Glass Houses

Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Handout, parl.gc.ca

Canada's House of Parliament doesn't thrive on dull moments. Its elected leaders do find purpose in criticizing government when it is not their own party that holds the reigns of power. Leading the official opposition to seek out issues with which to bludgeon the ruling party into a state of near insensibility with incessantly dogged questions, demands, and threats, some that have a real purpose and meaning, others dismally without either, but making news splashes nonetheless.

Political showmanship is the order of the day. One of the greatest political figures in that arena of bluster and bellowing was the late and the Honourable John Diefenbaker who excelled at the drama and theatre of public naming, shaming and rambling discourse. Long gone he is, though his memory lingers on. And in his stead we now have the dramatics of the leader of the NDP, Thomas Mulcair whose own ability to raise thunder is near-inimitable.

Mr. Mulcair loves holding Prime Minister Stephen Harper's feet to the fire of bellowing discourse and limitless blame. He has also succeeded of late in drawing admiration from the liberal-tainted press for his one-time surprisingly calm deliverance of point-by-point blame in a matter of the Senate of Canada's recent taint through some of its members' displaced sense of entitlements, with claims of a PMO coverup.

And now attention is turned to Mr. Mulcair himself, and his flair for drawing notice to his short temper and bumptious temperament. He is latterly reported to have peremptorily waved aside an RCMP officer stationed on Parliament Hill, tasked routinely to ensure that all vehicles approaching the House of Commons be stopped and authorized access be assessed.

Not only did Mr. Mulcair breeze his car swiftly past the RCMP constable waving him to a stop at the security gate, he then proceeded to run several stop signs. "Mr. Mulcair apologized for the misunderstanding", was the message that came out of his office later. "Once notified of the misunderstanding, he had a very respectful discussion with an officer."

"He then immediately went down to clear up the misunderstanding with the commanding officer", and all is well. During Question Period, unsurprisingly, a few Conservative MPs took it upon themselves to display red stop signs with the words "Stop Mulcair" clearly legible as they exited the House of Commons. A bit of schoolboy jollity, obviously.

What was not reported in the mainstream press, however, but merely hinted at and published in tabloid 'free' newspapers was that some nasty words were passed in the exchange between Mr. Mulcair and the offending RCMP assigned to protect the security of the House. It is generally recognized that Mr. Mulcair has a habit of waving himself through security checkpoints on the Hill.

And because most security guards recognize him, he is permitted to pass. In other words, he pulls rank, feeling himself entitled to very special accommodation because of his privileged standing. On that particular occasion the RCMP officer who stood guard was new to the position and didn't recognize the leader of the NDP.

When the leader of the NDP was seen to swift his passage through the security gate and then a number of stop signs the RCMP gave chase. "Don't you know who I am?" he petulantly demanded of the officers when he finally came to a stop in the pursuit. He also is reputed to have threatened the offending officers with the loss of their positions during the confrontation.

And this, evidently, is where the apology came in. After the fact. Once the details were made known. And the embarrassing behaviour, quite worthy of the antics of a hormone-charged teen, threatened to topple Mr. Mulcair from his pedestal of adult social maturity.