Trace O’Toole’s words back to Stephen Harper

DEAR EDITOR:

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should not nominate the next Governor General because doing so during a minority government could pose a potential conflict of interest (CTV, Jan. 31).

Hmm … where have we heard that before? Oh wait! In 2016, when President Barack Obama — with 10 months left in his mandate — endeavored to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

He was blocked by the Republicans.

“Too close to an election,” they said. In 2020, when Trump appointed his distinctly Republican choice to the Supreme Court, there were 46 days left in his mandate.

Just as in 2016, when McConnell said, “This vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” O’Toole now suggests a nomination by the Liberal government is “unfair to the next prime minister.”

What a shame that here in our “Northern European Welfare state in the worst sense of the term” — as Harper characterized Canada — our “northern republicans” in their desperation to appear relevant, resort to parroting American Republicans whom Harper referred to as a “light and an inspiration.”

As Harper explicitly said in 1997, “before the Reform party became a force “the Conservative party was running deficits … in favour of gay rights , officially for abortion on demand, officially for the entrenchment of our universal collectivized health-care system and multicultural policies in the constitution of the country.”

He went on to describe our political system, including the Senate, as “appointments by the prime minister where he puts buddies, fundraisers and the like.”

When we review Harper’s appointments and the ensuing scandals, sexual and financial, it would appear that he considered it a matter of due diligence to follow this process to the letter.

When we hear O’Toole’s snide references to Trudeau “coming out of his cottage to speak,” calling it “posturing” as he pointedly did, several times on a prominent television talk shows, we recall Harper speeding down back stairs in the Parliament buildings to avoid media, and his orchestrated media appearances with five – just five – prearranged questions, and who can forget his “24-7” on YouTube, cats and all, at our expense.

Trudeau takes question after question while shepherding Canada through unprecedented disasters, enduring constant criticism from the obsessively jealous Opposition that resents assistance to Canadians, and yet obsessively crave power.

Zoltan Lawrence, Kelowna