Well, I’ve read through the Throne Speech which was delivered yesterday. I’ve read some of the commentary which has appeared this morning in reaction to it. For the most part, they are echoing my thoughts as I read through the speech, where exactly is the recalibration? There was very little real focus or meat.

I had the sense that the speech came about from a brainstorming session around the Cabinet table on how many buttons could they find to press in a bid to make Canadians believe this government has a real sense of need and direction. The point form results was then handed over to speech writers to form into what was delivered yesterday.

I know the devil is in the details and Throne Speeches are not where one would expect to see details. Some will emerge today as the Budget is delivered. For the most part, speech repeated previous announcements and claims from the government.

Public Wage Freezes

It does say there will be a freeze on not only public service budgets but the wages of the Cabinet, Senators and MPs. That is really sharing in the hardship that 1.5million Canadians are going through, not to mention the millions of Canadians who find themselves under-employed as the result of jobs lost through business failures and jobs moved offshore.

If the government really wants to show some belt tightening, they should be looking at some cuts to their $100,000 plus salaries and pensions. Struggling Canadians just don’t relate to a freeze on incomes which are already higher than they can expect to see.

Foreign Investment & Free Trade

The speech says it will be opening the door to more foreign investment in the telecom and mining industries. Canadians have already watched many of our Canadian firms being gobbled up by foreign interests under this government’s watch. When the doors are thrown open for foreign interests to sweep in, the dangers of Canadian jobs going offshore rise proportionally.

We need to be likewise wary of free trade agreements the government is overseeing. There has already been alarm raised in some quarters that the agreement being negotiated with the European Union could see some areas of our public service forced into privatization in order to conform to the terms of the agreement.

That is not safeguarding Canadian sovereignty. The Conservatives can wave the flag all they want, protecting our right to make Canadian choices puts the proof in the pudding.

Law & Order Platform

Once again, the government is touting their so called law and order platform. A platform sledge hammered into Parliament as supposedly necessary and urgent.  Those same bills that died on the order table when Harper closed Parliament for almost three months in order to recalibrate are once again being trotted out.

While I agree with the premise of some of the measures, like keeping violent convicts in jail for life, I note the government has been very coy about the added financial burden on the taxpayer of the increased prison population. The speech claims this is the will of the Canadian people. Really? I must have missed that referendum.

Increasing the prison population doesn’t decrease crime. Our neighbours to the south have learned that already. Increased prison populations, at a time when crime rates are dropping, only serves to incubate increased crime later on as non-violent offenders learn to graduate to violent offenders. Who is going to be building and running the additional prisons these bills will necessitate?

Democratic Reform

The speech references the government’s continued intent to ‘reform’ the Senate but no references to democratic reform a little closer to home, like curbing the powers of the Prime Minister. Those powers have been subject to abuse for many years but none have escalated the abuse to the point Harper has.

Canadians are becoming more aware of this democratic defict and will increasingly demanding change. Which politician is going to have the guts to curb his own power or potential power in the name of democracy and accountability?

Have you read the speech? How do you view it?

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Tom Zytaruk would like to sue the Conservatives for their continuing claims that the tape which launched the Chuck Cadman affair was doctored. The problem is that he would need a lawyer willing to work on a contingency basis or pro bono in order to afford it.

So the defamation of this author continues unless that happens.

The court has found the tape was not doctored. There was a break in the tape, Zytaruk turned it off when Harper walked away from the conversation and back on when he returned. Pretty normal move to make. The Conservatives continue to claim as fact that the tape was doctored. Sort of a tell the lie often enough and it might be seen as truth.

Most recently, the Parliamentary Secretary to Harper, Pierre Poilievre rose in the House in response to a question from NDP Bill Siksay to ask if Zytaruk would receive an apology for the false accusations against him. Poilievre responded that it was a fact that the tape was doctored and the lawsuit had been settled with both pleased with the settlement.

Polievre had apparently received his instructions from Harper who had been whispering to him just before he rose in the House.

When challenged to repeat that statement outside the House where immunity from lawsuit is no longer available, Poilievre slipped out a back door and away from the media. Under the terms of the settlement, the Liberals are not allowed to discuss the settlement terms or the suit but that wont stop the NDP or the Bloc from raising it.

Last week the Conservatives suddenly dropped the lawsuit they had launched against the Liberal party when Dion was leading it.

