November 7th, 2013
Stephen Harper circa 2005, meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper of 2013
Back in 2005, then-Official Opposition Leader Stephen Harper criticized Paul Martin’s liberal government for its lack of transparency on an interview with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge.
That was back when Stephen Harper was fighting corruption, not making excuses for it.
“I think that the difficulty that the Prime minister has, Peter, is that if his party is tainted by corruption, and he doesn’t know all the answers, why is it still in power running the country?” - Stephen Harper, CT V, May 2005
Today, Canadians could be forgiven for asking the exact same question of Stephen Harper.
“We’re in a system of party government, and I think it’s difficult to try and say ‘this part of the party is bad and this part of the party is okay’, which is kind of what the Prime minister is trying to say, except he doesn’t actually know which people are which.” - Stephen Harper, CT V, May 2005
It’s like he’s talking about his own PMO and his own excuses.
“My difficulty with the prime minister at this point, Peter, is that, I don’t think he’s been forthcoming and honest on fairly simple questions when there appear to be contradictions. My instinct is when somebody doesn’t ask or answer questions – even simple and fairly innocuous questions – in a straightforward manner, there may be something else.” - Stephen Harper, CT V, May 2005
Like a prime minister who refuses to even answer a simple question like did his Chief of Staff resign, or was he fired? Indeed, when even the simplest questions are being ducked by a prime minister, it makes one wonder what’s been hidden.
“And I couldn’t get the prime minister answer a simple question, whether he agreed with this, whether he was even aware of it. And I’m frustrated by the lack of forthrightness. When you’re under the kind of cloud the Prime minister admits his government is under, I think you would use every opportunity to be as forthright as possible.” - Stephen Harper, CT V, May 2005
Despite this sage advice from 2005 Stephen Harper, Harper circa 2013 continues to bob, weave and evade Tom Mulcair’s questions.
“I believe the public does not yet have a full understanding of how serious and extensive this scandal is. So I actually believe, Peter, by waiting, the public will get a much better sense of what’s at issue here. And that will actually be in our favor.” - Stephen Harper, CT V, May 2005
So we come full circle, with Canadians again waiting for the prime minister of the day to honestly answer questions about serious wrongdoing.
Canadians deserve better – they deserve a prime minister willing to tell the whole truth.