Blue Like You

Rex Murphy has a somewhat provocative article in today’s National Post - Stephen Harper’s sunshine moment.

On the surface it seems quite complementary but Rex wonders how it is that PM Harper seems to be getting a ‘free pass’ on the G20 controversies:

…They, too, realize that managing the “after-event,” getting the right spin out, is just about as important as managing the event. The Mayor of Toronto is out there, and even the McGuinty government is being asked to explain some of its actions, its “slippery” use of a regulation (which some claim didn’t exist) giving police special powers of detention and arrest.

Curiously, the most substantial question about summit security, its inordinate and still unbelievable cost — more than a billion dollars to protect a couple of days of meetings — is almost, now, after the weekend tumults, getting a total pass. It was controversial, a real issue, before this weekend. How could the federal government, a Conservative government, justify such a massive outlay just to secure a meeting?

Well, thanks to the ructions of the black bloc, it’s the lowest-rung question on the post-summit agenda. And who’s the great beneficiary in all this? Why, Stephen Harper. Everyone else, one way or another, is caught in the post-summit snarl, but not its host.

That fact doesn’t rise to amazing, but it is impressive. To Harper’s other skills, perhaps we may now add that of levitation–the ability to float free or above of controversies consuming everyone else…

Well I’m not sure how much of a pass the PM is actually getting. There are still many criticizing the choice of Toronto as the G20 venue.

However, it is deliciously ironic to observe the Telfon Premier acquire a little nick in his slick coating. Perhaps it is the beginning of the end of his choke-hold on Ontario.

We can only hope.

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Related

Self-anointed G20 ‘journalists’ should get real – Christie Blatchford (H/T Richco):

…Fourth, since with the wisdom of hindsight it is now apparent that everyone knew that the anarchists/Black Bloc types would try to wreak havoc on the city, why are the organizers of the legitimate protests not being questioned about their accountability? They too presumably knew – as did police and security forces – that their peaceful demonstrations likely would be disrupted; what steps did they take to stop such a hijacking?

( . . . )

…Finally, how amusing it is to see Toronto, press and public alike, whip themselves into a frenzy of outrage over alleged police inaction and then alleged police overreaction, when all of this, in terms even more stark, happened in Caledonia, Ont., from 2006 onwards, and no one gave a fig.

Exactly.

And another tip from Richco – A coalition? Don’t we have one already? Paul Wells:

...Another evergreen Ottawa myth asserts that Harper is somehow unfulfilled without a parliamentary majority. But he has had a majority for four years, thanks to a succession of not-ready-for-prime-time Liberals. Every budget he has ever whipped up has passed with Liberal votes.

And in concert with the Liberals, Stephen Harper is changing this country. He was able to gut environmental oversight of energy projects in the middle of a historic energy-sector environmental disaster. He is stuffing the nation’s prisons like Christmas geese. He spent $1 billion turning the country’s biggest city into a demonstration of the necessity (if not, ahem, the effectiveness) of tough policing against thugs, rabble, bicyclists and other miscreants. Inside the riot zone, with the world watching, he stared down Barack Obama in a debate over continued fiscal stimulus vs. relative budgetary restraint…

Yeah good point. The Liberals were the Junior Coalition Partners helping to pass the budget that allowed the G8 and G20 to happen so I guess they deserve some of the credit or criticism as the case may be. Wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

If only there were more Torontonians like this guy:

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Catastrophism collapses – Lawrence Solomon (H/T Maz2):

…Support for global-warming programs is also in tatters in the U.S., where polls show — as in Europe — that the great majority rejects global-warming catastrophism. The public resents repeated attempts to pass cap and trade legislation over their objections, contributing to the fall in popularity of President Barack Obama and Congress. Public opinion surveys now predict that this November’s elections will see sweeping change in the United States, with legislators who have signed on to the global-warming hypothesis being replaced by those who don’t buy it.

In the lead-up to the Toronto meetings and throughout them, one country — Canada — and one leader — Prime Minister Stephen Harper — have stood out for avoiding the worst excesses associated with climate change. Dubbed the Colossal Fossil three years running by some 500 environmental groups around the world, Canada — and especially Harper — are reviled among climate-change campaigners for failing to fall into line.

Not coincidentally, Canada has also stood out for having best withstood the financial crisis that beset the world. Fittingly, Canada and its leader played host to the meetings.

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Sunday Update

For the Black Bloc, it’s mission accomplished – Angelo Persichilli:

…I don’t agree with Ottawa’s decision to have the summits in two different places but I support the idea of holding it in Toronto, whether at Ontario Place or the convention centre. We can’t accept the notion that world leaders must meet on the top of mountains because we are afraid of a few criminals…