11 April 2007

Oh, M. Coderre

It certainly is something watching Hezbollah prop Denis Coderre unable to string a coherent sentence together on Don Newman's Politics this evening. In one phrase alone, he managed to include Liberal talking points on Khan, O'Connor, and the government's heavy-handed intervention into the Montreal Canadiens' failure to make the playoffs (OK, that last one isn't true, but the other two are) as part of his spiel as to why it is that the government's appointment of former PQ minister Daniel Paille to head up an investigation of potential problems with Liberal contracting (something which WK seems to be looking forward to) is the latest in a string of bad government by the Harper-led Conservatives.

Now, I'll agree that the optics of an unelected minister (Michael Fortier) appointing--without a vetting process--a separatist to dig into the relationship of the previous Liberal government and Earnscliffe isn't exactly looking at the Mona Lisa. But hearing words like "witch hunt" being tossed around is more than a little silly. Obviously there's a good reason that Paille was chosen; I don't know what it is, but I can't imagine that Harper would give the thumbs-up to something like this unless there was a good reason. At this point, the Liberals are mustering up a lot of outrage over the process, which makes me wonder what they'll do in six months when we see the result?

Also, two more Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan today. Take a moment to hold them in your thoughts. This has been a very difficult week for the Canadian Forces and their family members, and they will need the strength of the entire nation.

2 comments:

Candace said...

Look at it this way. If he'd chosen a known CPC supporter (or ADQ) the same thing would be said, only worse. If he'd chosen a Liberal, there would be screams of "coverup."

If he chose a "nonpartisan" person, the media (and bloggers) would be hunting high & low to find "proof" of partisanship.

By picking a PQ to head it up, we can be sure that a serious look will be taken. From what I've seen, the guy is quite qualified to do the job, and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The absolute hissy fit from Fife & the Liberals makes it that much better ;-)

RGM said...

Candace,
I agree. He could have anointed Justin Trudeau and they would have been furious over it, and it's got to do with the subject matter. Liberals are still very touchy over anything to do with Adscam or the 13 years they spent in office. Whenever they and the media are going into histrionics, is it a warning sign that "don't look, you might not like what you what see"?