The Good, The Bad, And The (Really, Really) Ugly

Stories that cover the entire spectrum are present in the news today.  T'is the season to be jolly so let us start with the Good News.

The Good

Trudeau is talking the talk about openness.

Justin Trudeau is promising to scrap Stephen Harper's brand of message discipline if he becomes prime minister, giving more freedom to bureaucrats, ditching the scripts for cabinet ministers and making them and himself more accessible to journalists.
The Liberal leader says Harper's penchant for strictly controlling the flow of information — and the select few who are allowed to sparingly dispense it — has led to an opaque, secretive government that is cut off from the citizens it's supposed to be serving.
A spokesman for Harper thoroughly rejected Trudeau’s assertions.

(Really.  Who cares what a Harper spokes person says?)

More goodness:

"You can't run a government from one single person," Trudeau said. "What instead matters is that leadership be about gathering around extraordinary individuals and getting the best out of them."
Trudeau added that "a free and informed press is an essential part of any informed democracy, making sure citizens know (what's going on) and are able to hold their leaders to account." Freezing out the media is "not just weakening the functioning of our democracy but weakening the outcomes of our governance."

Let hope we get a chane to see if Trudeau walks the walk.

Being an eminently fair blogger, I will quote the Conservative response to give their side of the story:

"I would challenge his (Trudeau's) assertions," MacDonald said in an emailed response.

I'm sure you would but, wait, you replied by email.  Thereby eliminating the opportunity for a follow-up and proving the charges laid on you by Trudeau.

The Bad

Does Michael den Tandt seriously think that the Liberals have consciously crafted Trudeau's image after Luke Skywalker/Simba/King Arthur?

Why yes.  It appears he does:

 His brand has been crafted, deliberately it seems to me, to tap into very old archetypes of heroism. 

My goodness, we need a better level of journalism in this country.

The Ugly

In this case it isn't the author.  The article is an review of another Harperian desecration of our constitutional framework.  It was excellently written by Errol Mendes, Canada's foremost expert on the subject.  It should be read in its entirety.  It probably deserved to be first but that would have interfered with the Spaghetti Western theme.  The sacrifices one makes for art.Recommend this Post

Harper leads by example

Harper hides his innate cowardice behind his bullying tactics.  Like all bullies, Harper is, not so deep down, a coward.

Just as his "I can take a punch" line in an earlier interview with Mansbridge (or some other CBC sycophant), is an attempt to deflect attention away from his thin skin, his explanation for his cowardly actions during the Parliament Hill shootings doesn't hold the water Mansbridge is so eager to carry.

As I read the transcript of the interview a post began to percolate.  But alas, Boris at The Galloping Beaver has covered all the points but one here.  With regards Boris' Point 1, if the caucus insisted he hid, why did he have to apologize to his caucus?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told his hushed caucus Wednesday morning he felt remorse for surreptitiously ducking into a closet during last week's assault on Parliament Hill, CBC News has learned.

Many Conservative MPs were alarmed at the prime minister's sudden disappearance during the terrifying 15 minutes between the moment Michael Zehaf-Bibeau fired the first shot inside the Parliament buildings and when Sergeant-At-Arms Kevin Vickers entered their barricaded caucus room to tell them the fusillade outside their door had ended with Zehaf-Bibeau's death.

Perhaps his apology didn't do enough to calm a restive caucus and base.  Perhaps they know, if unwilling to admit, that the man they hate the most gave and excellent example of how a leader acts.

Stephen Harper.  Not A Leader

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