Miffed, Mr. Harper kills his commission

[tuvor]

Gwyn Morgan, until recently the head of EnCana Corp., is a hugely successful businessman with many awards to his credit. For all that, he was an odd choice to head Prime Minister Stephen Harper's proposed public appointments commission. Mr. Morgan has been a notable fundraiser for the Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance before it -- credentials that don't immediately suggest the chair of a commission whose purpose is to oversee non-partisan appointments.

There was also the matter of his comments last December about immigration, remarks that returned to haunt him after Mr. Harper nominated him on April 21. When Mr. Morgan spoke to the Fraser Institute about the problem of Jamaican and Asian gangs in Canada -- in itself a legitimate and important subject -- he said: "Immigration has a social side as well as an economic one. The social side is all too evident with the runaway violence driven mainly by Jamaican immigrants in Toronto, or the all-too-frequent violence between Asian and other ethnic gangs right here in Calgary." The six opposition MPs on the Commons operations and estimates committee jumped on that remark with undue ferocity; it may have been badly expressed, but it wasn't beyond the pale. Despite Mr. Morgan's insistence that he was colour-blind -- he and his wife "basically love the Caribbean" and "attend their churches" -- the six said he was unsuitable for the post and outvoted the five Conservative MPs.

But that's politics. That's life in a minority government. There is no rule that opposition MPs have to rubberstamp the Prime Minister's choices. In fact, the system runs more smoothly if the government sounds out the other parties before making a nomination.

But Mr. Harper's reaction was wildly disproportionate. He pulled the plug on his own appointments commission. In a fit of pique, he walked away from a crucial part of his ethics package. He said there was no point in even trying to get the commission up and running until his Conservatives could form a majority government -- when, presumably, he could impose his will without fear of contradiction.

Mr. Harper is getting a reputation for peevishness...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060518.EMORGAN18/TPStory/Comment

[glarius]

1. This is a life long pattern of Harper.

I saw a short documentary about Harper on CBC before the election, and it pointed out over and over how he would pick up his marbles and leave, whenever he was involved in an operation or group where he didn't get his way....

[Spazito]

2. Hmmm, where has the Globe and Mail been lo these past years

if they think: "Mr. Harper is getting a reputation for peevishness...". Getting a reputation???? That has been his reputation from the get-go; peevish, arrogant, immature tantrum thrower.