Bye, bye Stephen Harper, you are finally done!

Duffy testimony shows Harper 'directly' implicated in Senate scandal: Mulcair

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/duffy-testimony-shows-harper-directly-implicat...

PMO threatened Mike Duffy with illegal procedures.

https://plus.google.com/108814740443144160153/posts/A79mngkXCVZ

Harper will never ever recover from this.

The bigger problem is that even though Harper may be gone, so what?

These Liberals and Conservatives might as well be in the same party, as they are both just a bunch of rich elitists playing musical chairs. Unless these Liberals and Conservatives are routed at the next federal election, basically nothing of consequence is going to change.

At least she's a little smarter than LeBreton who is just an awful disgrace to Canadian politcs.

Senator who oversaw Duffy audit resigns from group investigating expenses

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/senator-who-oversaw-duffy-a...

Harper made an absolute fool of Trudeau in QP today over Trudeau's comments that Trudeau wanted to bring Mac Harb back into the Senate.

I'm sure in a one-on-one Justin is a probably a very pleasant fella. It's just that he is not really ready for prime time.

And people like gadar want the NDP to ally with sleaze like this.

No thanks.

Ex-Senate staffer ordered clothes, paid cable bill for boss

Former assistant to Colin Kenny quit after spending half her time on senator's personal tasks

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ex-senate-staffer-ordered-clothes-paid-c...

Charlie Smith of course nails it!

Stephen Harper goes through people like some of us go through potato chips

After nearly eight years at the helm of the Canadian government, it's looking like the beginning of the end for Stephen Harper.

He has gone through so many communications directors, chiefs of staff, and political friends that one wonders if anyone can stomach working with him.

Harper still has the support of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Employment and Social Development Minister Jason Kenney, and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird—three of his most reliable ministers. And Industry Minister James Moore puts on a good show of being a Harper loyalist.

But compare that to the list of people who've either abandoned Harper over the years or whom Harper has tossed overboard.

The list begins with Jim Hawkes, a former Progressive Conservative MP for Calgary West.

Hawkes hired Harper as an aide, but then Harper ran against him twice, finally getting elected to Parliament in 1993.

Harper's next boss was Preston Manning, then-leader of the Reform Party of Canada. Harper chose not to seek reelection in 1997 because he was dissatisfied with the way things were going.

In the 2010 book Harperland: The Politics of Control, Lawrence Martin reported that Harper was furnishing information about Manning to his friend Tom Flanagan for his book, Waiting for the Wave. 

"Little did Manning know that Harper, who had worked in his office, was a quiet collaborator, feeding Flanagan everything he could about his leader," Martin reported.

According to Harperland, Flanagan even called Harper a "silent co-author", furnishing documents about his boss.

Flanagan became Harper's chief of staff but they later had a falling out. It came after the Prime Minister's Office tried to get Flanagan's book about Harper killed.

Harper has gone through other chiefs of staff: Phil Murphy, Ian Brodie, and Nigel Wright. The current chief of staff, Ray Novak, used to live in a one-bedroom apartment on top of Harper's garage when Harper was Leader of the Opposition.

There has been even more rapid turnover in his communications directors: William Stairs, Sandra Buckler, Kory Teneycke, John Williamson, Dimitri Soudas, Angelo Persichilli, and Andrew MacDougall all left his office. You're free to make bets on how long Jason MacDonald will last.

Former CTV broadcasters Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin were appointed as Conservative senators to boost Conservative fundraising prospects and add a little glamour to the brand. Now, they're in the Harper deep freeze.

Former Conservative MP Helena Guergis sued Harper. Independent MP Brent Rathgeber walked out of caucus, fed up with the Prime Minister's Office's authoritarian governing style.

The pattern is pretty clear: Harper doesn't appear to be a very pleasant boss, judging from how often people resign from his office. And in the eyes of some, including Duffy, he's not trustworthy. 

The prime minister has a way of bringing forward fresh faces from time to time, such as former ambassador to Afghanistan Chris Alexander, to boost Conservative prospects. Alexander is the new minister of citizenship and immigration.

Calgary Centre MP Michelle Rempel, Minister of Western Economic Diversification, is also being groomed for advancement in the Harper government. Labour Minister Kellie Leitch is another new cabinet recruit on the ascendancy.

But if history offers any lessons, Harper could conceivably turn on any of them just as he has on other old friends and colleagues.

The only remaining question is how long Kenney, Flaherty, and Baird will remain loyal, given the political disintegration of the Conservatives taking place all around them.

http://www.straight.com/news/516376/stephen-harper-goes-through-people-s...

Don't you just love the timing of what the RCMP are saying today about Trudeau'a big buddy, Mac Harb.

The Cons of course today are mounting a full court press on all media to try and defend the indefensible.

My favourite two lines from callers on those stupid call-in shows:

"I'm not a Conservative but I support Stephen Harper".

and

I'm not a Liberal but I support Junior Trudeau"

Canadians may be a bit slow at times but most of them are not completely stupid.

