Harper 'a victim of his dark side' former Tory strategist Tom Flanagan argued in 2009

Way back in 2009, Tom Flanagan, a long time Conservative party strategist wrote that Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have become "a victim of his dark side" as he attempts to survive politically.

A Toronto Star article  by Richard J Brennan and Bruce Campion-Smith laid out several ways that Harper seemed to have betrayed his "conservative" principles in a bid to stay in power.

They quoted Flanagan, a former Harper campaign organizer and strategist, as saying that Harper has been "transformed from a conservative ideologue to a political survivor, but remains a victim of his own dark side.

'Both sides are real ... but what you see more and more is the political Harper,' said Flanagan, author of the acclaimed Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power, " according to The Star story.

Six years later, Harper is still the prime minister, but maybe, just maybe his days are numbered. For sure. Canadians do not need Flanagan to tell us about Harper's "dark side".

Full story: http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/577188

When I first read the Toronto Star story in 2009, I expected it would be critical of Harper, but it surprised me greatly that Flanagan. who I had watched defend the Conservatives many times would say the prime minister has become a victim of his dark side, where political survival is more important than his principles.

Right now we are watching Harper struggle to stay in power but this is no time for survival games by the prime minister. His responsibility to all Canadians must go beyond his own lust for power, and for once in his life, let him put the country first. Not going to happen methinks.

I have been following Canadian politics since Louis St Laurent was prime minister, and I have seen a lot of things happen, but this is the first time I think we should be concerned about the truth of Lord Acton`s famous dictum that `power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolùtely.

Indeed, Harper has become a victim of his dark side, and with much regret I have concluded he is a danger to Canada I know and love if given another term in office.

"Fellowship' in Canadian villages will defeat politics of fear and division in Canada

For such a time as we are experiencing after the terror attack in Paris, and those elsewhere, Canadians surely did not ask or seek.

Just about a year ago now, I flew from Cranbrook to Toronto to attend a marvellous party attended by some folks I had not seen since high school days, more than 50 years ago. What a joyous occasion it was for the more than 60 old friends who were there. Thanks to Brigitte and Butch for hosting it.

As I flew across this vast and magnificent land, over the mountains, across the prairies to the forests of Ontario, into Toronto, which. along with Chapleau, have been so much the central places in my life, I recalled the words of Bruce Hutchison in The Unknown Country.  Little did I think during my travels that I would be putting Mr. Hutchison's words into the context of our present political situation..

Mr. Hutchison, who has Cranbrook roots, wrote in 1942, that "No one knows my country ...Who can know our loneliness on the immensity of prairie, in the dark forest and on the windy sea rock? A few lights, a faint glow in our largest city on the vast breast of the night and all around blackness and emptiness and silence. We flee to little towns for moments of fellowship."

Indeed, who but us? And given the politics of fear and division being shovelled at us 24/7, Canadians from coast to coast to coast must surely be trying to understand, to make sense of it all.

I won't pretend to have the answers, but I do know one thing for sure: Be not afraid.

As Canadians, let us focus on the positive aspects of living in this still largely unknown country and strive to fulfill our hopes and passions. Let us focus on those things bringing us together, rather than those which may divide us.

I often think of my mother's family, George and Edith Hunt, my mother Muriel and her sister Elsie who arrived in Canada in 1913 from England to make a new life for themselves. They settled in Chapleau.

 Not here long before my grandfather was badly burned in a fire but he survived. Then it was World War I, then the Great Depression, then World War II, and my father, Jim Morris, was killed on active service in the RCAF in 1943.

Through it all, my family and I know that yours faced its challenges too, and, never, ever let fear rule their lives. Chapleau was a relatively isolated community, but people cared about and looked after each other, in good times and bad.

Let me leave you with two quotes to think about:

"Fear is the only true enemy, born of ignorance and the parent of anger and hate."  Edward Albert

"The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear." Gandhi

As difficult as it may be, let us focus on those things bringing us together rather than dividing us. Let us certainly not be intimidated, but lead the way to the "promised land" where our greatest hopes and passions will be fulfilled -- Canada!