Cadman, sitting as an independent, cast the deciding vote in a crucial non-confidence vote and kept Martin in power. The issue came to light after Zytaruk’s book on Cadman was published and included claims that Cadman had been offered a million dollar insurance policy to rejoin the Conservatives. If true, or any financial considerations are true, then that amounts to bribery which is illegal.

According to transcripts of the tape, Harper was aware of discussions taking place and taht financial considerations were being offered. The conversation doesn’t specify what they are. When the tape came to light the Liberals went on the attack in the House and then posted the allegations on their website. While Harper couldn’t sue over the comments in the House, they could over the website comments.

They launched a defamation suit against the Liberals claiming that the tape had been doctored. Surprisingly, Zytaruk was never named as a defendant. So called experts for each party differed over the doctored tape issue so the court ordered their own expert to examine the tape who concluded that it had not been doctored.

The pending lawsuit kept the issue out of the public eye during the last federal election in October. Seems that the Conservatives have managed to use the courts to muffle their dirty behaviour being brought into the public eye. If they engaged with some integrity instead they would save everyone a lot of money.

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Harper has concluded an over two hour meeting with the Governor General and has had his request to porogue parliament granted. The move is clearly to avoid confidence motions scheduled to take place in the House on Monday. While he’s busy accusing the Liberal-NDP coalition of making a power grab, he’s made it just as clear that he will cling to power at all cost. Had the GG not consented to his request, which she could have refused since it was clearly an avoidance move, then she would have had to have chosen between an election, barely 2 months after the last one, or asking the Liberal-NDP coalition to take the reigns.

As much as I would have preferred to see Harper face the music on Monday, the GG’s decision is not all bad. When it comes to power grabs and the subversion of the democractic process, none of the clowns in Parliament have a finger to point at anyone. It would be nice if the GG imposed some conditions on Harper, starting with the ultra partisanship leaving the scene. The blatant lies and distortions gone would be nice too but that is way too much to hope for.

Harper created this situation. He and his inner circle needs to pay the price probably more so than any other Conservative. That band of thugs now know that the Opposition will not be a whipping post for their attacks. Maybe now Harper can get down to doing what he should have established two years ago, striving toward compromise and consensus to make parliament work instead of the arrogance of the bully that he is.

One would have thought that the Canadian people allowing him only another minority when he created the need for us to spend $300 million in October that he would have got the clue that he hasn’t gained the confidence of the people any more than the other three leaders. His own party revolting against him right now would really help to ratchet down the rhetoric in Ottawa as it would place both the major parties in the position of being tied up in a leadership race.

More moderate interim leadership would go a long way to changing the tone in the House. Failing the removal of Harper, it appears if he learns nothing else from his colossal blunder, the Opposition has had enough. The threat of very real non-confidence votes is more real than he’s ever experienced. His practice of governing as though he has a majority by declaring every issue and its brother a confidence matter just ground to an abrupt halt.

He’s going to have to learn to reach out and actually listen to MPs aka leaders which he politically disagrees with yet might just have a sense of what direction the country needs to go in. He will need to bend enough to find common ground if he wishes to remain as PM. My guess is that he’s going to try to provoke an election before the Liberals have a leader in the hopes that he can gain a majority. His lies and distortions are plausible enough that he manages to gain the support of Canadians who don’t really pay a lot of attention to or understand how things work, so, a majority could be possible.

One thing that hurt the Liberals badly in the last election was their record of abstentions in the last Parliament. The fact that they have now stood up to Harper and if they continue to do so may work in their favour depending on how well they present their actions. They are going to need to do some serious presentation work after last night’s speech to the nation. Between the tape being late and poorly produced, that doesn’t sit well. Dion had far better content of his remarks than Harper even came close to but it was overshadowed by the amateur presentation.

As for power grabs, let’s not be fooled by that smoke screen. They are all after power and to serve their own egos with a side dish of what is good for Canada. That is a reality that has been one of the few constants in politics the world over.

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Well, I must say I’m a tad surprised but intrigued. I have been watching the reports over the last several days about the Liberals, NDP and Bloc in talks about forming a coalition government to bring down Harper and his gang of bullies. I didn’t really expect that the egos in the group would manage to tone themselves down enough to actually work out an agreement. I’m a bit impressed, now to see if it can be sustained.

