Harper's True Colours

Stephen Harper did a bad thing.

Now don’t say “what else is new?” because we have to be fair to our conservative readers. I want to establish from the outset that my intention is not to attack all of our Blue friends’ ideas, and though I tend to refer to the NDP leader as “Buddy Jack” and Mr. Dion as “My Hero”, I actually know a number of conservative voters who I’m more than willing to speak with on a daily basis. Mr. Harper himself, however, is fair game, particularly after yesterday’s question period.

I will divulge that I’m a native of Mississauga. And my MP WAS Wajid Khan. I hold him forever in past tense simply because he’s a soulless floor crosser and a waste of my vote. Granted, I voted in Windsor this past election and I voted NDP (I like to feel like a winner) but had I been home, I would have voted for this Khan fellow, and he betrayed what could have been.

Now Harper’s after another Mississauga MP, only this time, instead of stealing him, he’s decided to resort to the most horrifically juvenile character assault imaginable. It’s even better than those absurd election campaign-stylz attack ads he has out against My Hero. See, Liberal MP Navdeep Singh Bains, representing Mississauga-Brampton South, was mentioned in the Vancouver Sun recently, as apparently his father-in-law was “allegedly interviewed in connection with the Air India bombing case” (CBC). For those of you who don’t remember, or who, like me, were barely a year old at the time, the Air India bombing took place in 1985 and killed 329 people.

The extent of it is that (bear with me…) “Bains's father-in-law told the RCMP he had met a man who was later convicted of shooting a potential witness in the Air India trial. He also allegedly said he met with Ajaib Singh Bagri, who was later acquitted in the Air India bombing” (CBC). That’s a couple too many “potential”s and “allegedly”s for me.

However, it was enough that during yesterday’s question period, while accusing the Liberals of being in opposition to police officer’s having a voice in judiciary decisions, Harper commented that he was "not surprised, given what I'm reading in the Vancouver Sun today when I read this is how the Liberal party makes decisions." As he began to mention our Liberal MP, the rest of our heroes in Red began to shout and bang on their desks (always a strong choice in politics) until finally the House Speaker stopped the questioning altogether. Bain sat quietly with his head down.

So let’s recap. The schoolyard bully (tubby kid, beady eyes - you know the type) made fun of the brown kid’s dad. A fight broke out, during which the kid who’d been made fun of slinked off while his buddies fought the bully, until the teacher came out and none of them were allowed to play anymore.

Here’s the best part: When the bully was told to apologize to the brown kid, he refused, saying that he didn’t even do anything wrong because all the Liberals, sorry, the brown kid’s friends, started shouting for no reason before he’d even said anything.

I am certainly not suggesting that schoolyard antics are anything new in our esteemed House of Commons. Indeed, these kinds of eruptions are a little more than ocassional. But I have to say, Harper’s getting pretty damn desperate. The attack ads were one thing, but to harp (no pun intended) on the family history of one MP, and in dangerous fashion due to his clear position as an ethnic minority, is something else entirely. He accused the MP with a turban of having a family of terrorists!

CTV covered the incident as well, but with far less emphasis on Harper’s display of character and more on the political issues he tried to use this information to gain leverage on. A quote from Liberal Ralph Goodale explained that Harper was implying “that somehow the decision-making process within the Liberal Party is shaped by some family connection on this very serious issue on what is the right security law for Canada” (CTV).

Why does this feel like an election campaign? Can we have another election? Please?

And meanwhile, Buddy Jack continues to divide his time between his lonely quest to abolish ABM fees and guest starring on Canadian comedy programs with the likes of Sabrina Jalees.

Not that she isn’t funny, but c’mon Jack, we’re tumbling towards a world of privatized healthcare and you think access to our own money should be free?

But I digress. Prime Minister Harper is a middle aged, moderately overweight, caucasian man whom George W. Bush refers to as “my buddy Steve”. Kyoto’s trashed, free trade’s freer than ever (while people themselves require increasing amounts of documentation to cross the border) and we’re quickly losing our reputation as the wickedest country in the world. We’re not the kind of nation that enjoys a terribly conservative government. For goodness sake, we like gays, women and ethnic minorities, not to mention marijuana. Do you remember during the election before last, when the tories’ numbers were soaring and the rest of us were getting concerned, and Michael Moore stepped in to save the day? He made one public comment, something along the lines of “If the Conservatives win, it won’t be long before Canada looks just like the U.S.” and within a day, the numbers changed. Where was our 4am miracle last election? Harper knows his days are numbered, or he wouldn’t be behaving this way. But we’ll have the chance to fix things soon. With any luck, it’ll even be before the polar icecaps melt and we all drown.

References

“Bank Fees No Problem, Consumer Group Says.” CBC. 19 Feb. 2007. http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/02/16/consumers-bank.html.

Bolan, Kim. “Liberal MP’s Inlaw Interviewed in Air India Case.” Vancouver Sun. 21 Feb. 2007. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=572691d1-56ba-4268-bc33-0abc4afe890d.

“Liberals Shout Down PM Over ‘Base’ Attack.” CBC. 21 Feb. 2007.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/02/21/harper-house.html?ref=rss.

“Liberals Furious over Harper’s Smear of MP.” CTV. 21 Feb. 2007. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070221/harper_libs_070221/20070221?hub=TopStories.

“Ontario MP Khan Leaves Liberals to Join Tories.” CBC 5 Jan. 2007. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/05/khan-defect-070105.html.