As if they hadn't been battered enough in that fierce October storm. Or humiliated enough. As if they hadn't lost so many MPs, cabinet ministers, thousands of party workers, and will soon be losing their Great Leader. The surviving Cons have washed ashore on their bleak desert island, have given themselves a week to choose an interim leader, before they turn to cannibalism. And already there are signs that the primordial struggle to replace Stephen Harper could tear the party apart.
Well I see Stephen Harper's trip to the Mandela funeral started off on a high note, with a macabre political version of the Mile High Club. With Harper obviously glad to leave the sordid Senate scandal behind him, and consorting with three former Prime Ministers. Even tweeting this photo of him and his old arch enemy Jean Chretien...
But I did notice that Great Ugly Leader was the only one drinking, and no wonder eh?
Well there he was the other day, trying to run away from the Senate scandal, while claiming scandalously that his trade deal with the Europeans was bigger than Brian Mulroney's free trade deal. Prime Minister Stephen Harper touted the benefits of the Canada-EU free trade agreement to a business crowd in Montreal that included the architect of the Canada-U.S. free trade deal negotiated 25 years earlier. Even though we don't know what's in his new trade deal. Even though the Europeans are secretly bragging that they took Canada to the cleaners. And even though the Euro zone's economy is heading in the same direction as the Titanic.
My favourite moment of Brian Mulroney's appearance before the Oliphant Inquiry was when The Bloater launched into the familiar story of how he was a poor carpenter's electrician's son from Baie Comeau etc etc... And Richard Wolson, the inquiry's Perry Mason, shot back "Oh yeah I'm from North Winnipeg." Which used to make Baie Comeau look like Beverly Hills. The look on Mulroney's face? PRICELESS.
But then, of course, that's how all it started eh? When the rich Americans tied up their luxury yachts in Baie Comeau, the other poor Quebec boys dived for quarters. But Brian sang for them. Just like he sang for Ronald Reagan. Because he wanted to be one of them so much. And even this Mulroney apologist knows where that led. Mulroney has his faults, like all of us. He is loyal to his friends who often got him into trouble. He enjoys friends who are rich which he is not. It is difficult to compete with them on a prime minister’s pension. Oh well. He really should have dived for quarters like the other boys because then he wouldn't have loved rich people so much. Now I only have only two questions before I try to drive this sad spectacle out of my mind. Will it hurt the Con brand as much as this guy says it will?
Mulroney's misbehaviour has cost taxpayers millions of dollars for the inquiry into the matter and in legal fees for Mulroney, which we also pay. Mulroney was out of office, just, when he started taking envelopes of cash, but it was still wrong. This is what people in the business world refer to as damage to the brand. Oh goody. And when The Bloater said before the inquiry began that he was going to turn up with "BELLS ON." Did he mean these ?
I think they're Swiss....like the banks....or Bavarian. Clankety Clank. The old Con Bloater hobbles off stage right. The song is finally over...