We are all children of the village in Canada and if need be, it is OK, even today to "flee" for a moment to the little towns for fellowship as Mr. Hutchison suggested in 1942. It is part of the Canadian experience. 

I just did, three times in the past year: even though the small town was a home in Toronto with more than 60 lifelong friends, and not Chapleau, where we were raised. But I also went to Orlando (one of my favourite villages)  to see my friends, and yes, I made a trip to Chapleau too,  And most importantly, I do it every day in Cranbrook.

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Robert Fife Brought Duffy Scandal to the Office of the Prime Minister

Robert Fife Brings Duffy Scandal to the Office of the Prime Minister, a column I wrote for the Cranbrook Guardian on May 17, 2013

by Michael J Morris

Updated on August 16,2013 to remind Canadian citizens that it was a journalist who brought the scandal into the open. No spin, just great reporting by Robert Fife. Where I have updated is in italics.  mjm

When I saw the tweet that once again Robert Fife had proven why he is simply the best, it immediately captured my attention.

Kevin Newman, the host of CTV's Question Period was retweeting a comment by Rosa Hwang, senior broadcast producer with CTV National News. "Once again Robert Fife proves why he's simply the best."

Bob is now the host.

"What had Fife done now?", I wondered, and soon learned that the Ottawa Bureau Chief of CTV News had broken the story that Nigel Wright, the chief of staff to Stephen Harper, the prime minister, had written a personal cheque to Mike Duffy, the senator appointed by Harper,  for $90,172 to pay back expenses to which the senator was not entitled. 

The Duffy scandal was now placed squarely in the office of the prime minister by Bob Fife, who was in Grade Nine when I arrived  to teach at Chapleau High School in 1969, and once he learned I had been a daily newspaper reporter, he never stopped asking me questions throughout his high school years. And when he was attending the University of Toronto, he challenged me on every issue when he came home on vacation or to spend the summers.

In the interests of full disclosure, Bob's father, the late Clyde Fife was one of my father's best friends, and my grandmother and his grandmother were also great friends.

Careful readers will note that I have referred to him in the above paragraphs as Robert, when referring to the quote about him, then Fife, then Bob. That's the way it's been for 46 years now. I call him by one and all depending on the situation -- I just did a rough calculation. How time flies, and how proud I am that from the very beginning of his career as a reporter, Robert 'Bob' Fife has been among the best of his generation.

In November 2008, Deborah Howell, the ombudsperson at the Washington Post wrote that "good reporters are the heart of news gathering. If it's news, they have to know it. Without them, the public wouldn't have the news and information essential to running a democracy -- or our lives. Whether the story is local, national or foreign, it has to be gathered on the ground by a reporter." 

That sums Bob up as he simply did his job and revealed another twist in the continuing saga of Duffy, the senator appointed to represent Prince Edward Island but really lives in Ottawa. 

Just recently Bob won the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for his work on uncovering the XL Foods scandal in 2012. In the 1980s when he was still a "young" reporter, Maclean's magazine called him the best investigative reporter in Canada for his coverage of the Ocean Ranger disaster.

He has written two books, A Capital Scandal with John Warren, about the Brian Mulroney years as prime minister and the other Kim Campbell: The Making of a Politician.

Ms Powell added in answering the question about what makes a good reporter, "Endless curiosity and a deep need to know what is happening. Then, the ability to hear a small clue and follow it."

Once Bob broke the Duffy-Wright story, social media has been swamped with tweets, the pundits have been pontificating, talking heads have been talking, and speculating and doing their usual, not really adding much new to the story.

Meanwhile, as I started to work on this column, Bob posted on Twitter and Facebook that Duffy has now resigned from the Conservative caucus, and will sit as an independent senator but he has not resigned from the Senate. So far, Wright and Harper have provided no acceptable explanation. More to come!

The trial of Duffy is now underway.

