Members of the Conservative caucus squirmed in public and seethed in private yesterday, trying to come to grips with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s two controversial cabinet appointments.
“This looks like expediency, even hypocrisy,” a veteran Conservative MP from Western Canada said of the appointments of David Emerson, who was elected last month as a Liberal, and Conservative campaign co-chairman Michael Fortier, who didn’t run but will get a Senate appointment.
“This is shocking. It’s just unbelievable. Who was Stephen talking to? We campaigned against this kind of stuff,” the MP said.
globeandmail.com : Tory MPs riled by Harper’s outsiders
Tory MPs riled by Harper’s outsiders
Why Harperâ..s Cabinet Matters â.. A Qestion of Trust.
Remember Nixon? Remember the question his opponents raised during an election: Would you buy a used car from this man?
Are we in the same territory now with Stephen Harper, the policy wonk with broken promises in his first day of becoming Prime Minister?
Harperâ..s Achilles heel over the past two elections has been the question of trust. Many voters examined his views, going back several years, and came to the conclusion that this leopard had not changed his spots. And when he tried in the latest election to sidestep the issue of his beliefs, by simply saying he had â..evolvedâ. but his fundamental philosophy was unchanged, may voters were stopped in their tracks. Had he changed? Can this man be trusted?
Then he ran an election campaign designed to focus more on the Liberalâ..s record â.. perfectly justifiable â.. than on his partyâ..s platform. A tightly controlled election that even had some rightwing candidates hiding in kitchens to avoid interviews with the press about their social beliefs. And a leader who avoided questions, sidestepped some, ignored others.
The pattern of avoidance, selective discussion, and ignoring of legitimate questions by the fourth estate, raised yet more concern among many voters: Can this man be trusted?
Now, his cabinet, with surprising choices in at least two cases, and omissions in other areas. A Liberal is elected and immediately joins Harper when Harper asks him to leave the party that elected him and join the minority Tories, now in need of more votes in Parliament. Doug Beazley of the Edmonton Sun puts it in context:
â..But political scientist David Taras of the University of Calgary warns Harper is risking the wrath of the backbench. “Two weeks ago, Emerson was saying the Harper Conservatives were heartless. Now they’ve got to work with them. How can they trust him?” he said. â..
But it not just whether the Tories can trust Turncoat Emerson, but whether Harper kept the faith with voters, and honoured promises made during the election. So once more voters are asking: Can this man be trusted?
And Harperâ..s response to the justifiable outbursts â.. by Tories and others â.. simply underscores the concern. To brush the criticism aside as simply being â..superficialâ., implies the voters who now feel dismayed by the Harper actions, are not capable of forming rational judgments and should leave it to Big Daddy Harper to make those decisions for them.
So the question lingers in voters minds: Can this man be trusted?