It wasn’t enough for the “dissenting opinion” in that now-infamous committee report for the Conservative members to place in a quote from Sheila Fraser that had nothing to do with the subject matter at hand. Well, it turns out they did the very same thing with Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget officer. I’m sure they’ll issue a cursory apology later today and move on. And then Stockwell Day went on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight last night and called the Fraser incident a “misquote.” Good on Stroumboulopoulos: he called Day out on it, saying “that doesn’t sound like a misquote, that sounds like a mislead.” Day spun out this lovely fiction: there were two different sources and the person compiling the report must have mixed up the quotes from these two different sources; he was still looking into it, but that’s really all it is. Um, no. Someone had to dig to find one of Fraser’s quotes that they could apply to their dissenting opinion – it’s beyond implausible to even suggest otherwise. Stroumboulopoulos let Day’s version of events stand as is, but he did post the video of said fiction, allowing more Canadians to see it for what it is.
That said, this is just one more symptom of the contempt this government has for the institutions of parliamentary democracy and the Canadian people. They seem to think that we’re stupid enough to keep swallowing all of this and are easily placated when they pat us on the head and tell us not to worry. If we give them a majority mandate, we won’t have to worry about pesky things like debates or further elections. This pattern needs to be further highlighted and called out as often as possible. It is contempt.
Here’s another group (of hipsters, apparently) looking to encourage people to vote against Harper. The video points to their website, which is full of “fun facts” about the kinds of things Harper has done while in office, as well as some of his statements and associations.
Hidden in the planned Conservative omnibus crime bill, should they get back into office – warrantless online surveillance.
And the Conservative candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona sent out a distress call that said he’s in real danger of losing.
Why you can trust Xtra
