sure didn't. Pissing off the media this way, when you have only a minority government, is not wise, Mr. Harper, not wise at all.

"And then there was another public dust up with the parliamentary press gallery, which featured Harper canceling a news conference because journalists would not go along with Pm's insistence on deciding who asks the questions at these events.

As a result, the PM had to ask lobbyists and consultants to phone reporters and put out the "lines" Harper had wanted to convey for a midday news cycle."

Good on the media for not going along with Harper's imperialistic demand.

Edited to add: You should post this in GD under a heading like Canada's PM has pissed off the media already, lol, it might get some interest, the article has a lot of good info about Harper's bad behavior.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. Spazito - feel welcome to post it yourself, anywhere you want

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Takes a lot of time for me to post with links and so on with only a Pentium 1 and a dial-up speed of only 46k

YEAH

46k is all the phone lines will handle here - better than where I lived up the road a few clicks where it would only handle 31k!

This be one of the downsides of living in Northern Ontario

UPSIDE is

don't get no viruses -

I can literally HEAR when sumthing is downloading t my 'puter when I know it's not supposed to be downloading - and just disconnect!

So I'll stay slow

and safe

[Spazito]

5. Okay, will do, I didn't want to step on your toes by posting your

find. It may go nowhere but it does make interesting reading for sure.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Ain't stepping on my toes by spreading the truth on Harper!!

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I long ago lost any vanity(which I admit I had some a few years back) about sumone "snagging" my thunder so to speak

SPREAD THE WORD!!

Ya got my blessings, big time

:thumbsup:

[Spazito]

7. It's done, in GD, has gotten some responses

I do have to go back, though, and give you due credit, I left that out but will correct that right now!

[daleo]

2. Liked the bit about Harper's Mulroney style "speaking from the stairs"

I knew lots of people that utterly detested that little affectation of Mulroney's - one of them used to say "there's Mulroney on those stairs again". Harper must be dense if he thinks this is a good idea.

[Spazito]

3. With Mulroney being one of his advisors, one would think

Mulroney himself would have sounded the warning to Harper about doing it, then again, Mulroney's failings includes enormous arrogance as well so maybe not, lol.

[MrPrax]

8. Well that's not good...

Oh the editorial is partisan drivel--you could easily substitute either Martin Or Cretin and tag them with spending a whole lot of time outside of the country doing the same thing: avoiding "an increasingly nasty climate on Parliament Hill."

So what is Harper's other sin...rigging a Parliamentary vote :eyes:

I hate to say it but unless the guy does something bad, they are going to get a majority without much problem.

If the Opposition is simply going to 'react', then they are toast

[Spazito]

9. It is good to see it in print, Harper's honeymoon is over and it's

about damn time, imo. How do you see it as partisan drivel? Because it showcases Harper's immature, petty behavior?

[MrPrax]

11. Separated at Birth?

Given the broo-haha over at the Post Friday, everyone, accept Susan Delacourt missed Don Martin's column...

It was a lousy week for parliamentary respect

Don Martin
National Post May 19, 2006 Friday

Stephen Harper talks to reporters on his way to his second-floor office after winning a Commons vote on extending the mission in Afghanistan until 2009.

He emerged from the squeaker Commons vote on extending the Afghanistan mission, ignored the speaking podium his staff had set up and waved off questions until he could climb a handful of steps toward his second-floor office.

Having reached the desired altitude for showcasing his superior attitude in vintage Brian Mulroney style, Stephen Harper turned to lord over the assembled media with his message.

<snip>

In just three days this week there have been three examples of the Prime Minister's churlish disregard for a democratic institution he repeatedly pretended to value during his stint in Official Opposition.

We've witnessed the return of the angry Albertan, the bitter and hard-done-by personality his image-enhancers thought they'd licked into likeable submission during the election campaign.

1) Signs of the old Harper first flared during his furious reaction to the parliamentary committee which nixed his nomination of retired oilman Gwyn Morgan as the first chair of his new Public Appointments Commission. It was a horribly bad and frustrating decision, but angrily killing the commission until he controls Parliament through majority rule is a Grade Three recess reaction.

