The Conservative Failure on Openness, Accountability, and Ethics

[G Huxley]

There's a good portion of the base who'll spend their whole lives not believing in evolution (or simply believing in greed) and voting straight conservative no matter what the party does.

Edited September 12, 2015 by G Huxley

[Smallc]

There's a good portion of the base who'll spend their whole lives not believing in evolution (or simply believing in greed) and voting straight conservative no matter what the party does.

They also worship satan and eat kittens for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but don't tell anyone.

[eyeball]

There's a good portion of the base who'll spend their whole lives not believing in evolution (or simply believing in greed) and voting straight conservative no matter what the party does.

Yes, the base is probably the party's biggest handicap.

[G Huxley]

It's about the party's only asset. Other than the donations and third party advertising of course.

Edited September 12, 2015 by G Huxley

[cybercoma]

They also worship satan and eat kittens for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but don't tell anyone.

Your sarcasm aside, how many people need to be charged and/or convicted before you start to question the party?

[waldo]

Your sarcasm aside, how many people need to be charged and/or convicted before you start to question the party?

expect the usual response that ignores the failings of Harper Conservatives... expect to hear all about the past misgivings of past governments, long past governments... even 50+ years ago!

[cybercoma]

Like, I get it. You're conservative. There's no other options for you. (Harper is the reason for that too, btw). But at what point do you say to yourself, "this crap is indefensible. I agree with the party's policies, but the people in power here have got to go. The party is a mess."

[Canada_First]

Like, I get it. You're conservative. There's no other options for you. (Harper is the reason for that too, btw). But at what point do you say to yourself, "this crap is indefensible. I agree with the party's policies, but the people in power here have got to go. The party is a mess."

Harper is not Conservative enough for me. Not hy a long shot. I was expecting big things from Harper but he never delivered. He was just a wishy washy PM who did nothing really Conservative at all in my eyes.

I want to see a massive build up of our military. Four times the size it is now. New planes and war ships, aircraft carriers and nuclear missiles and subs.

But nothing even close to that happened. I really don't understand all the anger towards Harper. He's been pretty boring. Really.

[cybercoma]

Yeah. We get it. Your new gimmick is radical right wing. It's also boring because everyone knows you're just trolling.

[waldo]

Yeah. We get it. Your new gimmick is radical right wing. It's also boring because everyone knows you're just trolling.

I prefer the light Mr. Canada version myself!

[Canada_First]

Yeah. We get it. Your new gimmick is radical right wing. It's also boring because everyone knows you're just trolling.

I'm not trolling. I'm posting my real thoughts and feelings.

[ToadBrother]

I'm not trolling. I'm posting my real thoughts and feelings.

Then seek psychiatric treatment.

[Canada_First]

Then seek psychiatric treatment.

Why? Because you as a socialist cannot understand conservatism?

[cybercoma]

Why? Because you as a socialist cannot understand conservatism?

Conservatism is not radical nationalism.

[Smallc]

Your sarcasm aside, how many people need to be charged and/or convicted before you start to question the party?

I've already said I'm not voting for them, and have criticized much of their record over the last few months. That doesn't mean I'm an idiot.

[cybercoma]

I've already said I'm not voting for them, and have criticized much of their record over the last few months. That doesn't mean I'm an idiot.

Sorry, I didn't mean "you" personally but the royal "you."

[Springer]

Let's see now...

There's the matter of $40,000,000 still unaccounted for during the Adscam scandal.

There's $2.5 million the NDP apparently bent, if not broke, some rules in spending.

Meanwhile, Wright, who was working for the PMO for free, digs into is own pocket to pay back $90,000 he felt Duffy owed taxpayers.

Right. Only in the minds of Canada's MSM could the latter be twisted into the scandal of the century.

Granted, I'll concede Harper did make one big mistake: He appointed two members of the Ottawa press gallery to the Senate. He definitely should have known better.

[On Guard for Thee]

I'm not quite sure what this means, because yes, while the government was found in contempt, the voters' solution appears to have been to reward the Tories with a majority of seats.

