Stephen Harper and the Ghosts of Scandals Past

By proroguing the budget until April, and presumably cancelling any plans for an early election, Stephen Harper has guaranteed himself a visit from the Ghosts of Scandals Past.

And I'm not just talking about Mike Duffy, or Dean del Mastro who will be sentenced later this month.

Or his old friend Bruce Carson who will also have his day in court on corruption charges...



Or even a possible appearance by the ghost of Pamela Wallin.

Because now he's also facing the prospect of having to confront the ghost of Arthur Porter...



Who may be coming to visit him soon, all the way from the Big House in Panama. 

Panama and Canada have reached an agreement for the extradition of former McGill University Health Centre director Arthur Porter, according to Radio-Canada. He has been in a Panamanian jail since May 2013 when he was arrested at the Panama airport on an international warrant. Porter is being extradited to Canada to face the corruption charges against him.

You know, his good buddy Arty...



Who has been threatening to haunt him, or embarrass him, ever since he was arrested. 

The former head of Canada's spy-agency watchdog, who received prestigious appointments from different levels of government and was nearly honoured with a street in his name, has been arrested abroad on fraud charges.

For Stephen Harper will have to explain why he was such good friends with him, and why he rewarded him so handsomely.

Porter became head of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, which monitors the work of CSIS, two years after he was appointed to the watchdog by the Harper government in 2008.

Or had him monitor those who would monitor the terrorists, and read our e-mails.

And although Harper is, as usual, claiming that he knows NOTHING...



Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Porter's alleged criminal acts had nothing to do with the work he did for the Government of Canada.

It can only remind voters of Great Leader's appalling judgement...



Alison/Creekside

And his foul Con regime's ghastly record of corruption.

Which couldn't come at a worst time, just when him and his political gangsters are trying to dodge their ghastly economic record.

And Harper and his oily stooge Joe Oliver are already panicking. 

Despite a slowing economy, massive layoffs, declining oil prices and general volatility, Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver would like Canadians to know that it is definitely not time to panic. Unfortunately, even though that’s what he’s saying, almost everything Oliver is doing suggests panic has already taken root in Ottawa.

Having acted like Con artists themselves, by blowing the surplus to try to buy votes, before they even had one.

And are now clearly demonstrating that they didn't see it coming, they're making it up as they go along, and they don't know what they're doing...



Oliver may have been looking for a respite from the normal pre-budget tension by delaying the tabling of the federal budget, hoping for a couple of additional months for oil prices to stabilize, if not rise, along with predictability on fiscal matters going forward. 

What he may find is that the one thing he fears most now — instability — is the only thing he will find in greater quantity come April.

And when you add it all up, and take a look at the big picture, and combine all that incompetence with all those scandals, something else is also clear:

He can run as fast as he can, and he can deny as much as he can.

But he will not escape his monstrous record.

And as I've said so many times before.

It will DESTROY him...



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