Seems to me since the Liberals and the NDP have managed to work out an agreement with the pledged support of the Bloc for about a year, that those three have at least got it that compromise is needed to make government work. That is a lot more than Harper has managed to get and actually carry through on — and he has a lot more to loose.

The Conservatives are crying foul, bemoaning that the Liberals are in bed with the socialists and the separatists. Socialists is a bit of a subjective term — according to many of our southern neighbours, we’re all a bunch of damn socialists up here in the great white north. So, I don’t really think the term carries quite the negative connotations here, at least to those who are not of the right wingnut persuasion.

Now, the separatist cry, I can somewhat empathize with. It is no secret to anyone who has read this blog before that I consider the Bloc to be a bunch of traitors sitting in the House of Commons. If I had my way, their asses would have been tossed a long time ago. The fact is, I don’t have my way and since no government has had the gonads to bring in amendments to the Election Act outlawing regionally based parties, especially ones who’s reason to be is to break up the country, then I’m stuck with their presence in Parliament.

They are duly elected to Parliament and as such have a duty to represent their constituents to the best of their ability. Under the coalition government they will have the balance of power. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will be truly the tail wagging the dog but it could be possible. On the flipside though, that can’t make things any worse than a Parliament poisoned by the bullying, partisan brinkmanship that Harper and his gang of thugs has been playing.

Harper has brought this chain of events on himself and deserves to take the hit. I’m not in the mood for another election. Hell, I wasn’t in the mood for the last election that Harper created a need for. This time let Harper take the consequences of his actions and not cost us another $300million to settle. Send the boy back to the Opposition benches…. I’m gang to try something different and see what happens.

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One thing I’ve always found a bit of a pain about soap operas are their rather long drawn out plot (or lack thereof). Someone deciding to create a soap of the latest goings on in Ottawa might just get my attention. So let’s see, the story to this point…..

On October 14th, Canadians granted the Conservatives yet another minority government in the general election. At the same time that was taking place, the world’s economy (including Canada’s) was going to hell in a handbasket at a rate that few even mused about. The Liberals and the NDP both campaigned with promises of economic stimulus while the Conservatives don’t worry, be happy approach until the polls showed them dropping hard over their lack of notice to the economy. All three parties declared that Canada would not run a deficit under their watch.

On Nov 18th, Parliament opened with the ‘kinder, gentler’ Prime Minister Harper indicating that this session would be more civil. For the first week or so that actually seemed like it was going to happen. He had even gone so far as done a little reach out to the Opposition parties. He seemed to indicate that this session would be focussed on the economy. He’d even reportedly indicated to his MPs that they needed to tone down the idealogy and partisanship in the house.

Marching orders given, he goes off to Peru and a meeting of the G20 to continue discussions about the state of the world economy. There he spouts off about how he was surprised at the speed the world economy slid downhill, that simply solutions are not going to work and that some stimulus spending needs to take place even if it means running a deficit. Reading the reports of his comments back here, I did wonder who the Conservatives had sent to Peru, looked like Harper, sure didn’t talk like him.

Then we come to last Thursday and the little guy he calls his Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty (the same one who helped Mike Harris run Ontario into the ground when the Conservatives were in office here) presents an economic update devoid of any mention of economic stimulus but includes cuts, promises of the sale of government assets which would amount to a fire sale in this economy, denial of the civil service’s right to strike for two years, promises of balanced budgets in the coming years, a short recession (yeah right) and to top it off, a piece of pure partisanship assault (reportedly insisted on by Harper) the elimination of political party subsidies.

The Opposition parties for once responded with a unified voice(s) that they would not only oppose the passage of the update, as an economic measure is considered to be a confidence motion, they entered talks to offer a Liberal-NDP coalition to the Governor General as an alternative to going into an election. What an irony, Harper himself held similar talks when he was in opposition to try to bring Martin down.

Harper misjudged this move. He assumed that the Liberals would talk big and then abstain as they had done in the previous parliament thus allowing him to govern as though he had a majority. The Liberals had warned him that this was going to happen in this parliament and he didn’t take them seriously. Ed Broadbent from the NDP and Jean Chretien from the Liberals were both brought in to steer the negotiations. Duceppe from the Bloc was also consulted. The Liberals in the midst of a leadership race is not going to save Harper’s keester on this one.