Bob is one of those reporters who certainly fits the comment by former Washington Post Post executive editor Ben Bradlee who thought that a reporter's most important quality is energy: "They've got to love what they're doing; they've got to be serious about turning over rocks, opening doors. The story drives you. It's part of your soul."

Mr. Bradlee should know. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reported to him as they covered the Watergate scandal in the United States.

Ironically perhaps, the last chat I had with Bob was at the 90th anniversary reunion of Chapleau High School in 2012 where we were participants in an ecumenical service. It fell to me to read from the Old Testament, (perhaps because of my age) from the book of Ecclesiates, the part about, "For every thing there is a season".

Being a product of the 1960s, I listened to Turn Turn Turn (to Every thing there is a season) made popular by the folk rock band The Byrds, with music written by Pete Seeger in 1959.

For sure it is a season for something in Canadian politics and Robert 'Bob' Fife, "simply the best" is part of it from Bruce Hutchison's far side of the street. How's that for mixing metaphors in one sentence!

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Of necessity 'egotists and autocrats' as Mulroney sliced up Harper

 

By Michael J Morris

John Wesley Dafoe, arguably one of the most powerful and influential newspaper editors and journalists in Canadian history once wrote that "A prime minister under the party system as we have it in Canada is of necessity an egotist and an autocrat."  

In his essay on Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Mr. Dafoe added, "If he comes to office without these characteristics his environment equips him with them as surely as a diet of royal jelly transforms a worker into a queen bee".  

Mr. Dafoe was editor of the Manitoba Free Press, now Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901 to 1944  when it was among the great newspapers of the world.  

In 2014 Canadians  witnessed one egotist and autocrat Brian Mulroney, a former prime minister slice up the current occupant, Stephen Harper who also fully qualifies on both counts.

 Arguably Mulroney and Harper are members of the same political party, but rather than quibble over Progressive Conservative, Conservative and let's just say they are conservatives.  

  

Mulroney let loose his broadsides in an interview on CTV's Power Play, marking the 30th anniversary of Mulroney's big election win in 1984. If I had been him, I would have been annoyed too upon learning that the Harper Conservatives marked the occasion with a fundraising letter which apparently included no mention of Brian Mulroney or Progressive Conservative.  

  

 Now we are into an election campaign it is useful to look at the points Mulroney raised.

In brief here are the major points Mulroney made: Harper should not have got into a spat with the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; Canada should not have lost its seat on the United Nations Security Council; the government’s foreign affairs policy “has to be enveloped in a broader and more generous sweep that takes in Canadian traditions and Canadian history in a much more viable way'.  

For good measure Mulroney also criticized Harper on his lack of a "pristine" environmental policy, and the former prime minister supported an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, something Harper  has opposed.  

However, it may have been his comments about Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party that would have enraged Harper most.  “He’s a young man, attractive, elected two or three times to the House, attractive wife, beautiful kids — this is a potent package when you’re running in these circumstances,” he told Power Play, adding  “His program is that he’s not Stephen Harper.”  

  

Wow! Nothing like a fight in the political family when one autocrat and egotist attacks another and praises the leader of a different political party who wants to be prime minister.

 I wonder what Mulroney would have to say about the Harper-Wright-Duffy affair.

 My email is mj.morris@live.ca 

  

Time to dump Harper government for failing on obligations to veterans

By Michael J Morris

 UPDATED August 17, 2015 Another reason to dump Harper. Vets refused admission to a Harper event. Here are the details on The Tyee  http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/08/17/Vets-Harper-Event/

Canada's veterans have not received the treatment they deserve from the Harper government

As the federal election campaign begins, citizens should remember that our veterans were put in harm's way in their service to the country. 

For example, according to the award winning Canadian journalist Michael Harris, the Harper government spent $128 million promoting the War of 1812, but for living soldiers this same government cut $35 million from Veterans Affairs and closed much needed veteran sites.

Gordon Moore, the Dominion president of the Royal Canadian  Legion, said before appearing before a Parliamentary Committee that the "legion is concerned that the government has forgotten the moral obligation to look after veterans and their families who have been injured as a result of their service to Canada.

