News this afternoon that MP James Moore (CON-Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam-Not Near Enough to Vancouver), who on Monday saw his cabinet post go to Liberal turncoat David Emerson, has been ‘consoled’ by his Dear Leader with the post of Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services.
You know, Michael Fortier, the (appointed but only temporarily, we promise) Senator from Montreal. The guy who can’t answer questions in question period because he’s not a member of the House of Commons, but will no doubt face rigorous questioning in the QP in “the other place.”
Since Fortier isn’t an MP, that means Moore will get to take all the questions in the HoC directed at the Public Works ministry, which, as the ministry responsible for billions of dollars in government procurement, usually gets a few. (Wassup, Scotty Brison?) And with a Public Works Minister who was/is his Prime Minister’s Quebec organizer, there may be a few more questions, because that worked out great last time, didn’t it?
So here’s the bottomline for James Moore, and why it’s exactly like kissing his sister:
YES to the daily savaging for 45 minutes a day during question period, coast to coast on live tv that comes with being a Minister
NO to the higher salary, title, bigger office, limousine and driver, staff, and all other perks that come with being a Minister.
So basically, all the bad and none of the good. Dude, what did you do or say to Stephen Harper to piss him off so much?
May you should reconsider not running for the Liberal leadership James. Remember, there’s always a welcome mat with lots of warm, comfy fur waiting for you on the Liberal side…
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
James Moore gets to kiss his sister….again and again!
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2 comments:
What I can't stop asking myself is what does Harper plan on doing with Public Works that he does not want to public to see being questioned by the Opposition parties in Question Period? Why is he reducing the transparency on the Ministry most well known traditionally as the pork/patronage Ministry, the Ministry which oversaw the Sponsorship fiasco? Why does he want an unelected party staffer filling this position, especially a staffer who ran the Quebec campaign and has many business connections from his professional life that can profit from having such a friend in that Ministry?
This appointment really troubles me, and not on a partisan level. This is not just old school politics, it is something that is rarely done in the history of our country. This is a blatant abuse of the Senate for partisan patronage purposes so as to make less transparent to the Canadian people the Ministry of Pork/patronage aka P.W. that simultaneously rewards a friend and party loyalist, the very dictionary definition of a patronage appointment. Not to mention that usually when a Senator is appointed to Cabinet it is to represent a Province the governing party has no seats in, which is clearly not the case here. There is something really wrong about this appointment, and the hubris it took to make it is staggering in it's immensity.
I do not know what Harper is thinking, but he stained the CPC for the rest of its life with this as a first act of the very first CPC government in history. Combined with the Emerson cross into Cabinet this stain will not just magically go away, no matter how many CPCers think this will be forgotten in a month I guarantee you it will have a much longer shelf life than that.
Having Moore stuck as his punching bag/body double in the House really has to be salt in the wound to Moore since he didn't get a Cabinet position of his own. I think your analogy is bang on accurate, and rather witty as well. Moore will have to face all the questions regarding what Fortier is doing, and I strongly suspect there is going to be a lot of anger in the House for the contempt that has been shown by making Public Work Minister an unelected party hack who was made a Senator just so he could be this Minister. Moore is in for a world of hurt I suspect, and given how offensive I find this appointment I must say I find a part of myself looking forward to watching the pain begin. I know that is uncharitable of me, and I am not proud of it, but this really honked me off.
I expected Harper to reverse himself from his campaign soon after he became PM, but not on the first day, and not with such hubris in showing his embracing the corruption of power before the principles he has stood for/behind over not just the last year but a decade or two in the case of the Senate appointment. Moore is going to get to bear if not the brunt of it close enough as to make little difference.
The Gagliano comparison is just so obvious, and given that he's unelected as well...I don't know. They see, to think this will be forgotten soon, but it won't. The higher the horse, the harder the fall.
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