Harper stalls, he delays any votes that could bring his government down by a week and then sends his troops out with talking points to try to snow the  Canadian public into believing that what the Opposition is doing is undemocratic and only to protect their own financial asses. Some will fall for this but a lot are seeing that the real issue here is the lack of economic stimulus. Way too many Canadians are either hurting or know people close to them who are hurting in this economy.

Harper is so focused on retaining power, he’s blind to the fact — it’s the economy stupid. So over the weekend he withdraws first the subsidy cut and then the denial of the right to strike portions of the statement. Flaherty on Sunday announces that the budget will be brought forward on Jan 27th (a month earlier than expected) and that it will contain economic stimulus. He gave no indication what to expect. In his arrogance, he seems to figure that this will be enough to stop the Opposition.

The announcement might have been enough to move the public to want the Opposition to wait and see rather than chance an election so soon. I don’t think so now. The Conservatives really seem to be bent on shooting themselves in the foot with Harper holding the gun.

Over the weekend, somehow a Conservative got hold of the number to dial into a private conference call the NDP was holding to update their caucus. I’m not real clear if the Conservative really did get mistakenly invited or overheard the number and put it to use. The call was taped yesterday and then today released to the media. The Conservatives tried to claim that was proof that the NDP was plotting to bring down the government even before the Economic Statement was presented.

Let’s get this straight, the Statement was presented on Thursday, seems to me that yesterday and today came AFTER the Statement. Nice try Cons. Anyone with an ounce of integrity would have known that they were the unwanted visitor to that call. IF he/she chose to give into temptation and listen in, taping it without the knowledge and consent of those on the call just was way out of bounds. Releasing the tape to the public, even more so.

Nice going Harper, make the Opposition even more determined and the public more disgusted with your bully boy tactics. The bully in Ottawa seems to have met his match. Will he manage to worm his way into staying in power or will he have hit the wall and now have to retreat with his tail between his legs?

Stay tuned, could be a fun week ahead.

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Today is the last day of the advanced polls in our election and then next Tuesday is vote day. I’ve not been posting much on the election but have been watching very closely. I tuned into and listened closely to the English language debate last Thursday. I was glad that I did, as it is likely one of the very few times that Harper has been forced out of his ‘bubble’ in this election and it was long overdue.

Until now, Harper has managed to appear only at well staged events with only pre-registered attendees. When the press started to blow the whistle on the fact that Harper was keeping a bubble around him, and avoiding any unexpected outbursts by the electorate who have the right to answers from him, his campaign claimed that it was necessary due to security issues. Yeah right.

Anyways, back to the debates. Harper provided no surprises, he was the smug, arrogant individual he always has been. Talking around every issue put before him and beating hell out of the truth about the other leaders. He was nailed not badly a few times by the other leaders but it rolls off of people like Harper who really doesn’t care when it comes to others.

He’s not wanting to be Prime Minister to see a better Canada, he’s wanting to be PM to alter the country to his liking. For a guy who chose to call an election on a trumped up excuse, one really has to wonder why his party remains the only one which hasn’t produced a platform for the public to examine. What’s he hiding other than the fact that he really doesn’t have a plan beyond wanting to get a majority government.

I had to upgrade my opinion of Elizabeth May. Between the debate and a couple of interviews I had watched with her, I’ve had to realize that she is very intelligent and well spoken. Well briefed on a wide range of subjects important to Canadians, she quickly destroys any sense that the Green Party is a one issue party. She was the one leader who drove home the point when Harper was claiming a net gain in jobs in Canada since his party came to power that in fact those jobs are much lower paying jobs than the ones loss which are driving families into hardship.

Harper stated that Canadians aren’t worried about job losses or losing their homes because our situation isn’t like the US. He tried to distance himself from George W Bush by referring to their economic policies as irresponsible and reckless. The one true part of his comments was that Canadians were watching the stock markets and falling commodity prices. If he thinks Canadians can’t draw the line between falling stock markets and commodity prices, blue chip business teetering or even toppling into bankruptcy and their jobs, he needs to get out of his bubble more.

Dion may have added to his platform by introducing into the debates a previously unannounced action plan on the economy but at least he is recognizing the situation in the US has to be taken seriously up here. Not just a don’t worry be happy scenario that Harper is trying to sell. Yes, Canada is so far weathering the storm better than the US but it is going to hit us here. The question is when and how hard? What we don’t need is a Prime Minister who just doesn’t seem to give a damn.

