Instead, the ubiquitous art of political distraction has emerged in place of the time-honoured parliamentary tradition of resigning to accept ministerial accountability.
Accountability has typically been demanded of cabinet ministers in cases of significant departmental incompetence or scandal, or significant ethical lapses.
But in these days in Ottawa, what do Canadians hear instead when a ministerial head on a platter is demanded? Voters are treated to the stony, determined defence of any wayward cabinet minister, typically by the more abrasive cabinet ministers who are willing to get their hands dirty in Parliament.
Hard on the heels of such uproars come some form of outrageous attempt to divert attention elsewhere.
This is how Adolf Hitler made it into the Canadian parliamentary news cycle last week.
It was a week when International Development Minister Bev Oda should have been tendering her resignation over her lavishly outrageous spending of taxpayers’ money in London, namely on a pricey stay at the Savoy hotel, including a $16 glass of orange juice and another flurry of limousine rides, all in the name of official business.
Instead, there was a headline-grabbing coup by the Harper Conservatives, who attempted to deflect a serious question from the NDP over the timing of a full withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan.
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, who has been soaring in the polls since winning the party’s leadership convention last month, is the latest Official Opposition leader the Conservatives are aiming to chop down a peg or two. This strategy worked extremely well with Stephane Dion, and with Michael Ignatieff. Why stop now?
So Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday roared into action by referencing a 1939 position by the then-leader of the CCF — the NDP party predecessor — who opposed sending Canadian troops to Europe.
“The leader of the NDP in 1930 didn’t want to support war against Hitler,” Harper said in the Commons in response to a question on the Afghanistan issue.
It was so juicy a repartee, and so enticing to the party backroom brain trust that spends hours trying to come up with new ways to undermine opposition leaders, that the Conservatives trotted it out twice more the next day. Never mind historical accuracy or context; these are unnecessary details.
Oda has repaid the taxpayers for her limo rides and Savoy experience. The Conservative troops have rallied around her for the time being. But in a rumoured cabinet shuffle after the spring session, she may yet get to play Caesar as the Roman senators circle in tight proximity.
For now, the game is to brazen it out for the good of the team. Apparently, there are no violations — even those as obvious as Oda’s — that are unforgivable. On the face of it, the government is unwilling to accept the notion of accountability.
This is the same party that in the 2006 election campaign rode to power on the backlash from the Liberal sponsorship scandal. Later that year, Harper made the federal accountability act one of his first major pieces of legislation.
The concept of accountability made for a good sound bite at the time, but putting policy into action has remained a challenge for the Conservatives. G20 Summit spending in Muskoka, election campaign robocalls, escalating F-35 fighter jet costs, and even Oda’s previous misstep over ordering an official document altered, then misleading a parliamentary committee about it — any of these issues could have justified a ministerial exit.
The best defence? A good offence, and forget about that tiresome call for a resignation. Hitler makes for better headlines.
Original Article
Source: the chronicle herald
Author: MARILLA STEPHENSON
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