Who cares if Vancouver and Montreal have cabinet ministers?
I don’t.
That choice by the new Stephen Harper administration of David Emerson and Michel Fortier to cabinet ruined my day yesterday, and it didn’t go away after a few hours sleep last night.
What should have been a great day —a feeling of a fresh start and opportunity for all Canadians to rally around our new leader and government as all Canadian patriots should— turned bad because of this. But that’s not the real problem. The problem is much deeper, and that is of course the negative perception and the blemish that this will bring to the new Harper government.
Don’t underestimate the value that could have been had from the simple notion of a fresh, clean start. There’s a lot of political capital that could have been expended over time had things been decided in a more standard way. Now it’s all but spent already, and will have to be regained somehow—against many odds (as if there weren’t enough “odds” working against conservatives in this country).
I never fretted over liberal Belinda Stronach or the liberal Scott Brison leaving the Conservative Party and crossing to the Liberal Party. As I did then and still do now, I hope that all liberals continue to leave the Conservative Party. Especially the ones who are simply trying to turn the Conservative Party into Liberal Party Too, as those two were. But inviting David Emerson, a card-carrying Liberal, into a Conservative cabinet is doing just the opposite of that of course. How could I love that?
And Michel Fortier, as Conservative Party campaign co-chair, should have known better than just about anybody the bad optics of agreeing to be appointed both to the Senate and to a cabinet post —as a party insider. The chutzpah is rich. How did the “yes” side win this argument in the Team Harper – Conservative Party inner circles last week? I’d love to know what their arguments were! Maybe someday we will.
The preponderance of negative facts and optics wrecked the day, and more. And that’s a shame. But I still think all Canadians should rally behind Canada’s new leader, Stephen Harper, and the new government. And even if Paul Martin and his Liberals won the election, I’d ask that all Canadians—including Conservatives—rally behind him and work for a better Canada. Yes, in spite of all he and they did to us.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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