I am impressed
Usually a new conservative government takes several months to reveal the full glory of how they, um, creatively bring respect and dignity back to the country that they just took power in. But the new CPC government in Canada is, apparently, fully aware of their pathetically weak government, so they've decided to just unzip and let it all fall out at the very start of their regime.
I think they deserve some sort of award. But is it for giving the trade ministry to the suddenly ex-liberal ex-CEO of Canfor, nevermind the storm of protest when Belinda Stronach crossed the aisle in the other direction? Or is it that the brand sparkling new Trade minister, who is supposed to work on the long-running softwood exports dispute with the United States, has recused himself from involvement with direct dealings with Canfor (Canada's largest forestry company, and one that is specifically accused of dumping softwood in the United States) and their subsidiaries?
Or perhaps it's, after stating that you'd need to be elected to Parliament before you could take a seat in his cabinet, Stephen Harper appointed his not-elected-to-anything-at-all campaign co-chair to that very same cabinet? To be fair, Michael Fortier is now a senator (just barely; Harper appointed him at the same time he appointed him to the cabinet), but that does leave the tiny detail that Harper promised not to appoint senators, but have them elected instead.
How about appointing a justice minister who pleaded guilty to breaking provincial campaign laws in Manitoba? Or the new Defence Minister who is in charge of arranging to buy military transport aircraft which, um, he was lobbying for the government to buy from his clients just a year and a half ago?
It's impressive. I've not seen such a festival of conservative hilarity since the B*sh junta took over the united states in 2001 (a festival that became much less hilarious after the B*sh junta ignored what turned out to be a 40 foot tall pile of warnings all reading "Osama bin Laden is going to try another suicide attack with aircraft in September"; the level of competence didn't go up, but the "loyal opposition" collapsed like a wet paper bag and let the Evil Party run wild over the smoking ruins of the American republic.) If I was paranoid, I could let my imagination run wild, but since the Canadians can do a vote of no confidence at basically any time, it's less likely that Stephen Harper and his merry band can run quite so roughshod over Canada as the conservatives did in the United States, and it's certainly impressive to watch them try to, er, function.
(links galore via Canadian Cynic, A BCer in Toronto, and Peace, order, and good government, eh?)