Stephen Harper's Latest Tantrum

In PM Stephen Harper's world, it's "my way or the highway". We've already witnessed that attitude with the declaration that he would muzzle his cabinet by insisting that all of their public statements only be about Harper's 'five priorities' and that they must be vetted by his office prior to being made. Dissent will be severely punished.

Of course, he doesn't only reserve his controlling nature for his own party members. He has shown today that he would rather scrap his new public appointments commission than find a new candidate to lead it after the opposition turfed the nomination of his lap dog, Calgary oilman Gwyn Morgan.

Those members had good reasons to oppose Morgan's nomination. From a speech he gave to the right-wing think tank, the Frasier Institute, in 2005:

...when he turned to the subject of immigration and violence in Canadian cities, his straight talk fell flat in some quarters.

After declaring, "I am in favour of a strong immigration program," he continued: "But immigration has a social side as well as an economic one. The social side is all too evident with the runaway violence mainly driven by Jamaican immigrants in Toronto, or the all too frequent violence between Asian and other ethnic gangs right here in Calgary." Picking up his theme of root causes rather than symptoms, Mr. Morgan also said: "The vast majority of violent, lawless immigrants come from countries where the culture is dominated by violence and lawlessness . . . Why do we expect different behaviour in Toronto, Ontario, than in Kingston, Jamaica?"

According to those attending, there was muted applause at the end of the speech and no takers during the questions and answers session. Reaction has continued to build since then -- both for and against. And last Saturday, in a letter to the Calgary Herald, Mr. Morgan weighed in again: "The entire purpose of my speech was to say that our country can only remain strong if we openly discuss root causes of our problems rather than gloss over them in the 'politically correct' way . . . Unfortunately however, some felt I was negatively portraying ethnic groups. I regret creating that impression."

Too little, too late.

Interestingly enough, Morgan predicted his own demise in a speech he gave to the Empire Club in February, 2006:

I believe that individual Canadians must take responsibility for choosing leaders who live and model Canadian values that unite us. I believe that individual Canadians must reject those who try to gain popularity by using cultural differences as wedges, either to pry people apart, or as an excuse for violent crime or other behaviour which tears apart the fabric of our country.

And yesterday, the opposition rightly rejected Morgan for his use of the immigration wedge issue to appeal to the more extremist members of the right-wing. He does not model 'Canadian values'.

Today in Question Period, my MP Jason Kenney accused the opposition of a "partisan political lynching" of Morgan. There's nothing like invoking past images of black people being hung from trees to further inflame the Conservative base against the opposition. Well, Mr Kenney, Gwyn Morgan is not black, he is not a minority (except for the fact that he is one Canada's richest citizens), he has not been wrongly targeted for unproven charges and he's more than capable of standing up for himself - unlike the victims of the real lynchings who were overwhelmed by mobs of crazed, racist people who craved torture and death as some sort of righteous display of their superiority. For Kenney to even use this sort of analogy shows how incredibly insensitive he is to the plight of those victims whose families and friends were left horrified and terrorized. Shame on him.

Harper, choosing a childish display of anger, said the rejection of Morgan was a "a buffoonish show of partisan behaviour". The only such behaviour in this matter, Harper, is yours. To throw away a commission because you didn't get your man is buffoonery. In fact, his nomination itself was buffoonery. How could anyone think that Morgan's previous remarks, which were not acceptable at the time - even to his base - would suddenly be long forgotten and forgiven?

The opposition made the correct choice by sending this man packing. Harper has no one to blame but Gwyn Morgan and himself, for choosing such an inappropriate candidate in the first place.

There's a difference between partisanship and obvious moral grounds for his rejection, Mr Harper. If you and your party members can't understand that, you're more morally bankrupt than the Canadian public might have believed to this point.