Politics

At least this way of handling crises (Rob Ford, Stephen Harper saying nothing) isn’t to prostrate ones self on the public in a display of nausea intoning a meaningless apology. This modern way of crisis handling, devised by Conservative handlers, is just as sickening. The process of denial by the presumed culprit and then a repetition of, what they claim, as successes in their field as well as an atempt to shift the blame onto perceived enemies.

Thus it was this week. We saw the “Duffy” scandal positioned as the fault of the NDP, because they have refused to support the Conservative attempts to reform the Senate. Thus it was the fault of the Toronto Star that the Mayor of Toronto was accused, scurrilously, of smoking crack cocaine.

As commentators and observers we at the BR are appalled that these obfuscations will work. These clever diversions, in the words of pundits, are designed to shore up the base of their voting section. To hell with public interest, obligation or just transparency, these cynical moves not only damage the utterer but defy logic and credibility. Just because Stephen Harper, or Rob Ford say things it doesn’t make them true. It defies logic and methodology when Harper says he didn’t know what his Chief of Staff was doing, especially in the light of his history as a control freak. The fact that he said what he did in Peru yesterday just damages his own credibility and insults the public’s intelligence.

But lucky for these two perceived liars the public attention is very small and will fade fast. This very case was being made this morning by Andrew Coyne, a persistent rightwing pundit who has been apalled by the antics of Harper. But he declared defeat this morning and we will see him move on tomorrow when he, of all people, should be pursuing this case the end of the earth.

But as to the rest of us what will we do? Probably tut-tut to our friends and hope that this constant drip drip of the erosion of credibility will get the point that all sitting politicians get to, in the twilight of their days – public derision. It has been said that the point of rejection for voters often takes place a couple of years befor the vote. If that’s the case the Harper Tories have a long slog coming up and we the public will probably be very tired of ‘talking points’ from hacks.

But back to the main thread, this new way of crisis handling is an interesting one. Just how long will the public put up with it and when will total cynicism hit the voters enough that they give up on the system completely?

cartoon by Mike Graston of the Windsor Star

“I rise to speak on two items in this agenda (click on image to see agenda). One is the motion to approve a contract with Behan Construction for the second phase of the Spring St. construction and the other is the move to insert the wording, “Cigarette Butts” into the littering bylaw.”

Firstly the motion to give Behan another piece of the pie! This move is a triumph of expediency over process, and it may be useful but still against the intent of the tendering bylaw. The report from the Director of Engineering is on pages 79 and 80 and tries to justify why Council should award a $420,000 project without a competitive tender according to policy. To sum up, because Behan won the competition for the first section and the disruption to the residents and businesses would be great let’s just give them the second part of the job as well. The advantage to the Town is twofold – one is that the job is finished in one year even though the budget calls for a two year project and secondly because Behan has agreed to wait until next year’s budget to get paid. It will cost the Town nothing out of this year’s budget to do it this way.

But it will cost the Town a lot in the terms of integrity and process. It almost looks as though this idea was hatched in one of the pre-project meetings by efficient Project Managers. A tidy solution to a thorny and messy project. But it doesn’t fly by the rules. Now we know rules can be inefficient sometimes for busy people but they are there for a reason. The big reason here is to show that everybody is treated fairly. So would it have been such an inconvenience to the Town to issue a new tender for the Northern project making it clear that payment would not take place until next year. Just how many Firms would have bid on this knowing that Behan was already on the job and they wouldn’t get paid for nine months? Probably none but that is not the point, the point is simple the Town is playing fast and loose with the rules just to get a job done. We are not buying pencil sharpeners here we are spending 420 large ones and that’s a lot of money to give way on a simple motion of Council without a tender.

Secondly, Mr Chair while I applaud the efforts of the Council to try to make Cobourg as clean as possible by trying to avoid litter, in this case the waste is ‘cigarette butts’ (this can be found on page 81 of the agenda) it does make us look a little silly by having a bylaw about ‘butts’ and not enforcing it. Bylaw enforcement is always tricky as it relies on complaints. But also actual prosecution means that a chain of evidence has to be maintained and that means that an approved Bylaw Officer has to observe such activity, confront the offender and then issue a ticket. So to sum up although this effort to make us look like Singapore, we don’t go as far as they do, this offence can result in ‘caning’ if caught there, we do look foolish by adopting another very difficult bylaw to enforce. By the way how many skateboarders and cyclists have we issued tickets to under bylaw infractions?

Snipped from Warren Kinsella’s website this morning.

LTsays:

So God Made a Mike Duffy

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a Canadian Senator.” So God made a Mike Duffy.

God said, “I need somebody willing to get up after dawn, and then sleep in some more, think about working all day in the Senate, sleep again, eat a late lunch and expense it and then go to another restaurant for dinner and expense it again.” So God made a Mike Duffy.

“I need somebody clever enough to fill out Senate forms incorrectly and yet dim enough to blame the forms. Somebody to vote with the government, ask the PM softball questions at staged town halls, come back to his office hungry, have to wait for lunch until his meal arrives from the Senate cafeteria and tell the delivery boy to be sure and come back real soon — and mean it.” So God made a Mike Duffy.

God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a government bill. And rubberstamp it the next day. Then wipe his brow and say, ‘That’s why I get paid the big bucks.’ I need somebody who can obfuscate, prevaricate, live in two places at the same time, be unaccountable, unelected, jump as high as his leader tells him to, go on political junkets and claim expenses like nobody’s business. And who, when questioned about said expenses, will attack the integrity of the questioner, refuse to answer any questions, disappear from the public eye and scurry away from the media by using the hotel kitchens of the nation.” So God made a Mike Duffy.

God had to have somebody willing to do nothing for a Senator’s paycheque, yet think he was an important cog in democracy’s wheel and yet be able to deliver civics lectures in mid-stride when he hears that people call him a partisan hack. So God made a Mike Duffy.

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to accept money from the prime minister’s chief of staff when forced to pay back money that wasn’t rightfully his, not answer questions about it, promise not to bad mouth the prime minister in return, yet be calculating enough not to declare that money and then, when caught, say nothing and let the PMO issue absurd press releases. Somebody who deceives, prevaricates, obfuscates, confounds, dodges, weaves, condescends and finishes a not so hard 4-hour-week of Senate business all before Monday afternoon and then replenishes himself in Florida’s restaurants with expensed food and drink for the rest of the week.

“It had to be somebody who’d do nothing for something, keep his family together with plump, soft hands, kept manicured by government lucre, who would laugh and then laugh some more, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life ‘screwing the pooch and scamming the taxpayers like dad does.’” So God made a Mike Duffy.

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