Snake In Our Midst

So.

Harper belittled Belinda Stronach for crossing the floor, called Martin unethical for bringing her over, as if crossing the floor doesn't happen all the time. Good thing the CBC has a better memory than I do of what Harper said at the time:

We don't go out of our way to romance MPs to get them to cross the floor. Liberals will do anything to win.

We are trying to create a principled party where people act in a principled way, and obviously we're fairly cautious about encouraging party jumping, because that's the kind of thing that generates cynicism.

And frankly, when someone jumps, once you're not sure you can trust them the next time, so I would always handle that with an extraordinary degree of caution.

The first day as Prime Minister, Harper brought in Liberal David Emmerson and made him international trade minister. I wonder why it's suddenly okay for Emmerson, elected as a Liberal and who panned the Conservatives three weeks ago, to now cross the floor, at Harper's invitation.

Harper is also rewarding his campaign chair, Michael Fortier, an unelected party member, with the minister of public works and government services portfolio. An unelected minister who doesn't sit in the house and isn't available to answer questions about what he's doing? Well, since he can't sit in the house, he'll have to sit in the senate. Oh, an appointed senator. Sure, Harper campaigned for an elected senate and against unelected ministers, but now:

If you look carefully at what I said in the election campaign, I did leave open that possibility,

he told reporters after the cabinet was sworn in.

Aside from being a cold fish, Harper is a calculating snake. He's barely Prime Minister and he's proving himself a hypocrite and liar. And we're paying for it all with our tax dollars. Now we need to see what the Opposition is made of. And whether its the NDP or Bloc who will crawl in bed with Harper.

I generally reject the attitude of dismissing all politicians as snakes and liars. But Harper is really lending support to that camp. Maybe he is exactly the kind of politician who gives politicians a bad name.