As usual Layton showed himself to be the pompous windbag he always has been albeit a bit more puffed up with his presumed value than usual. The only reason Layton is making any kind of showing against Dion is that Harper has done such a hatchet job on Dion from the day he became the Liberal leader that some Liberal support has bled to the NDP. I expect that some of that support will bleed back from those who watched Dion on either of the debates, he isn’t the dweeb Harper has portrayed him as.

Layton has a lofty goal of eliminating poverty by 2012 or something like that. Easy to say when it is highly unlikely you will even elect enough seats to form the Official Opposition. I did like his proposal of giving low income families $400 a month rather than the current $100 a month however, his idea of providing one red cent to families earning $188,000 and more was way over the top.

Layton also proposes that he’s going to roll back the $50billion tax break that Harper gave to corporations while at the same time trumpeting how he’s going to fight for families and their concerns. Does the idiot really think that increasing taxes to corporations is going to keep them from looking elsewhere to do business? When they leave, who does he think will be without jobs?

Then there is his out of touch slant on Afghanistan, given a chance, he would have our troops cut and run before their mandate ends in 2011. Canada has never cut and run, they sure don’t need to do so for the likes of the coward Layton. Canada has made a commitment, our troops are willing to volunteer to see that commitment through. Layton has claimed an ally in the British General who came out over the weekend saying that the Taliban needs to be engaged in a peace process and that a decisive victory is not in the cards. Typical Layton, he ignores that the same General says that NATO troops need to remain in the country to ensure that process proceeds.

Dion seems to have gained some momentum since the debates. Canadians for the most part have responded favourably to him once they have had opportunity to see for themselves what he is like. I’m still a bit wary of how his proposed carbon tax will be implemented and what sort of changes it will bring to the average Canadian. Any dramatic shift like he’s proposing can bring uncertainty. I’m heartened that it has been working well for the Scandanavian countries and has fueled economic prosperity.

Harper keeps trying to blast him for even suggesting that the country could drift into a recession as the mess south of us continues. I think I’d rather have a politician speaking the truth than the don’t worry be happy attitude of Harper. We’re not stupid, we see the drift in our economy and hearing our Prime Minister telling us all is well isn’t going to put clothes on the Emporer.

I’d like to see Dion form at least a minority government next Tuesday. Realistically, at this point, the best case scenario is that Harper is held to a minority (preferably with fewer seats) and Dion is the Opposition. Having weathered an election campaign and assuming that the Liberal party doesn’t, once again, try to eat their leadership — Dion wont be so reluctant to call Harper’s bluff when he makes a bill he’s trying to ram through a matter of confidence.

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Well, the boy Harper seems to be determined to have an election this fall. The writ could be dropped as early as Friday, according to (of course) unnamed source. Both Duceppe and Layton have had the meeting that Harper requested, supposedly in a last ditch attempt to arrive at some consensus about the fall session of Parliament and to end the ‘dysfunction crisis’ that Harper has manufactured.

Both men left 24 Sussex Drive saying that it is clear to them that Harper wants an election at all costs. Dion, has dropped his insistence that he couldn’t meet with Harper until after September 8th, the date of the by-elections currently underway in four ridings. He is meeting with Harper today, even though he’s fully aware that he’s going through the motions, the boy is determined.

Interestingly though, Harper’s mouthpiece err.. spokesman Dimitri Soudas made the comment that if Dion was to take his “Green Shift” proposal off the table that they might find common ground. You know, Dion can’t implement his program from the Official Opposition benches, so if the proposal is as bad as Harper claims it is, why doesn’t he keep his own election law and work to discredit it from the Government benches? The NDP and the Bloc will not move to support the Liberals too quickly.

I haven’t spent any time figuring out just what Dion is proposing. The basic principle is that we’ll all be taxed less and those who pollute most will pay. How he’s planning on implementing that without allowing those who pollute to collect the extra they pay from those who just got the tax cut I’m not clear on.

If Dion’s proposal is one of the factors that has Harper so spooked right now that he’s determined to call an election, then I think it needs to have a serious look. Harper is also wanting to put at least a temporary end to the probes into his and his party’s ethical conduct which his cronies have been trying to disrupt using the 200 page book he literally wrote on how to disrupt parliamentary committees.

