The Prime Minister and "audacities"

First,  apologies for being  AWOL from this blog and Twitter for the past few days. I've been in the midst of feature-writing and a quick one-day trip to London, ON and my old alma mater of UWO.

Enough about me. On the way back and forth from London, I read Lawrence Martin's new book, Harperland, and we have a story posted online now.

One thing I didn't include in the writeup was what Martin is calling "The March of Audacities"  -- a long list at the back of the book, on all of Harper's audacious moves in politics. As a device, it's very similar to the appendix that Martin put at the end of his 1997 book on Lucien  Bouchard, called: "The Contortions of the Mind," which was a 50-item list of Bouchard's "brazen" contradictions and reversals. 

Martin says that his "March of Audacities" (do you get the feeling he wanted to make this the title?) should give you a sense of the book, in tone and content. So I'm going to put the list here (it stretches over two pages at the end, in tiny type).   Make of it what you will:

The march of audacities: It included the following: The in-and-out money shuffle. The David Emerson appointment. The unprecedented vetting system. Naming an unelected senator to cabinet. The Tushingham censorship. The elimination of the Access to Information database. The scrapping of the appointments commission. The Cadman affair. The nixing of the Court Challenges Program. NAFTA-gate. The misinformation campaign on Afghan detainees. Reversals on half of the promised accountability measures. The secret handbook on how to obstruct committees. The launching of personal attack ads between elections. The smearing of opponents for being anti-Israeli and not supporting the troops. The attempt to censor publication of a book by Tom Flanagan. In addition: Attacking Elections Canada. Attacking Dalton McGuinty as the small man of Confederation. Declaring Ontario the last place to invest. Ordering police to remove journalists from a hotel lobby to prevent coverage of a Tory caucus meeting. Labelling Louise Arbour a national disgrace. Attempting to discipline an academic for criticizing the government. Making a bid to vet even the press releases of the auditor-general. Scripting supporters' calls to radio talk jocks. Blocking information on cabinet ministers' use of government jets. Hiding justice department studies on crime. In addition: Belittling gala-goers. Releasing an online attack ad featuring a bird defecating on the opposition leader's head. Plagiarizing the Australian prime minister's speech. Hiding a firearms report to prevent embarrassment on the gun registry. Downgrading Diane Ablonczy for her support of gay pride week. Smearing the bank executive Ed Clark as a Liberal hack for his statement on the deficit. The Rights and Democracy fiasco. Attempting to strip political parties of public funding. Alleging that he opposition leader has no right to form a government. Declaring Brian Mulroney persona non grata. Slashing the budget of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. In addition: Putting Tory logos on government cheques for stimulus funding. Withholding details of stimulus funding. Granting stimulus funding disproportionately to Tory ridings. Firing the nuclear agency head Linda Keen. Halting Peter Tinsley's probe on Afghan detainees. Ousting Paul Kennedy from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP. Smearing Richard Colvin. Defying Parliament's right to documents. Padlocking Parliament. Snuffing out democratic challenge to MP Rob Anders. Barring cabinet staffers from testifying before committees. The record-breaking omnibus budget bill. The move on Statistics Canada.

Comments

[Darwin O'Connor]

He missed some of my favorites, like reversing himself in Income Trusts and calling an election in violation of his own election law.

[Znoosle]

The PM should thank Mr Martin - how many of us get the chance to have all our screwups pointed out to us detail?

Also - What about G20?

[johnnyk]

And how many of these "audacities" were cow pies waiting to be stepped in?

[Chris Killam]

This is a fantastic list. The Liberals should simply play this on their ads - would remind Canadians very quickly how Harper and his pack of neanderthals have turned back the clock on Canada's progress and standing in the world.