2) Harper then used the back door to effectively kill the federal gun registry without parliamentary approval. It was born on the floor of the House of Commons a billion dollars ago and should die there too. Instead the government opted to pull the plug through an amnesty for low-calibre criminals, pending some unspecified future date to request its euthanasia in the Commons.

3) The kicker was Harper's offhanded warning on Wednesday that he would refuse to accept a negative verdict from the House of Commons on extending the Afghanistan deployment.

<snip>

It was a lousy week for parliamentary respect and suggests Harper learned a thing or two from the previous Liberal reign.

Vigile
Adler Online

and this is interesting...from the Edmonton Journal with a softer headline without the word 'respect': "Harper's disdain for Parliament grows more visible by the day" Edmonton Journal

Note: The National Post still has this subscribed so I grabbed it from a couple of other sources...same column

...and later that long weekend and probably a little pressed for copy, hungover, stupid...

PM needs to show respect on the job
May 22, 2006. 01:00 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

...
The Commons isn't sitting this week. But last week has been largely written up as one of the roughest for Harper since he took power on Feb. 6, featuring several less-than-positive displays of his leadership style — particularly his lack of tolerance for dissent and setbacks.

<snip>
1) Facing a precarious Commons vote on the future of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan last Wednesday, Harper angrily pre-empted the result by announcing in advance that he would unilaterally extend the troops' mandate for a year, with or without Parliament's support. (He won the vote, as it turned out, with the help of some Liberals.)

2) Confronting the Commons committee defeat a day earlier of Gwyn Morgan, his chosen candidate for a new public appointments chief, the Prime Minister declared he'd just put the whole reform on hold until he had a majority government, when he could force it through Parliament.

3) What's more, the government announced it was beginning to wind down the long-gun registry without putting that decision to a parliamentary vote. As well, news emerged over the weekend that the Harper government is in the midst of withdrawing from the Kyoto air quality protocol by 2012 — again, without putting that decision to Parliament.

TorStar

So what are the odds that two columnists from two different papers writing pretty much the same column three days apart?

Your in the biz, what do they call this sorta thing. ;-)

..and YES I do stick by my claim of 'partisan drivel' and my fears, that if the best thing the 'pundits' can come up with, is copying each other's columns and seeing the exact same thing...then the brain trust has run dry

We're in trouble if the Opposition doesn't start kicking up it's heels... :-((

BTW Martin does a much better job covering the ground here and I suppose if Sue hadn't caught Klein on Sunday Edition (quoting from the radio!! interview I heard as well, which I didn't think was very interesting either and but the attempts by the terminally 'out to lunch' Michael Enright trying to prod the guy in attacking the Tories was pretty funny!!), then the columns would be the exact same.

I was going to go into a jag about Delacourt's interesting way of erasing the Media's involvement in the rise of the modern political 'soundbyte' or

"politicians speaking down to the public through numbing repetition of "message tracks," focus-group-tested policies and avoidance of probing questions — are hallmarks of the Harper communications style, as well as the Liberal regimes that preceded it.

Also the hallmarks of modern jounralism Susan. If your at all honest about, darling, you might want to ask that steady stream of media consultants that move effortlessly unseen and unheard between media and campaigns.

Politicans came up with 'message tracks'? Really...

[Spazito]

12. One could put it down to the fact that Harper's actions have

pissed off the media, that being plural. I certainly have seen multiple articles covering the same topic ie the "moron" comment from Chretien's staff member. I guess those who wrote about that were practising "partisan drivel" as well.

Harper has drawn the battle lines with the press covering Parliament, why are you surprised/cynical that they are firing back?

The press does not lack it's own ego and arrogance so to see them hit back shouldn't be so surprising although I have to admit I wasn't sure they would.

Oh, and BTW, I have never stated what business I am in, if, indeed, I am in any.

"Your in the biz, what do they call this sorta thing."

[Bassic]

10. Lets hope so.

The incredible power of the people to put their heads in the sand when a candidate is being nice to them during an election campaing will never cease to amaze me however. That's how Québec ended up with an idiot like Charest, and that's how Canada ended up with Harper.