Unseating Stephen Harper

Dire warnings to Canadians not to trust Stephen Harper, he would turn the country into an autocracy, and military troops would be stationed on Ottawa's streets while the Conservative government would set about destroying democracy. Women, above all, would lost their hard-won rights of independence and protection from violence. And this is the man who led Canada and the United Nations into protecting the lives of women and girls in third world countries through leading health initiatives....

Funny thing, that; given the opportunity to change the order and social politics of the Supreme Court of Canada, almost all of the current justices have been appointed by the Prime Minister during his administration. The Chief Justice was appointed by the Paul Martin government. And the justices pulled their collective authority to deny the Prime Minister's appointment of a justice whose political colours they found fault with under other pretenses.

And it is also this increasingly activist Supreme Court that has overruled the elected lawmakers on Parliament Hill on a succession of issues, from changing existing laws on prostitution, to euthanasia, and to challenging the government's position on niqab-wearing during the citizenship ceremony. So much for the feared right-wing Supreme Court that would emerge from the Conservative government's nominations.

The Prime Minister is faulted for not trusting people he brings into his Cabinet sufficiently to allow them to speak publicly. He must vet everything beforehand, and he has undertaken responses during Question Period that should be responded to by the ministers involved, go the complaints. And then the complaints swing the opposite direction in a polarizing version of just how controlling and trusting is the Prime Minister.

A succession of his appointees have distinguished themselves in a manner to embarrass the man who depended on their integrity.

From Bruce Carson at the PMO to Nigel Wright, and from Arthur Porter to oversee Canada's spy agency, all have been disappointments in revelations about their character or decision-making. Not to mention the current situation with his most trusted adviser, Dimitri Soudas whose surrender to the charms of MP Eve Adams mitigated against his loyalty to the Prime Minister.

And then there are those whom the Prime Minister elevated to the Senate of Canada; Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin, all ambitious for themselves, not Canada, all bringing into question the Prime Minister's ability to judge character. In other words, he has been too trusting of people who then turned around and betrayed that trust.

In the case of Eve Adams, whose behaviour has been unethical from claiming on her campaign expense account her grooming expenses, to treating the public to questionable behaviour at riding association meetings and their candidate selection process, a woman who discovered her Galahad in Justin Trudeau with whom she would have quite a bit in common, manipulating who may run in signal ridings, etcetera...good luck.

So whose judgement should be called into question here. A man whose own honesty and integrity cannot be questioned who found it in himself to trust people on the basis of their public personas only to discover that their private interests trumped the public interest? Or a man whose juvenile attitude on every conceivable matter of vital importance to the public weal has earned him a deserved reputation as a political dunce?