Today in the House, MP Wayne Easter (Liberal) revealed that Minister of State for the Status of Women Helena Guergis' office assistant, Jessica Craven had written letters supporting her boss to several newspapers in Ms. Guergis' riding of Simcoe-Grey. These letters were written using Ms. Craven's married name of Morgan which she does not use in her professional life. She claims that she used her married name to separate her opinions as a generic Canadian from her opinions as an assistant for Minister Guergis. In one of Ms. Craven/Morgan's letters she defends the childish actions of her boss at the Charlottetown airport in late February. She has also written other letters that both defend her boss and criticize members of opposition parties. While Ms. Craven/Morgan claims that Minister Guergis was unaware that she had written the letters, I find it hard to believe that the Minister had absolutely no knowledge of what had taken place. Is she telling us that she doesn't even read the papers in her own riding to see what issues are important to her constituents? Shades of Sarah "Can't Name a Paper or Magazine" Palin!
I hate to tell Ms. Craven, but as long as she is an office assistant for Minister Guergis, she is not a generic Canadian and, as such, her letter-writing tactics are nothing more than an infantile and amateurish attempt to sway voter opinion. A rank amateur indeed.
This story should sound familiar to readers. Back in 2001, Helena's husband Rahim Jaffer, a former Canadian Alliance MP used one of his staffers to impersonate him on a Vancouver radio show. Mr. Jaffer was forced to apologize to Parliament and was demoted to the backbenches. In light of today's revelation, don't the two of them seem so well suited to each other? Apparently they actually do spend time communicating, at least to the level where they discuss how best to dupe the sweaty masses!
I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, exactly what does it take to be fired from the Harper cabinet? Apparently quite a bit.
This latest incident ( we haven't forgotten wafergate, H1N1, Door Knobs) that has brought out Liberals with all pop guns blazing has given Canadians a great opportunity to contrast the leadership of Stephen Harper (the professional) and that of Michael Ignatieff (amateur hour)
ReplyDeleteOne should be reminded at this time of the incident where the Liberals were found guilty of planting senior Ignatieff strategist and former CBC lawyer Mark Sakamoto in a H1N1 vaccine line-up on TV to complain about the Conservatives handling of the roll out of the vaccine.
Remember.
Canadians will recall in the Sakamoto incident Harper and Conservatives did not ask for resignations, perform histrionics in the house, make absurd allegations, call anyone a liar, and try to blow the incident up into a big scandal - in fact the opposite was true and as you can see they deliberately downplayed it.
What is more can't you all be impressed by the way Harper handled this controversy ( what a contrast to a would be PM Iffy) - he said the party will not be commenting - how different from Ignatieff and Wayne (dooknob Easter) who try to blow this minor incident into a scandal with help from a subservient media .
At the time of the Sakamoto incident Taber wrote in her column
"1. The politics of H1N1. Did the Ignatieff Liberals really plant one of their own to complain on national television about the shortage of vaccine? Indeed, the accusations are flying today with the Harper PMO sending out an alert to all of its MPs, Senators and staffers urging them not to respond or comment about a news story on CBC's The National last night “in which an employee of Michael Ignatieff’s office appears in a ‘street interview’ as an ordinary citizen concerned about the supply of H1N1 vaccine.”
The notice, sent via email, goes on to “urge MPs not to respond to the transparent attempt to pass off an Ignatieff staffer as a non-partisan Canadian. We will not be commenting on the incident. It is very sad and unfortunate that the Ignatieff Liberals are desperately attempting to politicize the H1N1 preparedness efforts of the federal and provincial governments.”
Contrast the leadership of Stephen Harper and that of Ignatieff on a very similar incident - you decide who is a winner and who deserves to lead this country.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/the-perils-of-politicizing-a-pandemic/article1349330/
I don't believe that either Ignatieff or Harper are capable leaders. Canadians have, unfortunately, reached the point where we have to hold our noses while we pick up the pencil to mark our "X". We can only choose from the best of a bad lot.
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