Politics Today: Of Miscues and Moats

I'm a bit late getting back from my Slavic sojourn, but a side-trip to Paris, and the Compte de Rienville, intervened. These things happen.

Thank God. Or perhaps Aphrodite. But let us not stray into prurience.

I needed some quiet time, and was just starting to relax with Brahm's 2nd when some items in the newspaper caught my attention. What on earth are the politicians up to?

First, the British House of Commons, where I read of MP's flipping houses, obtaining porn, and (although this almost beggars belief) cleaning moats. All courtesy of the beleaguered British taxpayer. Now I have thought of a moat to ward off the uninvited, but cleaning the damn thing would prove a bit expensive. If, however, the government would look after this....hmm, must raise the issue with The Mayor. He won't bite, of course, but just might succumb to a fit of apoplexy. One can only hope.

I gather poor Gordon Brown is going to soldier on, although Ministers are dropping like flies. Where is Sir Humphrey Appleby when you need him?

In Canada, things have taken a different turn. The Canadian Parliament is still recovering from the unholy machinations of Jean Chretien and the mammoth "Adscam" scandal, and expense account nonsense tends to stay under the radar, at least for now. No, the problem here is one of "leaving things behind." Things such as top secret documents. Maxime Bernier, Minister, left just such a document at his mistress' s apartment. Not good, but at least understandable, given how things happen in the heat of the moment, so to speak. What is more baffling is the behaviour of a competent Minister, Lisa Raitt, who also left top secret documents. Not at any one's apartment, but at a national television network. This requires some thought.

First, Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, is more than a little anal-retentive, and probably wants any and every document to have a top secret label. In his view, freedom of information requests are better described in terms of freedom from information. So any document left lying around -- well, you get the picture.

Still, this doesn't explain leaving documents at a television station. So...a puzzle, and in The Trade, whenever we are faced with a puzzle, one of the ways into the enigma is to raise the question, "Who benefits?" Now things become a bit clearer.

The documents Minister Raitt left behind were pretty mundane, dealing as they did with cost overruns at Canada's Atomic Energy Commission. Canadians, unless vacationing on Mars, knew all about this, although not the exact figure. That figure was going top come out at some point, and what better way than to come out side by side with a massive diversion. Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and all the media, immediately fell into the trap. The heat was on, not on the documents themselves, but on the way they had become public. It didn't hurt as well that Lisa Raitt is one of Harper's more attractive Ministers, and both the Opposition and the media take an unbecoming delight in pillorying a pretty woman.

The clincher to this argument resides in the fact that while the unfortunate Maxime Bernier was dropped like a hot potato, Lisa Raitt's offer to resign was swiftly turned down by Harper. (An aside -- at the recent election, Bernier was re-elected with a huge plurality. Quebec understands mistresses).

So there you have it. Or at least my take on the situation. And yes, I have my doubts, but I also remember my Voltaire: "Doubt is not a pleasant position, but certainty is absurd."

Until next time.