To the editor:
It didn't take long for the real [Prime Minister] Steven Harper to show up.
Two weeks after winning a majority with predictions he would lead in an open, conciliatory and collaborative fashion, the first thing he did is appoint two recently defeated Conservative senators and one cabinet minister to Senate.
It's not that we should be surprised by Harper appointing defeated Conservatives to the Senate, as this makes 12 since he has been prime minister, but rather the suspicious timing of the announcement and his contempt for the Canadian public.
The PM Office made the announcement just after the cabinet was introduced and moments after Harper had left a question-and-answer session with the media.
This is Harper at his best: more patronage, less respect for democracy, less accountability and more distain for the populous.
How can we forget his government was brought down for contempt of Parliament when he throws it in our face in his first official duty?
Where is the outrage from the old Reform members who organized this ultra-conservative movement in the church basements and the living room of Preston Manning, and whose main issue was Senate reform?
Have they had their tongues cut out or have they all been promised Senate appointments?
The silence is deafening from local Senator Nancy Greene Raine. She abuses her senate position just as much as Harper by stumping for the local Conservative candidate for six weeks during the election.
At a salary of $132,000, you can do the math as to what that cost the taxpayers.
Senate reform is not on Steven Harper's priority list and he will continue to use it as a smoke screen to appease his support base, as he shifts the blame to the provinces for the lack of progress at their end.
The new official Opposition proposed a referendum on the abolition of the Senate and four provinces are in favour of abolishing it as well.
Harper is writing attack ads against these people as we speak.
Garry Worth
Kamloops
