Tuesday, January 18, 2011

TACTICAL SHAME...


Stephen Harper is considered by many to be a genius. Sure, an evil genius by many, but smarter than the average bear by most.
Very few people have come out and described him as compassionate and reasoned. If there is no political gain for doing something, he'd just as soon wait, growl, snap his whip at his underlings, and let silence reign.
Another piece of evidence to that theory was the government of Canada's decision to ban six phthalates this week, chemical additives to soft plastic toys that have been considered by many nations for a long time to be a hazard to children.
Harper has been Prime Minister since January of 2006.
The European Union has had phthalates banned since 1999. The U.S. banned them two years ago. Being no friend of science nor scientific evidence, Harper has held onto the decision to follow suit for at least two years -- if we're to assume that his boast on 'waiting for the US to set policy', as in the environment, military and softwood lumber precedents.
He's trotted out this 'action' at a time when the heat and headlines are beginning to put him and his inactive government under some scrutiny. Harper's track record of getting legislation through the House and into the books has been abysmal, no small part due to his unwillingness to cooperate with his rivals in a minority parliament, and his addiction to prorogation. Lester Pearson's government showed us what kind of action could be done under similar circumstances.
This is not the first time that some 'important issue' was held back until a more beneficial release date -- that 'red tape commission' is the most recent joke he's thrown at Canadians. His penchant for only acting when it serves his party and person has become a black hole on our governance.
Time to remove the spot.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this was supposed to be in place two years ago..wasn't it...about the same time PRODUCT OF CANADA was supposed to have been fixed and instead was completely removed ...

rockfish said...

Yes. Just like those new cancer warnings on cigarette packaging that mysteriously delayed... Now of course the Liberal gov't could and should have picked up this after the EU took action and I don't know where/when any Canadian studies may have followed, but I've seen this gov't withhold obvious items for just such a sticky-wicket period in their slow-go governance... Perhaps just more evidence that Harper's got too much of his team focusing on attacking and avoiding responsibility than on actually getting things done for Canadians.