The Ghosts of Harper’s Cons Will Haunt the Halls of Parliament for Years to Come
A LOT of promises were made by Justin Trudeau in the run-up to the election last week.
I think we’re already collectively starting to cushion ourselves for the breaking of many of these promises.
However, Justin will have an excuse: the ghosts of Stephen Harper’s Reign of Error will haunt the halls of Parliament, Ottawa and beyond and they will all actively prevent the new government from making any kind of significant progress.
Over the last 10 years, patronage appointments, especially for losers, has become something of a traditional for Stephen Harper:
- Harper’s patronage appointments becoming a holiday tradition
- 70 appointments made in the quiet days before the election
- Endless lists of failed candidates being promoted to senior posts in government
- Unprecedented patronage appointments to the Senate (especially quality people like Duffy, Brazeau and Wallin), long after promising not to use it for his own political agenda
The result is more than a STAGGERING 1,000-1,500 estimated patronage appointments that will block, obscure, delete and destroy evidence of Conservative manipulations of Canadian government since Stephen Harper took charge.
So … while it wasn’t a promise per se, Justin Trudeau should take a long look at the Conservative rats that will poison the efforts of any new Liberals that take charge and start humiliating Harper Conservatives until they leave or simply fire them as quickly and quietly as possible.
Justin Trudeau needs to decide that the days of playing the ‘blame game’ are over. We NEED to move ahead in Canada.
Therefore, he should act quickly on two components of a swift and important change in Ottawa:
- Enact or expand on legislation making it illegal to delete, remove, destroy or hide any public files, including those of the Prime Minister (yes, we saw you moving out your files, you sneaky fool, you)
- Focus on the idea that this is not a war of attrition, but a need for something more serious like just going nuclear on all of these trolls because the longer they’re around, the longer they’ll poison the well.
And then act on some of his promises.