Harper government under a cloud

(Don Gray, CBC News) Senate reform, anyone? Anyone?

…perhaps Harper has a bit of a blind spot about the Senate, as though he just doesn’t get it.

He was not even installed as prime minister when he picked Michael Fortier to be his minister of public works and government services – naming him to the Senate because Fortier did not have a seat in the House of Commons and had not bothered even to contest the recent election.

What was particularly egregious about that appointment was that in the aftermath of the Liberal sponsorship scandal, the public works portfolio should have been the cornerstone of government accountability, one of Harper’s particular concerns. But nobody can be accountable to the electorate in a non-elected Senate. Indeed, it should be remembered that Harper had been harshly critical of Liberals bestowing power on unelected cronies.

The result was that the Harper government began life under a cloud. And the Senate flap would have been worse if at the same time Harper had not coaxed David Emerson to cross the floor and sit as a Conservative minister just two weeks after he was elected as a Liberal. With Emerson to kick around, the news media almost forgot about Fortier.

Conservatives have not forgotten about Fortier, but naturally here at democracy’s ground-zero, the attention has largely been focussed on Emerson. Both appointments were examples of egregious abuse of power.