Prime Time Crime
(Published in the Abbotsford News week of Apr. 11, 2005)
Tories: Time for Cojones
John Pifer
If federal Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper is to be Canada’s next Prime Minister, he must opt for a federal election for this June. Period.
If he delays, if he listens to the nervous naysayers in his party, or even to those among the corrupt spin doctors that reside in Canada’s Liberal Party, he will blow that opportunity. The Liberals are on the ropes after the latest revelations in Gomery Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, and the only thing that might save their collective butts from electoral defeat is for Mr. Harper And Co. to be timid or conciliatory in any way.
If Mr. Harper dithers on this one, you may rest assured that the Liberals and their capital-L Liberal media friends across the nation will find ways to dilute this scandal. They must not be allowed to get away with the systematic and sickening abuse of power and taxpayers’ dollars that have been the hallmark of successive Liberal governments.
It is bad enough that the scandal of the gun registry waste of hundreds of millions has gone unpunished. It is bad enough that the corruption rampant within the HRDC grants and handouts were swept under the carpet for last year’s election. It would be appalling in the extreme for the criminal corruption and under-the-table cash payoffs orchestrated by high-ranking Liberals to be ignored or watered down by waiting until the autumn before going to the polls. The suggestion to wait until November when the inquiry is finished and its final report presented is coming primarily from Liberals who believe that time can heal even this wound.
The Liberals will do anything to prevent a snap election call that would result in their loss of power. They have even trotted out Prime Minister Paul Martin to declare that he has “the moral authority” to govern, and to state that the obvious corruption is not the way that he operates. This comes from the man who grew up in Quebec in a family politically up to its armpits in the same style and attitude that prevails in the Ottawa-Montreal-Toronto triangle of power. This comes from the man who was number two in the shady Kremlin-style rule of the oleaginous Jean Chrétien; with Mr. Martin now pretending he is Hogan’s Heroes’ Sgt. Shultz (“I know Nothing!”).
Mr. Martin and Co. have lost any authority to govern. Mr. Harper must not let them get away with it. He must not let deflections about more Quebec-separation talk, or about the ‘horrors’ of same-sex marriage, divert Canadians’ attention away from the basic truth – that graft, corruption, double-dealing and lies continue to be the driving force behind the Liberal government.
Nor must the Conservatives let the Bloc Quebecois run the agenda. The Tories must strike now, giving no quarter, taking no prisoners, and giving the people the opportunity to throw the bums out. Any delay would show a lack of commitment to cleaning up this country and its socialist leanings and Big Brother rule, and dare I say, it would show an obvious a lack of political cojones.
Veteran B.C. journalist/broadcaster John Pifer may be reached at jwpifer@shaw.ca.
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