I suppose you can mount some sort of chess-playing rationale for Harper’s latest descent: he had to appoint somebody — might as well be people whose loyalty he can depend upon; with a majority in the Senate as early as next year, he’ll be in a better position to pass Senate reform; if he’d appointed respectable, upstanding pillars-of-the-community types, the kind with cross-party support, he’d simply be rehabilitating the status quo. So you see, by appointing egregious partisan hacks, he’s actually still a reformer.Mr. Coyne, is of course, referring to the infamous incident in which the mad Emperor Caligula named his favorite horse as a Senator. I think it an apt comparison, although I think it does do a bit of an injustice to Caligula. Recommend this Post
But if that’s his strategy, why be so timid about it? Why not appoint his horse? Or convicted criminals? Colin Thatcher to the Senate!(emphasis mine)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Rome On The Rideau?
I must say, I have been waiting for Coyne to arise from his slumber and smite the loons in Ottawa. I have not been disappointed. Never get in the bad books of a libertarian with a pen. He writes, on the occasion of Harper's latest Senate appointments :
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Aw, I was hoping you'd quote the first two paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteThose were the fun ones.
Am still upset he hasn't taken my advice and moved to create a fifty-year majority and used that to force Senate reform...
(i.e., appoint thirty year-olds)
ReplyDeleteThe story is that Caligula attempted to appoint his horse Incitatus a consul, not a senator.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm. I have seen that as well. From my understanding, there have been differing versions of the story over the years.
ReplyDeleteAm still upset he hasn't taken my advice and moved to create a fifty-year majority and used that to force Senate reform...
ReplyDeleteBen, the whole issue of Senate reform is moot without the consent of the provinces and Ontario and Quebec will never go for it. Harper knows this and is going to bring us into a constitutional crisis anyway. The man is nuts. Plain and simple.
Where's the crisis?
ReplyDeleteHarper fulminates about reforming the Senate, gets nowhere, and then appoints his cronies.
It's distasteful & a lost opportunity, but no crisis.
Where's the crisis?
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't yet begun. One of two things needs to happen to bring it on. If Harper gets a majority in the Senate or a Commons majority, then you will see it begin. Harper will insist on ramming his version through parliament and dare the provinces to stop him. Meanwhile he will unleash the loons and we will hear threats coming out of the west that if we stand in the way of Harper's vision, the west is headed out the door. It will get ugly and fast. I suspect that is Harper's intent. Cow the opposition. It is his way.