That's the ole Mulroney approach - if you repeat something often enough people will start to believe it.

You can repeat that nonsense as oftern as you want but it is still claptrap.

Pierre Elliot Triudeau would be turning over in his grave if he saw what was going on in Canada today.

We all know that Justin does not have the leadership skills required to be PM.

The NDP is right on the money and in tune with the vast majority of Canadians who are now saying Abolish the fuckin' Snate and put these scumbag Liberal and Conservative party bagmen out to pasture where they belong. What a disgusting display from both these 2 right-wing parties who both consistently assume that "THEY ARE ENTITLED TO THEIR ENTITLEMENTS:.

Mulcair will probably be facing Jason Kenney in the next election, so let's start working now on cutting this Con down to size.

"Foreign Workers" issue anyone!!!

Keep it up Prime Minister. Hw much did our dollar drop today?

Canadian prime minister under pressure over expenses scandal

Canada's main opposition leader accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday of creating a "culture of corruption" as Harper faced an expenses scandal that looked to be spiraling into the biggest crisis of his seven years in office.

Harper's Conservatives have been under pressure since May, when it emerged that his chief of staff had privately given a check for C$90,000 ($86,540) to help a senator repay expenses that the government said were improperly claimed.

Nigel Wright, the chief of staff, resigned a few days later. Harper, who came to power in February 2006 promising to boost accountability in government, says he knew nothing of the check that Wright gave to Senator Mike Duffy.

But Duffy told the Senate late on Tuesday that when Harper ordered him in late February to pay back the money, Wright had been in the room too, and he said that two lawyers from Harper's office had helped arrange the check.

"We know that Stephen Harper hasn't told the truth. He has to start telling the truth," said Thomas Mulcair, leader of the official opposition New Democratic Party. "This is a profound scandal that directly implicates Stephen Harper ... (he) has created a culture of corruption."

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE99M11920131023

The Longer I'm Prime Minister by Paul Wells: Review

The Harper endgame is the replacement of the onetime Liberal culture with a conservative one — that can’t be dismantled

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2013/10/23/the_longer_im_prim...

The Conservatives' massive Senate miscalculation

Remember that the Cons have majorities in both the House and the Senate, so of course Harper will get his way and crush Duffy & Co. But the damage has been done, and Harper's days are numbered. 

The 41st Parliament and the future of Canadian politics

So what kind of democracy do we want?

If the tenacious Elizabeth May has erred at all in her cause, it is in the full name of her summer tour—”Save Democracy From Politics.” What she presumably means is something more like, “Save Democracy From The Imbalances Of Power That Currently Impair Our Version Of Democracy’s Effectiveness And Relevance.” But it is surely easier (and cuter, in this case) to say “politics.” It is easier to blame that which we are a taught to regard as a corrupting force, the dirty and tawdry game that sullies the pure ideal of democracy.

But it is politics that makes and sustains us.

“Politics arises from accepting the fact of the simultaneous existence of different groups, hence different interests and different traditions, within a territorial unit under a common rule,” Bernard Crick wrote. “The establishing of political order is not just any order at all; it marks the birth, or the recognition of freedom. For politics represents at least some tolerance of differing truths, some recognition that government is possible, indeed best conducted, amid the open canvassing of rival interests. Politics are the public actions of free men.”

It is not democracy that separates us from tyranny. It is politics. There might now be something wrong with our politics. It might be weakened by cynicism. The structures we have built to formalize and guide it might be subject to abuse. Our democracy might be in poor health. Or we might at least aspire for things to be somehow better—for a more meaningful House of Commons, a more relevant MP and a freer flow of public information. We might even feel that we are teetering now on the brink, that not just our democracy, but our politics, is in real danger of slipping away from us. That might even be true. If this feels like a pivotal moment, that might be because it is.

But if we need be saved, it is only through politics—that most human of creations and achievements—that we will find salvation. It is only through politics that we can hope to fix what is broken. It is the tumult we must accept. It is the tumult we must, in fact, embrace.

It is through politics that we will choose the man who will lead us on the 150th anniversary of our birth as a nation. It is through politics that we will answer those questions about our governance, resources, wealth and welfare. It is through politics that we will decide what to do about our environment and our fellow man, about how we will care for our sick and how we will respond to the scourges of poverty and addiction. It is through politics that we will decide over the next two years who we are and who we think we can be. It is only through politics that those who seek change can hope to achieve it.

So we stand now on the edge of a monumental two years. Two years for questions both eternal and pressing. Two years for ourselves and each other. Two years for Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair and Justin Trudeau. Two years for Brent Rathgeber’s concerns and Elizabeth May’s points of order. Two years to decide how we want our politics to be practiced. Two years to say whatever has to be said.

Regard it all as a celebration of politics, that which defines us and that which is limited only by our individual and collective willingness.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/10/15/the-41st-parliament-and-the-future-of...