It's Just Not On?

There are all those critics who love to claim that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is one-dimensional, a policy wonk, a tyrannical manipulator with that hidden agenda that will soon be revealed, validating what liberals have been so up front and shrill about for lo these past six years. He has no personality, he is wooden, untrustworthy, lacking vision.

Hey, this is the guy who loves cats, and fills his house with them - our house actually - and whose wife supports cat rescue and the Humane Society. This is a man with a passion for the national sport, who is enough of an aficionado that he has amassed a consummate knowledge of the history of hockey and all manner of fine details revolving around the NHL. He aspires to some day, when his itinerary is less frantic, to write a definitive book about hockey.

Is it surprising then, that he undertook to go along to Boston to witness in person the Vancouver Canucks get pasted by the Boston Bruins? That's history in the making, too. And he took along his daughter; not his son this time, but his daughter. How's that for even-handed equanimity? And, because he honours his executive position and knows how to separate it from his personal life, he paid their way himself.

Buying his own tickets, and paying the freight for commercial flights, while bowing to the necessity of using a government jet in acknowledgement of his importance to his country, though, isn't good enough for his detractors. Who evidently begrudge the man for lavishing too much time and space on his personal entitlements.

Elizabeth May's gratuitous comment that in her opinion the Prime Minister's decision to celebrate his own private get-away with a colleague and his daughter in tow, was a "bad idea" represents stark sanctimonious stupidity. Jim Karygiannis's "Excuse me, aren't we in a time of tightening our belts? Aren't we in a time of making sure that we use our money wisely? I'm not sure if that is a wise move", moves one to contempt.

And Peter Stoffer's comment: "Using those types of tax dollars for his personal entertainment? No, that's simply not on ... He should do what we all do, which is watching the game on TV and hoping the Canucks score a victory".

We can only hope that members of the Greens, the NDP and the Liberals make an ethical decision to parse every penny of their generous expense accounts courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer. And make the ultimate magnanimous gesture of handing over their gold-plated pensions to a charity of their choice - other than themselves.