On The Conservatives' "Chronically Ugly Behaviour"

Contempt of Parliament ain't pretty.

In response to Peter Milliken’s ruling Tuesday that “on its face” the government breached parliamentary privilege, the Globe and Mail issues a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ recent leadership. “The government has scorned Parliament, and shown a lack of respect to the people entrusted by Canadians to represent their interests,” write the editors. “But it is the idea that the government would ask Canadians and their elected representatives to go blindly into the future that is disturbing.”

The Toronto Star’s Thomas Walkom writes that recent developments have given the Liberals the only possible issue with which they could contest an election against the Conservatives, who “begin at a disadvantage” over the “moral question” thanks to a record that stretches back to the prorogation of Parliament in 2008.

The National Post’s Kelly McParland writes that if the Liberals really are going to force an election over “the government’s chronically ugly behaviour,” they need to address the scandals that forced them from power in 2006. “[Y]ou have to be pretty starry-eyed,” he writes, “to believe the Liberals wouldn’t quickly revert to their old practices” if elected, and he suggests the Grits need a clear, detailed plan of how they would fight abuses of power. Doubtless a staffer in Liberal headquarters is scribbling away as we speak.

The Post’s Gerry Nicholls sends the Liberals a warning before they charge off to topple the government over ethics. “[I]n the real world of politics none of these issues is serious enough to inflict a mortal wound,” he writes, “if given a choice voters will always choose a shady but competent politician over an honest but incompetent one.” But plainly the developments this week give cause to question the government’s competency, particularly news today that the purchase of F-35 jets could cost double the $16 billion the Conservatives estimated. The Bev Oda affair, the Jason Kenney fundraising flap, and the apparent gross lowballing of the largest military procurement in Canadian history are all unforced errors, and that last one will hit even the most politically disinterested Canadians where it hurts: in the pocketbook.