“The government put them in harm’s way, now the government has an obligation to look after them.”

The Harper government has endured a barrage of criticism on its perceived treatment of veterans; now is the hour when Canadians have the opportunity on October 19 to vote.

Personally, among all the issues with which I disagree with the Harper government, its shabby treatment of our veterans ranks high on my list, Why, some of you may ask.

Well, for starters, my father Jim Morris was killed in the service of Canada while on active service in the RCAF during World War II. His father, my grandfather Harry Morris, served in World War I, and his brother was killed in action during that war,.

Also, two of my grandmother Morris' brothers served in World War I.

And I come from a small community in Northern Ontario, Chapleau, where the veterans of World War ! and II respectively, worked tirelessly upon returning home to make it a better community for all of us -- "They served to death, why not we?'" and they did.

In Cranbrook, as many of you know I often visit the Wall of Honour in Rotary Park where the names of those men and women from Cranbrook and area are listed -- reminds me of home where ordinary folks accomplished extraordinary things.

I have lived in five provinces and it's been the same everywhere.

In a scathing article about the dismal failure of the Harperites to properly treat our veteran, silence in iPolitics, entitled "Baffling Silence of the Backbench", Mr. Harris writes,

"Who can explain the silence of the Cons?

"I don’t mean the cabinet snake-oil parodies on the nightly news — the ones who would sell their mothers, not to mention Canada’s veterans, down the river for a chauffeur and a fat paycheque.

"Does anyone seriously believe that Conservative MPs are getting fan-mail over the atrocious disrespect the Harper government has shown to soldiers, ex-soldiers and their families? After all, the PM once said these soldiers were the best of Canadians. Is it likely these silent MPs will be greeted with brass bands when they return to their ridings?"

Here is link to complete article by Michael Harris:  http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/02/06/the-baffling-silence-of-the-backbench/

Like Mr. Harris, I simply don't get it. Surely the Conservative MPS  Canadians  sent to Ottawa have more backbone than they show. If not, best we dump the lot of them in 2015 ...

In the interests of full disclosure, "The Chapleau Boys Go To War" which I co-authored with my cousin, Michael K. McMullen, was published recently. However, I wish to make it perfectly and abundantly clear that the above is in no way related to the book or the possible views of my co-author.... mjm

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Seizing Canada's Moment Requires a Vision Not Talking Points from the PMO

By Michael J Morris

When I first saw the title of one of the Harper  government's Speeches from the Throne, I chuckled and thought to myself, they gotta be kidding.

But sure enough, they had entitled it, 'Seizing Canada's Moment: Security and Prosperity in an Uncertain World'.

Seizing Canada's Moment? Come now. Canada has had many great moments since confederation in 1867, and to even suggest that now is "the moment" in our nation's history is ludicrous and the height of arrogance by the Harper government. And for good measure, somehow this government wants us to believe it is going to provide "security and prosperity in an uncertain world." Talk about mixing metaphors. 

The world is always an uncertain place, and Canadians have met the challenges in the past -- for example, in two world wars in the 20th century, the Great Depression and the potential breakup of the country when separatist forces grew strong in the province of Quebec.

The country has also produced Great Canadians who have proven equal to the challenges at home and abroad.

It struck me that perhaps the Throne Speech writers in the Prime Minister's Office really wanted to encourage Canadians to trust them to carpe diem on their behalf.  I looked up carpe diem on Google and as most know it comes from Latin, meaning "seize the day". 

It added that the phrase is used to as a motivation for people to just seize the day, to stop messing around, and to live life on the edge.

If the Harperites had really wanted to seize Canada's moment they would have  come clean on the Senate scandals, and they would have their let Members of Parliament speak without talking points from the PMO. The Harper years have been nothing more or less that government by talking points.

They have messed around with our parliamentary democracy, with a prime minister more interested in  travelling the world for photo ops.