[Aongasha]

This may not make the cut but here goes -
what would you expect from Mr. Martin or any of the main stream media? When is the last time you read a positive review of anything the Conservatives have done. Yet much to the dismay of these folks and the oppostion, Canadians continue to give them the lead in the polls. Explain that.
Maybe it's time journalists owned up to and admitted their biases. Then at least they would appear to be fairer than the 400 or so in the US who got together to secretly plan how they could support Obama's election.
I think the following little gem explains a lot.

"Ryerson University professors Marsha Barber and Ann Rauhala explored the demographic and political leanings of Canada's television news directors. The results of their survey were published in 2005 in the Canadian Journal of Communication. The researchers found that the news directors, whom they describe as the people "with the most direct responsibility for programming the news on any given day," were more politically and socially liberal than the rest of the Canadian population. Broken down by network, those working for the CBC were the most left-leaning.
Barber and Rauhala's findings echo researchers David Pritchard and Florian Sauvageau's survey results from years earlier. They found that most Canadian TV journalists felt the news organizations they worked for were "slightly left of centre" when it came to political outlook, while they themselves were ideologically more left-leaning than their employers."
Nuff said!

[SSG]

No matter how journalists lean, there is no denying that Harper has been acting in a less than democratic way, and I am not talking about party ties. As with Mulroney, the previous PC Canadian leader, he prefers stealth (passing laws in camera) declarations (you SHALL pay for the G20, in the middle of a recession, AND increase international aid while your own children are unfed), and the dismantling of virtually everything Canadian, while pursuing FOX as his ideal news source.
Can we pulleaze have something that is not such a blatant lie?
Maybe if he had to pay for his parties himself he would not be so happy to spend our money, pretending to be crown prince of the USA.

[Frank Docherty]

Don't forget Pat Stogran. ( http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/ctv-reports-veterans-affairs-privacy-scandal ) How the Harper Conservatives handle these henious breeches of privacy/confidentiality will determine how all ministries and departments are conducting busness. For example, the department of Justice ( http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/W-11.2/ ) Privacy/confidentiality breeches in some cases can place lives in danger.

[Frank Docherty]

Have we forgotten Krystal Senyk? ( http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/wanted-recherches/mur-meu/bax-eng.htm ) It brings to mind the audacity of the Harper Conservatives to vote to scrap the long gun registry. The predictable and preventable murder of Krystal Senyk is perhaps a tragedy that the government of Canada would like to forget, but that does not make Canada a safer place, for you and I, and police officers all across Canada. There never was, is not, and never will be, a price tag that we can place on human life, and, a price tag that we can place on those who risk their lives to keep us safe - our men and women in uniform who take that oath to serve and protect.

[Frank Docherty]

Put your hands together and lets hear a great big "Audacity Welcome" to the stage for Deputy Minister Suzanne Tining ! ( http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/871087--more-vets-emerge-with-allegations-of-privacy-breaches ) Apparently the federal government does not recognize "Gulf War Syndrome", and, in an effort to ensure that it never be recognized, federal bureaucrats have apparently fallen ill with the chronic condition known as HCWHBSOS ( how could we have been so obtuse syndrome ) despite the PMO's failure to recognize HCWHBSOS. Rumour has it that the PM is suffering from WCTEUTBS? ( we can't throw everyone under the bus syndrome? ) , however, such can not be confirmed by an opposition that is apparently suffering from WWTHDWTUTBS? ( well who the hell do w throw under the bus syndrome?

[Frank Docherty]

Audacity is kinda like the swine flu - they don't like to call it that. ( http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/870838--your-personal-data-vulnerable-privacy-audit-finds ) And everybody gets it. It doesn't kill everybody who gets it, but it annoys the hell out of everybody who knows what it is, and the fact they didn't have to get it. It's kinda like watching Hockey Night in Canada and not being warned that Don Cherry is gunna be doing Coaches Corner in the first intermission - had you known - you could have switched to the weather channel for 15 minites. If privacy/confidentiality is a concen in your life ( http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/more-veterans-sound-alarm-over-serious-privacy-breaches ) , turn off your TV for 10 minites and do something about it.