Harper also can see the shifting economy and wants to take another stab at getting a majority before that reality settles into effect. Hint to Dion, note that Obama spoke of the jobs that can be created in a shift to more green policies… Canadians need jobs, especially in Ontario. Jobs good for the economy, just like lowering pollution good for the environment.

Harper is going to try to present himself as the leader we want rather than the untried and so far, little demonstrated leadership of Dion. Canadians may well fall for that as they are not going to take a look at the fact that Dion managed to come right up the middle between two leadership candidates who could demonstrate leadership ability to win the Liberal leadership race. He has improved since taking the reins but how much, I’m not even sure and I’ve been watching. Canadians may also be sick enough of the bullying of Harper and his henchmen that they are willing to give Dion a chance.

I suspect a lot of Canadians are going to be asking why Harper is so determined to spend $400 million to have an election that is likely to result in a minority. Maybe he really was more comfortable on the Official Opposition benches.

If a lot of Canadians aren’t yet asking outside the Province of Quebec why the Harper government has suddenly decided to cut millions from arts and culture spending in this country, they should be. In times of looming economic uncertainty, why would any goverment in their right mind cut deep into a $2.9billion investment that returns about $80billion and makes up 7% of a GDP? That’s a small investment for a big return and contributes in immeasurable ways to Canada here and abroad. That doesn’t make sense to me.

Harper might be doing the country a favour by calling an election. He’s run out of steam and is preparing to implement the systematic destruction of the system that he’s longed for over the years. We can say ‘no you aren’t’ and put him back into opposition.

Bring it on little boy.

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The longer this detainee issue goes on, the worse Harper’s handling of it gets. His unwillingness to admit any error on his part is really making this drag on a lot longer than it needs to. At minimum the Minster of Defense needs to go. Some are hollering for Hillier’s head, well the agreement he worked out initially was not a good agreement, the question is, what was the Chief of Defense doing being authorized to do what should have been handled by either the Minister of Defense of Foreign Affairs?

Sometimes a strong leader needs to do their mea culpa’s and get on with fixing what’s wrong. Obviously Harper hasn’t learned that because he’s not a leader, he’s a bully. He is more engaged in trying to bully the opposition into silence than really giving a damn on fixing the problem. The release of the heavily blacked out report points accusingly at Harper’s office if not Harper himself knowing about this issue long ago. He did nothing.

What is going to suffer here is that the small majority of Canadians currently supporting the mission in Afghanistan are going to slide towards disapproval. Not because Canadian soldiers did anything wrong. In fact, the detainees claiming abuse are quick to point out that they were well treated by Canadian soldiers, Amir Attaran’s claims earlier this year notwithstanding.

Harper needs to move swiftly to resolve the situation not to try to bully others into silence, well except maybe his ministers who can’t seem to get their stories straight. Let’s see, we have:

O’Connor on Wednesday suddenly announcing a ‘new’ deal being worked out with the Afghans allowing Canadian oversight of detainees, announcing first that military officials would have the access and then when Hillier stated it was not an area of expertise for the military, O’Connor changed that to ‘government officials’.

The court jester of the Conservatives, Day first weighed in that some of those people who were detained were killers. Gee, ya think Stock? In a war when you capture detainees, it stands to reason that some of them have been engaged in killing. That doesn’t make it ok to abuse or torture, that behaviour makes you no better than the detainees.

Rosie Dimanno of the Toronto Star writes a piece about an Afghan dubbed ‘the Mad bomber’ who has been caught by the Canadian forces for making IEDs. She notes:

Could be in the Kandahar City jail, where detainees have long complained of torture inflicted by their Afghan custodians. Or, if the right bribe exchanged hands, if tribal loyalties were brought to bear, it could be that Omar has already been released.

Yet another reason why detainees should be under the direct oversight of Canadians or NATO forces while they train Afghans in the appropriate handling and treatment of prisoners. If detainees like this are being released then they are a clear and present danger to Canadian, Afghan and other NATO troops.

Meanwhile, yesterday Harper tells the Commons that the deal O’Connor claims has been made has not yet been formalized (so it’s not really a deal) and the court jester announces that Canadians have been accessing the detainees all along. Day must operate on a planet the rest of us haven’t caught up to.

Harper is going to lose this mission in the court of public opinion as long as the stink of this is attached to it. He needs to admit the problem and move to resolve it.

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