I have been a student of Canadian politics for more than half a century now, and just in case anyone thinks I am into Tory bashing, not so, but I am concerned that we are at least on the edge of witnessing the truth of the dictum attributed to Lord Acton that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".  If Harper is re-elected my greatest fear is for my country.

In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, a Progressive Conservative, with very little resemblance in my view to the Harper brand, said during the election campaign in a nationwide speech said his program was for a united Canada, for one Canada, for Canada first, in every aspect of our political and public life, for the welfare of the average man and woman. That is my approach to public affairs and has been throughout my life ... A Canada, united from Coast to Coast, wherein there will be freedom for the individual, freedom of enterprise and where there will be a Government which, in all its actions, will remain the servant and not the master of the people."  

Indeed, that is my idea of seizing Canada's moment -- where there will be a government, which, in all its actions, will remain the servant and not the master of the people.

I was a young newspaper reporter in Toronto for part of the Diefenbaker years and covered a press conference he gave in the Royal York Hotel. He strode into the room and immediately the hard bitten reporters of the day rose in unison as "The Chief" strode to the front and took his place at the podium. For the next hour he answered questions without notes, and certainly none of them were vetted beforehand. It is difficult today to get the present prime minister to answer even one question.

Mr. Diefenbaker also presented a vision for Canada with a focus on the north calling for "A new vision. A new hope. A new soul for Canada." That's seizing Canada's moment.

Perhaps the present prime minister truly believes that part of seizing Canada's moment includes bashing the United Nations, other nations, and telling the president of the United States, Barack Obama, that he wouldn't take no for an answer on the Keystone pipeline project. 

Methinks his comments have been strictly to try and gain political points with certain voting blocs in Canada, and appeal to the "Tea Party" branch of his party in Canada by showing he is a tough guy who can handle the U.S. President. 

In reading the international press recently, it seems like Canada has become a bit of a joke over the rants from the prime minister. 

Another Canadian prime minister, Lester B. Pearson, when he was secretary of state for external affairs, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the work he did in resolving the Suez Crisis of 1957 through the United Nations. The Nobel committee in its presentation said that Mr.. Pearson had "saved the world."  

Seizing Canada's moment and giving Canadians security and prosperity in an uncertain world was the promise of the Harper government. Looking at that Throne Speech it seemed more like a hodge podge of talking points more designed to launch the 2015 federal election campaign than provide a vision for a Canada all of us deserve in which government once again is the servant not the master.  My email is mj.morris@live.ca

B.C. Boy Justin Trudeau needs to adopt no frills approach meeting, greeting and listening to folks across Canada this Summer

Justin Trudeau in Cranbrook Summer 2013

By Michael J Morris

In the Summer of 2013, Justin Trudeau, the 'B.C. boy' enjoyed celebrity status as he crossed the province on his RV tour of the Kootenays and Okanagan and arrived  in Vancouver where he was surrounded by the media and supporters in the city's West End.

The leader of the federal Liberal Party started his tour in Cranbrook on July 21 with a meet and greet at Rotary Park unusual in politics for its informality. Introduced by Mayor Wayne Stetski, Trudeau then hopped onto the stage dressed in  designer jeans and casual shirt and gave an impromptu speech - a formula that was followed at every stop of the tour with minor variations. 

Two years later, Stetski is the NDP candidate in the Kootenay-Columbia riding currently held by Harpercon David Wilks.

In Creston at Truscott Farms he was presented with a cherry pie, and in Nelson he arrived for the meet and greet  on the city's famous street car with his wife Sophie Gregoire and children Xavier and Ella-Grace.

The no frills approach continued across the province perhaps defining a new political style consistent with the kind of politics Trudeau wants to see in Canada. Based on the reaction from the crowd in Cranbrook and news reports from other communities  he visited, it worked. I just can't imagine Stephen Harper, the prime minister, trying it, although he did wear cardigans at one point.

Some of the shine has gone from Trudeau as the federal election approaches, but he can still attract a crowd and methinks his best asset is the no frills to  get out and meet folks approach across the country.

