Unbecoming a Prime Minister

Well, he could very well be unbecoming as a prime minister, who knows what the near future may bring? But his behaviour certainly was unbecoming that of one who stands before Parliament as the prime minister of the day. Arrogance becomes no one, but sometimes it does have a habit of steering the ship and then, watch out.

Why stoop to that low level in any event, particularly at this very time when Stephen Harper had all his ducks in a row and a growing public appreciation to boot? Obviously, because he felt he could and therefore he would. Temptation to thumb-nose being what it is to most people. And Stephane Dion makes such a well-deserved target.

Here was poor old Stephane Dion forced to whip his recalcitrant caucus in line on the anti-terrorist issue of the two sunset items, one of which is actually required to prosecute the cause of the Air India investigation to a reasonable conclusion of guilt and responsibility. Yes, Mr. Dion could claim caucus solidarity, but only at the expense of ordering compliance. Even yet, one of his members may abstain.

The thing of it is, Stephane Dion has stubbornly wedded himself to the fallible idee fixe that the role of the Opposition is to oppose anything and everything that the ruling Conservatives under the detestable Stephen Harper (how it must pain Mr. Dion to share given names with his adversary...!) proposes. Obviously the good of the country comes dead last.

Yet by his very actions, ham-handed and stumble-bum in prosecution, Mr. Dion has won no converts to his cause. He actually helped the prime minister immeasurably, who had taken the mantle of responsible leadership, rectitude and an unerring instinct to follow the right path upon himself, looking very good indeed in contrast to the bumbling anxiety of Mr. Dion.

So, Mr. Harper would have done well to sit by impassively as is his usual wont, and let Mr. Dion drone on secure in the knowledge that the extension was indeed slated for approval.
Something deep within him far better left down there in its dimly-dark excesses was instead allowed to surface and to belittle the source, not its target.

It's like this: when someone of the moral and ethical calibre of former Liberal leader Bill Graham is shocked to the point of outrage by this kind of un-prime-minister-like excess it's a fair signal that we should all be.

Stephen Harper has made of the very serious business of terrorism and Canada's defences against it, a trifling little matter of tit-for-tat. And it wasn't, obviously, a spur-of-the-moment and thus somewhat forgivable lapse, it was clearly planned beforehand. How else explain that his minions were at the ready with explicatory news releases?

The prime minister and his staff took a Vancouver Sun story whose thesis is so tenuous in its assertion of "the real reason" behind the Liberals' determination to doom the Air India invstigative hearings, it's obvious its use was simply a linch-pin for the prime minister to launch into a jejune accusation.

Mr. Prime Minister!

Oh dear, he was performing so well, impressing so many. All dissolved in an instant of behaviourial self-gratification.

On the other hand, we sincerely hope not. We'll give you another chance. Don't blow it.