Remember how he was there all the time in the election? Making us feel like he could smile and wave and knew we were out here? I was thinking about how Stevie has gone silent even while his MP roasted a bit in the first week of his mandate and the Globe has been thinking about it as well:
Peter Donolo, an executive vice-president at the Strategic Counsel who was communications director for former prime minister Jean Chrétien when the Liberals came to power in 1993, said the Conservatives have had the worst start of any federal government he can remember. "Mr. Harper had this Day One which I don't think went according to plan . . . and he has kind of disappeared." There is not much the Prime Minister could have done to help the Emerson situation by speaking about it publicly, Mr. Donolo said. "It's not like he can solve it by making an appearance or going on a TV show for an interview." ...Me, I don't mind. We have had about 3 years of way too much Federal politics and a break is nice. Plus the Olympics are on. But sooner or later I will be looking at my tax forms and figuring out how much I had to send to Ottawa and it would be nice to get a little bit of a show for my money. Aside from the politics, it will be excruciating if the new Prime Minister decides that he does not have a public role and need not lead only decide, though it will be a new and unexpected way for a Tory government to shoot itself in the foot.In the six weeks until MPs return to the House of Commons, the Opposition and press gallery members will be looking for ways to occupy their idle hands. And while Mr. Harper works on his Throne Speech, prepares legislation and receives briefings, the news generated in his absence is unlikely to be positive. But Tim Powers, a Conservative strategist, said it would be wrong to create meaningless news events. "You can't just do things for the sake of doing things. That's never been Harper," he said. "I think people would prefer the substance to the sizzle and I think Harper gives them substance."
But if the silence is to come up with new plans like equalization that does not take into account Alberta's oil and gas revenue but costs Ontario a billion more instead of, day, ten billion less...well, maybe we ought to get noisy.
Comments
Ben (The Tiger in Exile) - February 15, 2006 8:14 am
As I've said before, he's an infuriating sort of leader to watch...
Alan - February 15, 2006 8:31 am
I tend to keep my infuriating relationships short ones.
'nee - February 15, 2006 11:32 am
I would like him to dance a little jig.
I think Harper should have a half hour daily show on the CBC where he interviews a prominent civil servant (to get to know them, like) and then perhaps does a little dance, or perhaps sings a cover from a quality band.
That, I would like. I never get what I like, though. Too bad.
Flea - February 15, 2006 11:48 am
It isn't only Alberta's oil and gas revenue that is on the silver tray of bon-bons. The unconstitutional oil giveaway to Newfoundland should soon make Newfies as self-reliant and self-congratulatory as Albertans. And hey, why share any of that accidental oil wealth with the rest of us when Ontario can continue to pick up the tab. Sickening. With each passing day I find new degrees of astonishment that anybody can call this government conservative.
ALan - February 15, 2006 12:03 pm
I understood NS and NL were getting rid of the clawback on oil and gas for payback of past equalization so that they did not get double penalized. I did not realize that all oil and gas wealth is being removed from the equalization so that Alberta's fluke of riches is now not being considered wealth needing to be shared.
Gordo - February 15, 2006 1:57 pm
Bloody hell. Why shouldn't Alberta have to share the wealth? I didn't know it had been removed from the equation, either.
Chris Taylor - February 15, 2006 7:10 pm
I'm okay with Alberta not sharing the wealth; it's not like I share bonuses or investment income with my neighbours. If every other province wants a bigger piece of the pie, let them get competitive and earn it.
Alan - February 15, 2006 7:23 pm
Yes, let's all get competitive and create geological formations! Let's also make sure the Federal government transferred the right to the formation without value in return in the 1920s!
Chris Taylor - February 15, 2006 10:36 pm
C'mon Alan, you know better. Title might be the only reasonable sticking point. Life never deals out an equal hand to everyone, and equality of outcomes is hardly something that can be mandated countrywide.
Why should Alberta (or anyplace else) shell out more due to its particular windfall? Why shouldn't Ontario shell out more because our economic miracle is renewable vs. Alberta's temporary, diminishing windfall?
Alan - February 15, 2006 11:04 pm
Why should Canada be turned into the unfederation it never was by social and economic engineers? Is this one country? When did conservatism and loyalty to the nation as a nation separate? I know it has but when did money and wealth become the basis for a separatist movement. And according to some fluff I watched on US television news this week, Alberta's pool of glop is 200 years supply. If they do not share and, say, anyone to the south invade, ought we the rest just point the way? Why wouldn't we? Disloyalists. Pig dogs.
Chris Taylor - February 15, 2006 11:37 pm
I would imagine that your study of Whiggery would make the reasons fairly clear. It's hardly a case of money-grubbing and wealth-mongering so much as the ability to determine, in large part, how that money is spent. Rightly or wrongly Alberta considers the money her own, and adopting an "Ottawa knows best" stance (the traditional attitude of Central Canada, one might argue) is hardly endearing or persuasive to the West.
Alan - February 16, 2006 8:05 am
By characterizing the nation as a part of the nation, Albertan has fallen into their own trap of complaint and are destined to always be unhappy despite their blessings. It is exactly wealth-mongering and nothing more. Happy to take when it was needed - NS's money for the railway, Federal rights to oil and gas for free - but when they are overcome by surplus, get the source of the goodies off the ledger. Consider how Harper's plan apparently leave's Ontario's mining wealth (merely solidified minerals, you know) on the equalization ledger. No logic. Just taking care on one's own squeeky wheel.