Stephen Harper's Hypocritical Arrogance

In the last parliament, Stephen Harper didn't pass up an opportunity to lambaste the minority government of Paul Martin for not working with the opposition.

Now the shoe is on the other foot and the sanctimonious control freak is showing an arrogance for his own minority rule that is both hypocritical and outrageous. As James Travers writes, Harper is a master of the Big Lie:

"Confirmation of Ottawa's new order is found in the current and bizarre confrontation over the Kyoto Protocol. Having already decided that this country's international treaty commitments aren't binding on his government, Stephen Harper is now signalling the same who-cares attitude to domestic law.

"Conservatives are simply dismissing a bill that gives the administration 60 days to announce plans to reach Canada's 2012 Kyoto goals. After tossing obstacle after obstacle in the bill's 10-month path through Parliament, the Prime Minister's operatives now compare it to reversing the laws of gravity while darkly warning that the targets are now so far out of range that firing at them would mark the economy as ground zero.

"Like most Big Lies, there's a little truth in those.

"First Liberal and now Conservative foot-dragging has left Canada far behind nations in the environmental vanguard. It's also obvious that considerable sacrifice is now required to make up for lost time.

"Those are important considerations. But they are no longer the most pressing concerns.
What's more worrying than the government's environmental sincerity is its default character. It's so cocksure, so blinded by the beauty of its convictions, that it bowls over anything in its way.

"Woven through its declared willingness to ride roughshod over Parliament is the same single-minded determination that is driving its attempts to add partisanship and ideology to the appointment of judges. Both are risky steps in the wrong direction. "

It's one thing for Harpo to treat the stooges in his own caucus and cabinet this way but, while he may not be willing to accept it, Canada is still a democracy and the Commons has spoken, clearly and unequivocally. If Stevie can't respect and defend our fundamental institutions, it's time he skulked back to Alberta.