Stephen Harper Breaches Economic & Political Etiquette

Sadly, there’s no opportunity to blame Stevie ‘I can’t manage the economy’ Harper for the economic ills in China or the slide in oil.

(Even though I would love to blame him …).

BUT … we can blame him for a substantial breach in political etiquette.

Stephen Harper engaged in a private conversation with the Bank of Canada Governor.

No one knows what was discussed in this call.  There were no other staffers on the call (to our knowledge).  There was no script of the call taken (again, to our knowledge).  We don’t know, maybe, if Stephen Harper instructed the BoC Governor to modify monetary policy so it would help steer the Canadian economy away from recession status.  We also know that Poloz refuses to use the word ‘recession’ even though we are in one.  Was he being told to continue to avoid that dreaded word, lest he wind up in the salt mines of Harper’s political naysayers?

It’s going to open questions.

Now, I’m not a lawyer or expert with public policy, but Stephen Harper should act quickly to disclose what was discussed before the Bank take any action because if the Bank does take action under his guidance, this could compound into a VERY serious issue that all Canadians should be concerned about.

Realistically, there should be no interference with monetary policy, nor should monetary policy be used for political gain, as Jim Stanford with the Progressive Economics Forum suggests.

As he is technically no longer the Prime Minister of Canada (Parliament is dissolved and the writ has been dropped), the candidate for Prime Minister has obtained access that all other candidates for Prime Minister should have.  Understandably, there should still be discussions, but there should also be RECORDS of these discussions.

In the past, when other political candidates and leaders have suggested discussions with the Bank of Canada Governor, they were pressured to issue an apology.

Stephen Harper’s act of political interference with Bank of Canada policy could very well become the next political scandal.

So … should Stephen Harper issue an apology, like candidates and politicians before him?  If so, when will this happen?

He won’t.  Because he won’t.

If that doesn’t make sense to you, you don’t understand why Stephen Harper and his cabal has to be voted out of office in October.

Let’s talk about the lies that Stephen Harper tells every time he opens his mouth.

Failure to do would so translate to even more political positioning and erosion of important separations of institutions from the ever-growing power grab from the PMO.