Sunday Morning Coming Down

Loyola Hearn is quitting before getting beaten. Unlike a Spartan he will not return home carried on his shield but hiding beneath it. As his mediocre life as a public servant ends, he has chosen the whimper rather than the bang. And what a whimper it is...

"If I were running, there would be people campaigning against me because they were told to do it," he said. "That's dictatorship."

Aw, poor little Loyola. Danny Williams, one of this nation's actual, remaining Tories, has put the fear into Hearn. Loyola is among the spineless creatures who, under the unprincipled Peter MacKay, sold the Tory brand to the Reform/Alliance. Williams is no friend of the Conservative Reform Alliance Party as led by Steve Harper. Hearn's whining is all the more comical coming from one of Harper's whipped poodles. The Harper cult of personality has demanded absolute control of message in federal politics, firing and suing opponents within the government and opposition ranks. Hell, Harper even finagled a vote declaring a lack of confidence in Elections Canada for daring to deny him a free pass to game the system and scam $1.3 million dollars in advertising in the In 'n' Out scandal.

Williams has promised to mount an Anything But Conservatives (ABC) campaign over his long-standing public feud with Harper.

"The people of Canada can't trust (Harper), the integrity isn't there," Williams said in a press conference Friday.

Big Steve has been busily trying to re-brand himself as the kinder, gentler autocrat and has allowed that this will likely be a mean spirited campaign.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he's anticipating a "very nasty" campaign from the opposition parties, in an exclusive interview with CTV News.

This, after hundreds of thousands of 10% fliers attacking the integrity and leadership of Dion and the other opposition leaders, the Conservative's own website until recently was littered with an unflattering graphic of a shrugging Dion, impugning his leadership, motives, agenda and policies. Suddenly the Con's website is all sweater vests and decorum. The Cons and their camp followers are still trying to eke as much mileage as they can out of the dusty echoes of Adscam. The Liberal scandal, that resonated with voters in the last election, is now three governments old. Yet one need not look too far to hear the cries of Liberal corruption and the blighted 13 years of their reign that saw the nation beset by balanced books, a strong economy and economic surpluses, all of which have withered under Harper's rule.

So now Steve has his election. After endless attempts to secure a vote during the last session, he has chosen the unusual path of quitting his government while parliament is not in session, declaring it dysfunctional, regardless of the actual legislative record.

"The Opposition doesn't want to support the government any longer for anything," he said. "The government doesn't want to change direction ... You know, everybody around Ottawa knows this Parliament has reached its useful end."

Flying in the face of his own fixed term law, without losing a confidence vote, Mr Harper has decided to act as not only Prime Minister but to usurp the voices, votes and opinions of the opposition. He's picked up his ball and he's going home, after having stopped off at the GG's house first, that is.

So, to the polls we will go. For the record, there is no federal party that inspires confidence in me. This is a lesser of evils vote as far as I'm concerned. And Stephen Harper is not the least evil of the bunch by a long shot. His wafer thin team has proven utterly hapless. Tony Clement most recently off on a fiddling trip as listeriosis burned down 13 lives. Helena Guergis... well enough said. Maxime Bernier, our own little document losing, biker babe banging, security breaching international embarrassment. Bev Oda the ride around lady with a taste for limousines and media lobbyist dollars. Weepy Pete MacKay off on another east coast spending trip, disposing of more of our millions. And the list goes on with such luminaries as Gary Goodyear who never saw a committee he couldn't obstruct, Rob Anders who looked so much more authentic when he was wearing his prosthetic Pinnocchio snoot as a paid heckler for the Republicans or Mr Angry Baird whose volume goes to eleven, all noise, no signal. Now, with the somewhat less inept Hearn running for the hills before Danny Williams paves him and Emerson deciding to beat the voters in his riding to the punch by quitting, there isn't much to look at in the Harper caucus. There is no depth of experience or wisdom.

North American politics at this juncture in history, a time that cries out for capable leadership, is sadly lacking. With the world embroiled in mindless violence, we seem to have little to chose from other than social conservatives, theocrats, ideologues and empty suits. This election is not going to improve our situation, though it will help Mr Harper hide from the tide of scandal that is rolling his way. The age of statesmen is behind us. The writ has dropped, may the least venomous idiot win.