I suspect the contempt finding didn't get the airing it deserved because it was fairly shortly after that that the government was brought down on a non confidence vote. I think all parties were hesitant to let the speakers finding go to a vote in the house because tht would have been uncharted territory ad as I understand it, if the house would have confirmed the finding, Harper would have been expelled from the house, and could have possibly been jailed. Nobody wanted to go down that road, so the budget vote cleared the decks, and unless you were paying close attention you could have missed the Harper contempt. Although he has continued to demonstrate it IMO.

[cybercoma]

Yeah. Appointing Duffy and Wallin was his only mistake.

Not the Conservative Party pleading guilty to breaking the law by exceeding election spending limits and submitting fraudulent documents, where I might add they paid back more than $230,000 on behalf of Finley and Gerstein who were appointed to the Senate by Harper.

Not Harper's own parliamentary secretary and ethics spokesman being hauled away in shackles and cuffs for also exceeding the election spending limit and submitting fraudulent documents.

Not the Conservative campaign staffer being convicted for preventing voters from voting, but only after the deputy campaign manager got an immunity bargain and was said by the judge to provide testimony that was "largely self-serving", and where the judge also said the staffer "likely did not act alone."

Not Harper's closest advisor Bruce Carson getting charged with influence peddling, after already being charged twice for fraud in the 1980s.

Not appointing Arthur Porter to the Security Intelligence Review Committee where he was accused of shady arms dealings between Israel and Sierra Leone.

Not appointing Conservative candidates who failed to get elected in their ridings to the unelected and unaccountable Senate--Housakos and Carignan, to name two, were also under investigation in the Charbonneau Commission, looking into corruption in the construction industry in Québec.

Not Peter Penashue's campaign manager, Reginald Bowers, who failed to return ineligible campaign contributions.

Not appointing Patrick Brazeau and the entire book full of issues with that guy.

Not Ted Opitz admitting to donating more than he was allowed to his campaign in 2008.




Nope. Harper's not perfect. Not even in the same city as perfect, since he seems wholly intent on surrounding himself with the most unethical people he can find.

Edited September 12, 2015 by cybercoma

[Smallc]

Yeah. Appointing Duffy and Wallin was his only mistake.

On those two in particular, I'm sure very few, even you, thought it was a mistake.

[ToadBrother]

On those two in particular, I'm sure very few, even you, thought it was a mistake.

Duffy was an odd one, seeing as it was common knowledge around the Hill that he'd be lobbying for a Senate appointment for years. Why would a Conservative PM appoint a man who had tried to get Chretien to put him into the Red Chamber?

[Smallc]

Duffy was an odd one, seeing as it was common knowledge around the Hill that he'd be lobbying for a Senate appointment for years. Why would a Conservative PM appoint a man who had tried to get Chretien to put him into the Red Chamber?

From what I understand, he agreed that the Senate needed to change, or die. That said, I still think that few would have expected Wallin and Duffy to be common crooks.

[cybercoma]

On those two in particular, I'm sure very few, even you, thought it was a mistake.

You want to bet? I was criticizing Harper back then for appointing party hacks that couldn't cut it in elections and "washed up news reporters."

[Smallc]

Most people would not have said that about Wallin, even if they had said that about Duffy.

[ToadBrother]

From what I understand, he agreed that the Senate needed to change, or die. That said, I still think that few would have expected Wallin and Duffy to be common crooks.

There was always something wrong about Duffy's appointment. I remember during the Prorogation Crisis, which was Mike Duffy's swansong as a reporter. I was in the hospital ER when it was going down, watching Duffy and a panel on TV, and Duffy seemed to be behaving decidedly partisan, clearly siding with the Tories and not really keeping up even a pretense of egalitarian detachment. I know that right after his appointment was made known, a number of political commentators, I think Don Martin was one of them, found the timing exceedingly odd (his appointment was announced on December 22, just three weeks after the prorogation.

Now maybe there's an innocent explanation for a guy who, just weeks before had been hosting a fairly well-respected Parliamentary political program where the erstwhile Coalition attempt to remove the Government was, well, the only thing anyone was talking about, suddenly ended up in the Red Chamber.