Hedy Fry, the Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre told The Province newspaper, she believes Trudeau’s popularity is rooted in his authenticity.  “I think he is not like other politicians,” she said. “When people see him there is a deep sense of trust. People just seem to naturally gravitate to him. He is a B.C. boy and British Columbians seem to be warming to him".

Yes indeed, he is a B.C. boy, and although he is the son of Pierre Trudeau, from Quebec, his mother is Margaret Sinclair, the daughter of James Sinclair, a Liberal MP representing Vancouver area ridings from 1940 to 1957, and minister of fisheries from 1952 to 1957. Trudeau also attended the University of British Columbia and taught in the province.

In Cranbrook, Trudeau talked about paddling the Kootenay River with his father and brothers more than 25 years ago, and prior to a meet and greet in Trail, Trudeau and his family hiked to Nelson’s Kokanee Lake, the site where Trudeau’s brother Michel died in 1998 during an avalanche.

Trudeau posed the question along the way: "Why has politics itself become such a dirty word?", in recent years.Answering his own question in part, Trudeau commented that it is always easier in politics to divide, to attack, go negative, calculate where most votes are and practise the politics of division. 

He even admitted elections can be won this way, but he hopes to turn it around despite many advising him that he must go negative.

In Vancouver, in a speech from atop a table at English Bay, Trudeau is reported by The Province as saying, ""What I have seen across the county is people want to reconnect – we want to be once again part of the solution,This is what people are excited about across the country. I’m just an excuse for it. It’s not really about me, it’s about all of you."

In Kelowna, Conservative Party MP Ron Cannan attended theTrudeau meet and greet and told a local newspaper he agreed with several things that the Liberal leader said. "I believe in working together, as Justin advocates.

"What he said, it's hard not to agree with—all comments about balancing the environment and the economy, working together for a stronger future for not only our children, but our grandchildren (as well)." Kelowna-Lake Country voters heavily favoured the Conservative candidate in the 2011 general election; Cannan earned about 57 per cent of the vote.

Good that this MP showed respect and common decency by attending the Trudeau function. Maybe the prime minister will get the message. So far, two years later, Harper still has not gotten it but remains totally surrounded by Steve.

As I was reflecting two years later, on Trudeau's road tour, and the positive reaction, one thing I sensed for sure, and heard it in Cranbrook, and still hear it,  folks are fed up with the present negativity and general goings on in Ottawa in the Office of the Prime Minister and the Duffy Senate affair.

I covered the "Trudeaumania" election campaign in 1968 as a reporter and editor and witnessed it first hand -- but hold on to your seats folks, in my view the son re-ignited the flame on this RV tour. Can he do it again in the Summer of 2015?

Making peace by "...overcoming lies with truth and by overcoming evil with good"

Maybe, just maybe, I thought as I mused about  Stephen Harper placing members of Canada's armed forces in harm's way in foreign lands, I should share a few words about war, spoken in 1948 at a Remembrance Day service. I decided to do so.

 Harper seems desperate to have Canada involved in a war -- any war, and more scary, it seems he wants us there for potential political gain as the Conservatives face an election they may very well lose.. Never before in my life have I thought for a moment that a prime minister would so blatantly pursue such an action. .

The following are not my words as I was only seven years old at the time, but I was at St. John's Anglican Church in Chapleau when they were spoken by the Rev. Canon H.A Sims, the Rector, a veteran of World War I.

It is a message that rings as true today as it did three years after the end of World War II, not just for the prime minister and politicians, but for all who would contemplate war or participate in wars today.

Canon Sims said:

"There is not the slightest necessity for civilized men to destroy their civilization in warfare. Nothing is settled by warfare which could not be better settled in some more reasonable, humane and decent way.

"Warfare is caused by men  who have allowed the spirit of the devil rather than the spirit of God to determine their thinking.

"Peace does not come through wishing for it or through praying for it: peace comes only from those who make it; who work harder at making peace than men working at making war.

