Let me add my voice to the chorus calling Stephen Harper a hypocrite of mammoth proportions. Hypocrite hardly seems like the word. There ought to be a bigger, more expansive word to express hypocrisy of this magnitude.
The man repeatedly states he will not appoint anyone to the Senate because he is committed to Senate reform.
Then he dissolves Parliament to avoid a no-confidence vote.
Then, while he shouldn't be doing any government business, since he's governing by himself, he appoints a record number of Senators, many of them clearly patronage gifts.
And, after repeatedly stating that Supreme Court of Canada appointments should be subject to Parliamentary review, he appoints a Supreme Court Justice on the same day.
And may I just say, Mike Duffy? That Mike Duffy?? I thought there must be some other Mike Duffy, besides the Conservative media hack. But no. I don't know who to credit for this little bit of brilliance, but some smart blogger said CTV stands for "Canada's Tory Voice". Much better than the also-true, but obvious, "Conservative TV".
Would you like a few irony sprinkles on that hypocrisy sundae? One of the new Senators is Michel Rivard, formerly of the Parti Québécois. In the words of Harper's own lackeys, a "separatist". On The National last night, they showed a clip of Conservative MP Steven Fletcher spouting the party line during the wrangling over the coalition: "Can you imagine a Michel Rivard having veto power...?"
Let me also note, to pre-empt the chorus of jaded cynics, that I was not surprised. Merely disgusted.
For USians and other non-Canadians reading this, Canada's unelected and often invisible Senate is something that took me a long time to understand. If you're interested, this link is very helpful: The Canadian Senate: Role, Powers & Operation.
Like the NDP, I'd just as soon as the Senate abolished altogether. It's a hangover from feudal times - antiquated and un-democratic.
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