Good Old Mudslinging Politics

Stardate 4913.9

When Stephen Harper tabled the non-confidence motion in the House yesterday, he decided to begin a typical right-wing smear campaign by saying:

"(Liberals have) been found guilty of breaking every conceivable law in the province of Quebec with the help of organized crime,'' Harper said. "The Liberal party has no desire to change, no intention to change, and no ability to change.''

This comes despite the initial findings of the Gomery report that has cleared the Prime Minister in the Sponsorship scandal. The heated exchanges between MPs continued in the hallways of the House of Commons after the day was done as well.

Today, Paul Martin demanded an apology from Harper concerning the remarks he had made. I think Harper had best adopt a new strategy, or else he may isolate even more voters in the coming campaign. Naturally, Harper made the comments while Paul Martin was at the First Nations Summit in Kelowna, actually doing what a good government should be doing, and that is dealing with issues that affect Canadians... According to the leader of the Assembly of First Nations, good progress has been made towards eliminating poverty including aboriginal housing, health care and education.

Of course, this could all end in shambles along with the rest of the Social Programs being introduced...

*** UPDATE ***

It would seem that even Jack Layton, though not disagreeing with Harper, is at least making steps in the right direction...

NDP Leader Jack Layton weighed in on Friday as well. "His choice of words were
unacceptable," Layton said at the summit of first ministers and native leaders
in Kelowna.

Of course, I see this as a weakness with the NDP leader... He seems to flip-flop on whichever side is going to be more widely accepted more often than not. First he started the non-confidence fiasco, and now, he thinks Harper is out of line with his comments in the House.

Or maybe, Harper just can't find any real friends.