VI was at the church that night with my family because a memorial prayer desk was being dedicated in memory of my father, Flying Officer James E Morris, who was killed on active service in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943 during World War II.

In his incredible book, 'The Ordeal of Total War', Gordon Wright tells us that Sir Winston Churchill once commented that the effects of World War II, will be felt by those affected by it for at least 100 years. Trust me, Churchill was right. I am just shy of 74, and have lived with that war every day of my life.

Every time I hear of the death of one of the member of our armed forces, or for that matter police officers, firefighters, and other first responders, my heart goes out to their family and friends. I know. I care and I understand.

Be careful prime minister and members of parliament. The consequences of your actions will be felt for a very long time. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Duffy trial reveals ugly truths about Canadian democracy

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

A “Great Senator” and “one of my best, hardest-working appointments ever.”
None other than Prime Minister Stephen Harper scrawled this effusive piece of puffery in silver marker on a picture of Mike Duffy just five months after the PM appointed the now-disgraced senator to his job.
An enlarged copy of the photo was introduced as an exhibit in court Thursday on the third day of Duffy’s trial on 31 criminal counts of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.
And there are 39 trial dates to go in what is shaping up to be an unvarnished look inside the seamy underbelly of federal politics in Canada and when it’s over there will be bodies stacked outside the courthouse door. Three in particular. Let’s begin at the top.
From day one of this tawdry affair, Stephen Harper insisted he knew nothing of the potentially criminal machinations going on in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) much like Manuel in the great British comedy “Fawlty Towers” whimpering “I know nothing.”
Dear reader, in your heart-of-hearts, do you believe that? Does this sound like the iron-fisted, micro-managing Prime Minister that for the past 11 years has been running Canada off the corner of his desk? The peerless leader renowned for his anal-retentive control of the PMO and the entire Conservative Party. If you believe that, I have a Mike Duffy Bobble Head doll I’ll send to you.
Of course, we may never find out, because unlike our American neighbors to the south, who on occasion impeach their presidents and bring them to trial where they’re submitted to cross-examination and other nasty things to protect their
democracy, we don’t do things that way in Canada. We just take our leaders at their word and wouldn’t embarrass them by calling on them to testify.
At least that’s how it appears so far, but that may change before this trial is over.
Then there’s poor Nigel Wright, Harper’s former, ever-obliging, chief-of-staff who would take a bullet for his boss, and did in fact, a $90,000 silver bullet that he used to shut up a recalcitrant, now suspended senator, who believes in his heart-of-hearts that he never did anything wrong – and his trial may prove him right – but was damn determined not to be the scape goat for what he believed most of his fellow Senate colleagues were doing.
And who says Canada can’t produce juicy political scandals with the best of them?
Then there’s our much, maligned, in-glorious Senate, our supposed “Sober Chamber of Second Thought,” which every Prime Minister in Canadian history has appointed members to, who promptly engaged in partisan political activity on behalf of their benefactors. But none did it better than Mike Duffy, who raised thousands, if not millions, for Conservative coffers much to the delight of the Conservative Party and its latest glorious leader, Generalissimo Harper, our great war time leader. (You know this stuff just kinda writes itself, but I digress.)
And which of you dear readers out there think our glorious, unelected Red Chamber will still have the support of Canadian voters when this tawdry trial is over?
Remember there’s more trials to come with pillars of rectitude like suspended Senator Pamela Wallin, who faces numerous charges of having her nose in the trough right beside Duffy and suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau, who was suspended from the Senate after being charged with domestic assault and sexual assault and now runs an Ottawa strip club called the BareFax. Honestly, I’m not making this up.
Dear Canadians, we’ve been had by this crew and thank God we still have a legal system that’s hopefully capable of getting to the bottom of this sleazy affair that is an insult to our intelligence and the credibility of our soiled democracy. And when it’s over I hope we can rebuild a strong and credible democracy but it won’t be with the likes of the politicians and apparatchiks mentioned in this article.
Especially the prime minister.


Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who once tried politics himself.