He started it! No Mr. Speaker, he started it. . .

Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister whose pathological need to destroy the opposition set in motion an unprecedented parliamentary crisis which resulted in prorogation (dissolving of parliament,) has continued to play his brand of incendiary power-politics. In an about-face, Harper has abandoned his promise of not stacking the Senate and pushing for Senate reform (subjecting Senators to elections) in favor of appointing 18 conservative senators. The new appointments, all party-friendly hacks (fundraisers, old members, even a talk-show host) are said to be a sign of compromise and party-building aimed at assuaging Harper's rather irritated but impotent party of yes-men.

Coral Goar on Harper's Cabinet pre-parliamentary fiasco:

The members of the Conservative caucus know better than to express an independent thought or opinion. Their job is to be compliant cheerleaders.

Bob Plamondon, a Conservative party expert, on Harper's approach after the fiasco that threatened to make the Harper Conservatives Canada's shortest minority government:

Mr. Harper has concluded that rallying the troops is important to his future as party leader. . . There is place for loyalty in politics and with this Prime Minister it's been in short supply.

Brian Lagh, from the same article:

Mr. Harper seems to have realized the need to make friends and appease critics at a
time when his reputation as a parliamentary strategist is in doubt.

As to whether Mr. Harper has offended the Western base of the party - many of whose members support Senate reform - at least one party worker said the disappointment will be balanced by the fact that the PM has finally recognized the party needs nurturing.

This political crisis and the unrepentant aftermath--Harper's lack of mea culpa for derailing our Government during the worst financial times since the great depression (making the economists who beg for swift action cringe)-- is emblematic of how political brinkmanship destroys the possibility of having worthwhile leadership. By initiating a crisis that threatens to destroy the opposition, the opposition was left to fight for their political lives with their pathetic coalition (a rather unholy alliance with separatists and socialists, although Conservative derision was a truly artificially inflated panic). One political pot-shot after another (the reality of contemporary scandal-ridden Canadian politics) consumes leaders into these petty political games rather than imaginative policy making--something we truly need during a time where our traditional definition of how an economy should be governed (or not governed) is very much in question.

Although on second thought, with the apparent tendency for Canadian policy to be rather similar to their Southern counterparts, I can't help but wonder if Canadians aren't just xeroxing Bush bills into Parliament--a task which would leave them much time for their wretched squabbling.